Polish label, Metal Mind seem to be accelerating out of the old year and into the new with an impressive array of limited edition reissues, almost always with very welcome bonus tracks.
First on the list (which will soon go on to include Steve Morse,
Night Ranger and Bang Tango) is the much loved (by their fans), but constantly underrated
Primal Fear.
Let's speed past the
Judas Priest references lest we trip over them en route to the point.
Primal Fear were never a groundbreaking band. Having explored Power Metal territory with previous bands, founding members Ralf (Gamma Ray) Scheepers and Mat (er,
Sinner)
Sinner staked out their own substantial piece of turf with their self titled debut, back in 1998.
No, it wasn't original, but what they did so well was to distil the genre down to its essence, raw and powerful, then use that as the foundation for a bunch of bruising encounters with hardbodied power metal.
This was thick cut music, full of intense vocals, blazing riffs and hooky choruses, but free of the bloat, bluster and heavy metal ballast that was over inflating the output of so many bands in the genre.
There are inconsistencies here, but there are several standout tracks.
Less obviously, try out
'Promised Land' and
'Dollars'. Simple song structures; deceptively simple riffs; short, sweet solos; pounding rhythms and compact choruses. Formulaic perhaps, but a winning formula nevertheless, one that produces the right result, time after time. The latter particularly, constructed around a slo-mo groove and barbed with wiry, wailing axework, is a splendid slab of pumping power metal.
One short year later, having consolidated around a central core of Scheepers,
Sinner, axeman Tom Neumann and drummer Klaus Sperling, the band gave us
'Jaws Of Death'.
This was confident, strident step forward. They're still thumbing through a dog eared copy of the formula established on the debut, but the result is a beefier, slightly reshaped sound, with groundshaking riffs and explosive rhythms matching the shouty choruses and Scheepers' armour piercing vocal hooks.
The songwriting has improved, and that is a huge help here, allowing this second album to gain the consistency that the debut lacks.
One of the real charms of the band is their total lack of fear in consuming and regurgitating vast amounts of cheese. That whole Teutonic, beery chorus, foot-on-the-monitor vibe comes across so often and so damn well with
Primal Fear. Fans of the band get it, others don't.
Arguably, judging by cracking tracks like
'Final Embrace' and
'Save A Prayer', the band has more in common with hard rock cousins The
Scorpions and
Accept than they do with their "heavy metal" cohorts. And that's meant as a compliment, not a condemnation.
That's a notion reinforced by the band's
Accept cover,
'Breaker', which is actually the bonus track on the reissue of the debut release.
Bonus tracks on '
Jaws Of Death' are a thunderous cover of Rainbow's
'Kill The King' and the title track from the band's 2002 EP, '
Horrorscope', a pulsing, hard rock stomp, again emphasising the proximity of the band's music to that of fellow countrymen, The
Scorpions.
2001 now, and
'Nuclear Fire' gets released.
This is the one that left every other pretender trailing in their wake, buffeted and bruised in the turbulence created by the band's upward shift into jetstream power metal.
Maybe
Primal Fear were feeling the heat from the bands in their peer group - Helloween,
Stratovarius - or from new kids on the block, Sonata Arctica, Iron Saviour.
Either way, they found the motivation and the inspiration to create their magnum opus, a redefined version of power metal, filled to bursting with bold invention and great songs.
Thanks to
Sinner and engineer, Achim Kohler, the sonics - molten metal with a slick, industrial sheen - were a triumph. Each track a burst of cataclysmic din wrapped round a sturdy melody and a dramatic chorus.
Outstanding tracks are many, precision crafted, relatively cheese free songs like the majestic
'Kiss of Death', the sinister but compelling, '
Now Or Never', the piledriving speed metal of '
Fight The Fire' and the tough as teak ballad,
'Bleed For Me'.
There's nothing to choose between these tracks, full of Scheepers' schizophrenic vocals and spiralling axework, rising to meet crushing, rhythmic crescendos.
There are five bonus tracks here. Four audio - including a wonderfully entertaining version of Gary Moore's
'Out In The Fields' - and a video of opening track
'Angel In Black'. 2002's
'Devil's Ground' has often been damned by faint praise, but any follow up to
'Nuclear Fire' was always destined to suffer in comparison.
That said, the rousing opener,
'Metal Is Forever' is probably one of the band's most memorable songs, an anthem for
Primal Fear cheerleaders everywhere.
The track's way over the top vibe was endemic to the album, if not the band.
Arguably,
'Devils Ground' is as much hard rock as it is metal, though it was clear that by the time of the album's release the dividing lines had become blurred to the point of non existence.
The apocalyptic
'Sea Of Flames' and the hooky
'Suicide And Mania' - one of the most accessible songs, musically, that the band ever recorded - are real standouts.
Though the smouldering, melodic, twin guitar crunch of
'Wings Of Desire' and
'The Healer' easily place both these tracks into the same category.
Four bonus tracks this time round. The two that were originally only available on the Japanese release: an okay cover of Sabbath's
'Die Young' and a thrilling cover of Led Zeppelin's
'The Rover', plus remixes of
'The Healer' and '
Metal Is Forever'.
These are genuine bonuses, added to an album fully deserving of an other opportunity to enjoy the spotlight.
Despite the fact that recording technology was relatively advanced in the late nineties and early 2000s, all four reissues have been remastered using "tube technology".
Thankfully, Metal Mind's guy seldom sacrifices dynamic range for volume. Long may that continue.
Written by
Brian Friday, January 7, 2011
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