Primal Fear has remained one of the most consistent bands in German heavy and power metal over the last twenty-three years, offering up fans a whopping thirteen studio albums while weathering some lineup changes. The latest of these efforts is Metal Commando, which finds the group recruiting new drummer Michael Ehré (Gamma Ray, The Unity) and returning to original label Nuclear Blast after a decade with Frontiers Records. With a discography this large, some albums have proven to have more staying power than others, and while Metal Commando may not stray significantly from what Primal Fear has offered all along it does have the sheer amount of energy and catchy riffs needed to keep listeners coming back.
If you’ve followed these guys for any period of time, you’re likely familiar with the fact that they tend to either put an epic instrumental intro or one of their most powerful and soaring tracks at the beginning of their albums. Metal Commando chooses the latter route, beginning with “I Am Alive” which embodies every element of Primal Fear at their best. It’s high energy, with scorching guitar work and driving bass riffs that recalls the glory days of NWOBHM mixed with the soaring and melodic qualities of power metal, all wrapped up in a modern sheen. From there the instrumentals hop around the band’s established framework, going for some catchier mid-tempo numbers where the tonality moves more towards the aggressive side while still heading back into melodic territory for the choruses. None of this may sound different from what this group has been writing for over two decades at this point, but the emphasis on high energy riffs with just the right amount of bite gives this album a better flow and allows its individual tracks to shine. Where Primal Fear has occasionally gone a little too slow, this time around there isn’t a ballad until seven songs in, which gives a brief enough pause to prepare listeners for the end of the album and also ends up being one of their catchier ballads in recent memory. Another commonality in the band’s discography has been the inclusion of a much longer track somewhere on the album, with the whopping thirteen-minute “Infinity” serving this purpose at the very end of Metal Commando. Thirteen minutes may be pushing it just a bit, but Primal Fear makes the most of it and moves from softer acoustic instrumentation to scorching guitar leads that capture every side of their music in a single piece. Admittedly, I do find that the first half has remained stuck in my head a bit more often than the second, but this remains a consistent and fun album that has provided plenty of reasons to keep listening.
One of the main reasons that this band has gained a sizeable fan base over the years is vocalist Ralf Scheepers, who has the kind of voice that’s made to boom out over stadiums and large crowds. He’s the perfect combination of heavy and power metal, able to hit the types of falsettos that defined NWOBHM during its glory days while also soaring above the instrumentation in that classic power metal style. Tracks like “I Am Alive” and “Halo” are great showcases of Scheepers’ range and abundance of energy, as he moves between singing that towers over the recording and lower, aggressive pitches. It’s the type of singing that holds a commanding presence over the listener and draws you in from the very first song, encouraging you to dive deeper into everything Primal Fear has to offer. Where some vocalists in this genre have started to lose steam as their bands continue over the years, Scheepers has only seemed to get stronger.
Although they’ve never strayed too far from the sound that made them a standout name in German heavy metal two decades ago, Primal Fear still has what it takes to stand out in the pack. The emphasis on soaring choruses and faster tempos works in their favor, avoiding some of the lulls that certain albums in their discography have suffered, and while some of it still blends together by the end I’ve found myself returning to this one almost every day since picking it up for review. At this stage in their career there’s certainly nothing wrong with Primal Fear continuing to do what they do best, and I’m sure established fans and newcomers like will agree. Metal Commando is available from Nuclear Blast.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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