Primal Fear - Black Sun

*=Staff's pick	Countdown To Insanity Black Sun* Armageddon* Lightyears From Home Revolution Fear Mind Control* Magic Eye Mind Machine* Silence We Go Down Cold Day in Hell Controlled

Genre	Heavy Metal	Ralf Scheepers	Vocals
Tracks	13	Henny Wolter	Guitar
Runningtime	55 Min.	Stefan Leibing	Guitar
Label	Noise Records	Mat Sinner	Bass
Release	29 April 2002	Klaus Sperling	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Sinner, Silent Force, Judas Priest

Primal Fear's new studioalbum - the 4th in order - will not make any fan of their music dissappointed. It doesn't reach any new heights, or explores any new horizons this time (either), but it is damn well played metal to the bone they play here. This is Primal Fears first conceptalbum, and deals with the story of the famous eagles journey towards the Black Sun.

The album has a very strong opening with the fast double drumkicking titletrack, which gives us a murderriff, and a great catchy chorus, and it is being followed by the really catchy singalong tune Armageddon. They keep up the pace into the next song Lightyears from Home, which is a delightful, straight forward and speedy tune, with a great chorus, and some nice harmonyguitars sections.

In Revolution they slow down a bit and the result is a mediocre P.F song, which doesn't really stand out. Fear, which is next in line, reminds us of the fact that this band consists of a talanted riffmaking duo - it's heavy, and it's headbanging friendly. The chorus doesn't stand out on that one, but still a very good song. Mind Control, which follows, is a really catchy song with a singalong chorus again, and nice leadguitars and riffs, and in Magic Eye it's more midtempo and standard.

Silence are more the heavy, groovy kind of song in midtempo, and with We Go Down they turn turn up the tempo a few notches again already - faithful to their style, Primal Fear never let the headbanging muscles rest for one second more than necessary. The closing tracks Cold Day In Hell and Controlled are worthy closers, where the first one is standard, but yet with plenty of nice riffs and hooks, and the last is a real killer speedball with a great chorus.

Primal Fear are often mentioned in the same sentences as Judas Priest in magazines, interviews and reviews, and I think that is wrong (except for the song Mind Machine - which really is a song that Judas could wish that they had wrote, both riff- and vocalwise). The similarities aren't more than that both groups play catchy, simple riffs that stick in your brain, but I personally think that Primal Fear play a different kind of riffs than Judas Priest, and slighty more powerful than their predeccesors.

This is a good Primal Fear album - it just isn't as intense and on-the-spot as the previous album Nuclear Fire - which was a powerblast in your face - but Primal Fear has a very high "lowest level", so this can't be described as anything else than an album that has a solid place in every true metalfans cdrack. This is good and well-played classic metal of the old school - keep 'em coming, Primal Fear!

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	9	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tommy