Primal Fear - Unbreakable

Published January 09 2012

*=Staff's pick	Unbreakable (Part 1) Strike Give 'Em Hell Bad Guys Wear Black* And There Was Silence Metal Nation Where Angels Die* Unbreakable (Part 2) Marching Again Born Again Blaze Of Glory Conviction

Genre	Heavy/Power Metal	Ralf Scheepers	Vocals
Tracks	12	Alex Beyrodt	Guitar
Running time	56 Min.	Magnus Karlsson	Guitar
Label	Frontiers Records	Mat Sinner	Bass
Release	20 January 2011	Randy Black	Drums
Country	Germany	Magnus Karlsson	Keyboard
Producer	Mat Sinner
Similar artists	HammerFall, Brainstorm

Primal Fear, the metal collaboration from Germany, Canada and Sweden has returned with their ninth studio album, almost three years past their latest release 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You're Dead). Touring, the releases of a live album and a DVD and also solo records have kept the guys busy, since this is their longest space between two studio releases thus far.

As always when Primal Fear is about to release a new album you hear voices about how they have changed their direction, gone back to their roots or that they will sound like this and that, but don't worry, they sound like they always do. Some hybrid between heavy and power metal with fast and heavy riffs, rolling drums and sometimes high pitched vocals, or screams to be more precise. Sure you can hear tones, riffs and beats though with similarities from their first releases, but there are no significant changes. If you are familiar with this band and like what they do, you can stop reading this review right now and buy the record as soon as possible. To all newcomers, this is an album with killer riffs and with a monstrous vocal performance by Mr. Scheepers. Straightforward German metal.

This time they offer us what they usually do. A fierce opener in Strike. Melodic tracks such as Metal Nation and the first video off the album Bad Guys Wear Black. Faster songs like And There Was Silence. There is also room for a nice little ballad called Born Again and of course an epic track in the eight minute opus Where Angels Die. Almost the entire record is based on riffs and it's obviously no coincidence, since this is Primal Fear. Some of the vocal harmonies and melodies in Marching Again and in Conviction however reminds me of Ralf's vocal duties in Gamma Ray back in the early nineties, but this is due to his singing style and not the actual music behind it.

There's an even high level through the full 56 minutes with no fillers and no dips. I can listen to this record several times and then feel that I wanna listen to it again. A good and a welcome beginning of 2012.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	4	7	9	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tobbe