Primal Fear's new album

[method77]

Ah, Primal Fear, the band I can always count on to release a solid heavy metal album time after time. Devil's Ground is finally upon us, and this is exactly what fans of the band wanted: Another Primal Fear album that sounds just like all the others. As usual, there is some filler in here to pad out the running time, but that's ok by me, a few great songs is good enough to rate a solid album as long as the filler isn't really awful, and it isn't.

The opening cut "Metal is Forever" starts with a Halford-esque screech and moves directly into a great riff which carries the verse quite well. The chorus is of the "shoutalong" variety and will likely make this song a favourite at live shows. One thing you'll notice also, is that the pre-chorus sounds so much like a song off Painkiller you'll swear you've heard it before. I don't mind, because the original Painkiller still rates at least a few plays a week for me, 13 years after it was released. The second track, "Suicide and Mania", starts with a great stomper riff that sounds doubly delicious if you turn up the volume to near painful levels. The chorus on this one isn't that great, but its not too bad. "Visions of Fate" follows with a marching drum intro combined with periodic guitar squealing before breaking out into a tasty pre-verse guitar solo. The song that follows is the best song on the album: "Sea of Flames", with its endlessly headbangable Painkiller riffing, driving melody, colossal chorus, and wickedly cool guitar solos. I'm always a sucker for guitar solos that have a lot of pinch harmonics, and Primal Fear abuses them so much its almost silly. Bonus points from me though, since I love that squealing fury so much. "The Healer" is as close as Primal Fear ever gets to a ballad, and it's a very good song, if a lot slower than usual. "Sacred Illusion" and "In Metal" are the last good songs on this disc, and they're solid, well-written, enjoyable tunes. After these, however, the disc just gets boring. The last 4 songs are nearly insufferable, and are not near the quality of the first part of the disc. The album ends with a silly spoken word outro about the devil and his domain, which doesn't really fit the disc, and I found very comical.

Overall, Primal Fear's 6th release is sure to please all their fans, and probably win them a few new ones as well. It is solid, but not perfect. If they had cut those 4 weak songs near the end and replaced them with tunes similar to the early ones, we'd have a great disc on our hands. As it stands, Devil's Ground is just very good, but still easily recommendable to fans of Priest, Godiva, and Cage.

Track listing:

Metal is Forever

Suicide and Mania

Visions of Fate

Sea of Flames

The Healer

Sacred Illusion

In Metal

Soulchaser

Colony 13

Wings of Desire

Heart of a Brave

Devil's Ground

metalcrypt.com