Primal Fear
Unbreakable

German heavy metallers or as some say power metallers Primal Fear are back with their ninth studio album which is called Unbreakable, they do that coming back from their second highest charting album to date. It is an album that has already despite being released the 20th been reviewed many times and with good results from all but one reviewer who said it was average, but about fifteen positive reviews and only one negative would indicate that is is quite an impressive album we are dealing with here. I myself was critical of early Primal Fear for lacking in variation and also being copies of Judas Prist but that I think changed with the album Devil’s Ground on which Primal Fear went from being clones of Judas Priest and their Painkiller era to being a heavy metal band to rely on.

Musically we who have heard the band will recognise the style that is presented on the album, but still it feels like an evolvement and not too similar to earlier work so as we know the band but a bit evolved you could describe it. Think Rob Halford Painkiller era and you know the vocals, melodic heavy metal with lots of energy is the musical style, very much guitar driven with powerful melodic sense. Many songs are hymnic in nature while others are more straight ahead hard hitting rockers, the album can be described as straightforward. There is a fair variation in the songs and the production is top notch bringing out the melodies in full force. On the album there are twelve tracks in the regular edition which is the one that was provided, the first issue however is a digipak with one bonus track, the one I got plays for around 56 minutes so I would guess that the digi version plays for an hour.

So is it as good as the reviewers would like to make out? I would have to say yes when answering that question, the album has an impressive collection of songs and I would say that some of them might just as well be timeless classics, at least possible ones but time will tell of that. Powerful metal hymns are coming thick and fast on this album, the video track called Bad Guys Wear Black is not a hymn though but an example of a powerful tempo filled metal and a very good song, the following tracks like And There Was Silence and Metal Nation are two prime example of heavy metal hymns. And the great tracks are coming thick and fast all the way through the album but there is still one that stands out as a memorable track, it is part two of the title track which is brilliant. Unbreakable (Part 2) is such an amazing track and a track that always grabs my attention and playing it for over 40 times has not changed that. I tip my hat to the creators of such a brilliant track.

One question this album raises is the one if it is possible to make heavy metal better than this, the answer to that isn’t all that easy. There is no doubting that it is the best album of the year this far being the only album, thing is though that it is also the best in the foreseeable future as well. Unbreakable is a brilliant album that I can recommend to all of our readers, the metallic bird is there and the screamy high pitched vocals are there, a brilliant Primal Fear album, their best one so far.

So with this album 2012 begins in the best possible way I would say, heavy oriented rock at its best.