Primal Fear
Delivering the Black

In my eyes Primal Fear has always been the reborn Judas Priest and as the Priest has gone more and more out of the game it seems they've mantled that role in more peoples view than just mine. And it's not difficult to see why, they started out more or less as a cover band and Scheepers really sounds like a younger Rob Halford with his high pitched voice. Earlier this year we saw the release of Primal Fears tenth studio album and this one really sounds blacker than anything they've done.

Scheepers has been around the scene for quite some time now and his voice still impresses 30 years after debuting with Tyran' Pace, which later gave him a place in Gamma Ray and in the end Primal Fear. With a handful of dozen albums carrying his name to date he's not far from being as recognized in the genre as Halford himself, the man he's so often compared to. Last year alone he was credited on no less than eight albums as guest and hired vocalist but this year it's once again his and Mat Sinners love child that has his attention. Last time out they were revarded greatly from Hallowed with 6/7 so it's a difficult task to triumph that with 'Delivering The Black' but as they've constantly become better it should be in their range.

However, last time it was Daniel that reviewed them, this time it's me and I've never been the bigger fan of this band (or the Priests to be honest) so that's that's probably their first obstacle. I give them that they've constantly moved further away from Judas Priests all through their career and 'Delivering The Black' is definitely pretty far fetched to call plagiarism as was the case with their earliest albums - this time they even add symphonic elements as female guest vocals (which isn't the first time either) but I struggle to see where they're going with this album.

'Delivering The Black' is filled with strong tracks and lots of character defining ideas but the sad thing is that they really don't have any direction with them. On one hand I think this album is a bit repetitious and has a monotone sound, which also makes it a bit lengthy, but on the other hand I think it's a bit all over the place and incoherent. This goes a bit over my understanding, how you can be both these things at the same time but all these character defining stuff I mentioned really has no clear direction and that makes it feel like it's lost track despite being monotonous. I think the main problem is that they're pushing all these buttons as for things they want to be defined by but they are different in each song, and sometimes even different in the same songs. It's like they've tried to give all the songs a different character but used the same formula. Like tin soldiers all painted exactly the same so they look almost identical despite being shaped differently.

Without getting stuck on the subject, I can mention a few examples - like Never Pray For Justice where they start the song with sounds of a chainsaw. The track before had started with angelic choirs and epic organs and the track that follows really can't be described as anything but a ballad fit for the Eurovion Song Contest. However, if you jump one or two minutes in to each songs they sound pretty much the same and it's very difficult to tell them apart (with just a couple of exceptions). The first ten or so seconds are all very different (once again here with just a couple of exceptions) but in the end they've used something like three different verses, choruses and riffs that they've mixed around and used in all songs.

The end result of 'Delivering The Black' is anything but satisfying. In a way I feel like the album has plenty of good stuff, great ideas and well executed but despite varying the ideas and executing them well it sounds tedious and repetitious. I feel the 51 minutes that the album lasts feels very much longer and to be honest I really just apprechiate hearing two or three of the songs on the album. One Night In December is one of them and it's probably my biggest favorite. Another is the ballad Born With A Broken Heart. There is a third one in there as well, but I can't really tell which one of the remaining eight it is as all of them are the same little tin soldier when everything comes around.

'Delivering The Black' can't match 'Unbreakable' and the fine score that album got. It's a decent heavy metal album but as far as I can see it's nothing more than that.

HHHHHHH