Review Summary: An old NWOHBM band which evolved into some interesting directions strips things down a bit, but things aren't as bland as they may seem.
Scottish metal band Holocaust is truly an interesting case. They arrived during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and put out a few releases and died out rather quickly (not before recording The Small Hours for a live album, a track which Metallica would later cover and thus revive their career) before suddenly resurrecting in 1989 with tech-thrash EP
The Sound of Souls, which took clear inspiration from innovative prog metallers Voivod. This newfound progressive direction took the band to some very exciting territory;
Hypnosis of Birds was an amazing mishmash of post-punk, prog metal, some almost new-wave sounding melodic tendencies, and just a bit of thrash, while
Covenant and
The Courage to Be were both more definitively "metal" but still quite unique and abound with subtle touches of genius that revealed themselves with repeated listens. The thing about all those albums is that while they can all be lumped into a "progressive era" of the band, they're also quite distinct from one another, and they changed their sound yet again for their 2003 release
Primal.
This album is a bit deceptive. At first it sounds like a total regression from their progressive tendencies, mixed with added aggression and some more contemporary metal tropes like lower tuning and much harsher vocals. That first impression holds some merit, but as you dig deeper into the songs, you'll start to notice some of the cool and unique stuff John Mortimer liked to pull off in his compositions. Tracks like Hell on Earth and Colossus are peppered with melodic, somewhat atmospheric sections that see the adventurous spirit of prog-era Holocaust peaking through and help to differentiate this from just being really pissed off pseudo-groove metal from a NWOBHM-era band. Transcendence brings to mind elements of their genre soup masterpiece
Hypnosis of Birds (at least in terms of chords), and the straightforward Iron Will opens the album on an energetic headbanging note.
The album has its problems though. As stated, the songs here are overall less compositionally deep and interesting than the sharp left turn they took from
The Sound of Souls onward. The attempt at a more modern metal style also hampers enjoyment a bit, with Mortimer's vocals often coming across as forced, his fierce bark at times conflicting with otherwise melodious passages. The guitars sound nice and chunky, but the drums aren't beefy enough for the sound this album's going for, with a weak snare that just kind of plods rather than pounds. The lack of "oomph" the drums have lead to some attempts at thrashing (like in Black Box) falling rather flat.
Some of the songs fall flat too, like Made Righteous and It's Your Dream, both of which could be cool little metal songs (the latter sporting some neat guitar work two minutes in) if Mortimer wasn't trying too hard to sound angry. Fools (Bring on the Light) has such a dumb intro that it almost spoils the otherwise decent song. But then you have a surprising track like closer Lost Horizons, which has these forlorn passages interspersed between more typical groove metal chugging. The effect would be better if not for Mortimer's unnecessarily raspy voice, but it's still nice to see that kind of unexpected emotional expression on an album like this. Or take the previously mentioned Colossus, perhaps the best song on the album. The gritty vocals actually work during the heavy parts, and then John actually cleans up his voice a little during one of the softer passages, sounding more like he did on the band's best works. Some of the chugging riffs are ***ing heavy too, really reaching the vibe I think Holocaust were aiming for. Hell on Earth is another standout, beginning in a standard stomping metal fashion before briefly taking things in a more introspective direction halfway through.
Primal sees Holocaust tapering back what made them so interesting upon their reformation in exchange for something more standard, which is disappointing as I found prog-era Holocaust to be quite the hidden gem. However, like with most Holocaust albums, there's still more to this record than initially meets the ear, and for those surprising moments, I choose to rate this album a little generously. I still think this is a disappointment after three terrific albums in a row from this band (discounting Spirits Fly, a bloated re-issue of their best album) but it's still decent.
