Review Summary: A great compilation from one of Europe's finest retro metal band Primal Fear. Suits both fans and newcomers.
Normally I don’t listen to power metal unless it is something really special as
Nightwish for example, or perhaps bands like
Stratovarius or
Blind Guardian. I repeat my story when I was visiting a market outside my town where I was looking for some music. I had already found a rare
Eddie Meduza album and a limited debut album from
Threat Signal but I had also found a
Primal Fear album. It was a compilation album and it is called
Metal Is Forever - The Very Best Of Primal Fear. I thought it could be a good thing to get this compilation because then I have a very wide perspective of the band’s music. I almost knew in the back of my head that
Primal Fear would be a power metal band of some sort, perhaps they were Swedish or German. I said to myself that I usually don’t have any problems to digest power metal so this could be quite interesting. I later checked the band on the internet and my thoughts were true, this was German power metal. I have always thought that power metal belongs to Germany, thrash to America, death metal to Sweden and black metal to Norway. Anyway,
Primal Fear didn’t really surprised me or disappointed me.
Primal Fear sounded just like other bands that I have heard before except that this band felt a bit more aggressive and the vocalist sounded like a mix between
Guns ‘N’ Roses singer and the singer from
Judas Priest.
Primal Fear is also one of these bands that churns out albums and still people don’t mention them, only power metal fans would mention them time to time. I think it is a shame that people are only focusing on bands that other people think are great, it almost becomes a bad circle. You haven’t heard of a ‘’popular’’ band, and then people say that the band is the best and you follow them. And later you do the same thing; I think people are too scared to gamble when it comes to music. Remember, it is a 50/50 chance that you will love or hate the music you have found. I gambled on this album and I liked it, I did also gamble when I bought the
Threat Signal album and I really dislike it.
Enough of the introduction, here is the real deal. I bought this compilation and was both surprised and a bit disappointed. Some good things about this compilation were the huge number of songs and the great variety among the songs. The opening track
Metal Is Forever was a great start because it had a classic power metal sound to it. A strong vocal performance, a catchy song pattern, good solos and some choirs near the end. Also
Chainbreaker had a great vibe to it, an energetic song with healthy guitars and more strong vocals. There are also other types of songs of course,
Seven Seals,
The Healer and
Under Your Spell are some songs that I think sounds more like power ballads. These tracks are slower than the rest but they are still nothing highly special compared to the faster tracks, only the tempos separates them. I’m probably using a bad chosen word now but I thought that some tracks had a thrashy feel to them. Tracks like
Fear,
Suicide And Mania and
Evil Spell grabbed my attention better than the other songs because I thought these songs had a thrashier sound, especially in the guitar riffs. There was also a different flow in them and the aggressiveness was a bit better in these tracks if you ask me.
With this compilation disc there is also another disc with nine covers of metal classics. I haven’t heard every song from the original bands but some of these covers are really good though. The cover of
Iron Maiden’s Two Minutes To Midnight and the memorable
Metal Gods from
Judas Priest are without a doubt the best covers here. Everyone would think that this
Metallica cover would sound awesome but this time it doesn’t sound
that good.
Seek And Destroy feels quite sluggish until it gets halfway through the song, the guitar solos sounds awesome though.
Out In The Fields (
Gary Moore & Phillip Lynott) and
Die Young (
Black Sabbath) are also two covers that sounds very good, I can’t judge the other songs because I haven’t heard them.
Primal Fear is definitely a power metal band that has gone beyond the average level and are moving towards the excellent level. Unfortunately I think that the band still feels a bit generic but not much though. After listening to this compilation I will definitely get an album from these guys but I don’t know what album I should get though. There were not many things in this compilation that I didn’t like. The only things I thought were somewhat bad was the vocals (only the high-pitched vocals), some of the drum patterns because I thought there was a small lack of variety and the inaudible bass. Anyhow, I will definitely recommend this album to people who are interested to get into this band. Since the compilation has a total of 16 tracks plus a bonus CD with classic cover you will definitely find a song that suits you. Fans of
Primal Fear should have this also I think, especially if you enjoy all the tracks.
Judas Priest fans and of course other power metal fans would check this out, it’s worth it.
METAL IS FOREVER
Positives
+ Great vocals, strong and loud vocals
+ Excellent variety of songs
+ The covers really spices up the compilation
+ A perfect place to start if you want to get into
Primal Fear’s music
Negatives
- Some of the high-pitched vocals are annoying at times
- Even if the band has made many albums they still sound a bit generic
Recommended Favourites (
in order)
-- Fear
-- Metal Gods (cover song)
-- Metal Is Forever
-- Seven Seals
-- Chainbreaker
This is an excellent compilation which gives the listener a great perspective of Primal Fear’s music, the final score will be a steady 4/5.
