Primal Fear: Primal Fear

It's tough to give a fair review of an album like Primal Fear, because when listening to it, it's hard not to imagine how much better it could have been. Judged on it's own merits, Fear is a burning and essential slab of power metal impetus; but it could have easily been a modern masterpiece with only a few modifications.

Vocalist Ralf Scheepers is one of the legends of power metal; the original voice of Gamma Ray, his tone is powerful and his range is ungodly. When he is at the top of his game, he is one of the best there is.

But on Primal Fear, Ralf doesn't quite sound like himself. He is at times screechy (as in the chorus to "Formula One", an otherwise brilliant song), other times sounding as if he's not sure what mood he wants to convey ("Dollars"). The times when he is right on the money, however - "Silver and Gold", as well as the cover of Deep Purple's "Speedking" - are priceless.

Primal Fear is a required purchase for devotees of power metal - even though it is imperfect in spots, it's still a joyous and compelling piece of work from an outfit that hopefully will bring us many more albums in the future.

Added: January 1st 2004
Reviewer: SoT Archives
Score:
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Language: english

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