One of the things about heavy metal that I think attracted me to
\nthe genre as a young man – and something I find kind of laughable
\nthese days – is the testosterone-laced machismo that makes up some
\nof the lyrics. It almost is like a “warrior ethic” for the teenage
\nboy; an extension of his developing manhood, if you will. Of
\ncourse, now that I’m within sniffing distance of 30, I listen to
\nsome of those groups and wonder to myself, “What was I
\nthinking?!?”<\/p>\n
Germany’s Primal Fear is a band that falls under this blanket of
\nsix-string machoness, but to their credit, they don’t take it to
\nany far-reaching extremes. Their latest disc,
\nJaws Of Death<\/i>, is entertaining, but its overall sound is
\ntypical of other bands who strut their stuff in the name of all
\nthings metal, a la Manowar and Hammerfall.<\/p>\n
The band – singer Ralf Scheepers (ex-Gamma Ray), guitarists Tom
\nNaumann and Stefan Leibing, bassist Mat Sinner and drummer Klaus
\nSperling – prove early on that they’re talented musicians, though I
\nadmit I did find myself waiting to hear a real blistering solo for
\na while before it seemed like the guitars really kicked in. After
\nthe brief instrumental intro of “Jaws Of Death,” the band kicks
\nthings off with “Final Embrace,” the type of tune that draws on the
\nexperience each band member has with their former groups.<\/p>\n
For a good portion of
\nJaws Of Death<\/i>, Primal Fear churn out song after song that
\nsound similar to some metal I would have listened to when I was a
\nteenager; be that as it may, the songs are still very listenable,
\nsomething I normally wouldn’t expect. Tracks like “Church Of
\nBlood,” “Under Your Spell” and “Save A Prayer” all have their
\nmoments, but don’t be surprised if you feel like you’ve heard this
\nstuff before.<\/p>\n
What is interesting about this album is that the music near the
\nend starts to sound a little more commercial – and a little
\nmellower as a result. Songs like “Fight To Survive” almost sound
\nlike they were created with the idea of releasing a single
\n(something I honestly doubt the band had planned to do), and is
\neven more accessible than some of the other material.<\/p>\n
Scheepers’s vocals are something that do take a little time to
\nget used to, especially when he’s not in the higher ranges; there’s
\nkind of a hoarseness to them at times.<\/p>\n
\nJaws Of Death<\/i> is an album that breaks no new ground, but I
\nwonder if it was intended to in the first place. Fortunately, its
\nmusical strength carries it through, and makes it an album that
\ntoday’s young metalheads will want to consider picking up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7551],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39342","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-primal-fear","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39342"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}