A Journey's End

In the 90s Primordial were looking for their sound. The band emerged with inheriting black metal sound of the the 80s and gradually mixed it with other influences. Eventually the very first album was a standout record. Furthermore, its follower "A Journey's End" can claim the same. Actually, it's similar with other early works. After all, the band was looking for its own sound. Perhaps "A Journey's End" is the most unordinary Primordial album in terms of moods. According to the members of Primordial, they were close to disbanding after the release of "Imrama", that's why the work on the second album wasn't easy. Probably that affected the moods of "A Journey's End". It's the most melancholic album of the band.

The production is clean in contrast to "Imrama". Primordial left a lot of its blackness there. Stylistically "A Journey's End" is best described as blackened doom metal with folk influences, where the least are generally established by the acoustics, which backs up the riffs. The album starts with dynamic and relatively harsh "Graven Idol", but generally the music is quite melodic and mournful, pensive and laid-back. The romantic touch, which the band had in the past, is now more pronounced. Murky melodies gently shed one after another. The atmosphere creates a kind of an autumn feel. Actually, there's even "Autumn's Ablaze", where the lyrics obviously are metaphoric, but still the autumn feel works. The vocals are majorly clean and Nemtheanga's singing skills progressed in terms of both clean and extreme vocals. The clean ones underline the melancholy, the screams add the bitterness.

However, at the ending of the album there's a sort of a culmination, where music becomes more aggressive. First there comes an ambient interlude "Solitary Mourner" with a depressive declamation, as Nemtheanga performs with nearly a shivering voice, breathing between the words. It's like an anxiety before a storm. After it there goes "Bitter Harvest", the fastest, the harshest and the most black metal track of "A Journey's End". It is even rougher, than "Graven Idol". Screaming prevails there. Riffing is more distorted, yet it's still backed up by the acoustics. And after this culmination the album ends with strange in the positive sense folkish instrumental composition "An Aistear Deirneach", which sounds a bit psychedelic.

"A Journey's End" is a perfect album without noticeable weak sides and still it has a highlight. It's "Dark Song". Like "Beneath a Bronze Sky" on "Imrama", it's the only composition on "A Journey's End", which is completely rooted in folk, as it's fully acoustic. Its melodies are so beautiful as well as its lyrics, which is an ancient poem written by Amergin Glangel. That's how "A Journey's End" looks like. Its title is descriptive in the sense, that all the troubles, that the band had faced in the process of working on the album, were finally over. In the other sense, in a more ironic one, it's a misleading title, because Primordial was at the dawn of its journey back then. The second full-length album of the band appeared to be a huge stone in the fundament of the developing Primordial sound.

While Primordial’s later albums assuredly sound quite different to their first few releases, they’ve essentially been slogging away at their own kind of epic pagan/heathen blackened heavy metal (or whatever the hell you insist on labeling it) all along. The only real difference is that the band sounds more youthful and eclectic on their earlier stuff and more learned and, for lack of a not so clichéd adjective, ‘mature’, on their later shit. There never really was that transitional album that you might expect, but rather a continuous development throughout their career that fleshes out and expands on the sound that the band has always stood behind.

Primordial’s debut, Imrama did well to carve out an identity for the band, but A Journey’s End is already quite a leap forward. While Imrama is an impressive debut by all accounts, in some cases it seemed that the execution didn’t always match the ambition, and that’s where A Journey’s End gleams: each song is a fully realized entity, and the whole of the album is much more coherent. Take a song like Autumn’s Ablaze. This is absolutely one of my personal favourite Primordial songs, and serves as a wonderful representation for this album, with its darkly tranquil melodies juxtaposed with the rough harshness of Primordial’s black metal roots, and hauntingly passionate vocals. The songwriting itself is undeniably leaps and bounds ahead of the debut, and while the production hasn’t hugely changed, the shifts between extremity and tranquility are infinitely more seamless. The lyrics muse upon the inherent sense of death in the natural (inevitable) changing of seasons, and use this imagery as a backdrop for a larger theme of personal loss:

The private moments of man
Are rarely ever seen
Yet, autumn gathers me up
And sheds me in her leaves.

This theme of reflection upon the unattainable, the futility of certain pursuits, is basically what characterizes this album more than anything else unique to Primordial’s catalogue, since it’s little more than varying themes that separate the band’s albums from each other. Autumn’s Ablaze also serves as a blueprint for the Primordial classic. Think about your favourite Primordial song. Does it have an epic build up? Probably. Does it have shifting vocals styles, the most memorable of which is thunderous wailing (often but not always in the form of a chorus)? Check. Very catchy melodies masked by a gruff production? Yup, this is chiefly Primordial’s tried and true formula in all its glory. But wait! This isn’t the only good song on the album. The title track, sticking to a similar mould, is unsurprisingly another triumphant success. While Nemtheanga’s immense vocal range would be better showcased on later albums, Solitary Mourner remains his most intimate, emotional vocal performance, and it’s quite an uncomfortable song to listen to, not in a bad way, but more of a listen-to-what-the-fuck-this-guy’s-saying-because-it-sounds-like-he’s-about-to-kill-himself kind of a way.

A Journey’s End fits wonderfully into the context of Primordial’s career. It probably comes off as their “softest” album, though I can’t really put my finger on why. I always think of it as an exceptionally melancholic doom album, but whenever I listen to it I’m surprised that much of it is at least as aggressive as the debut, with Bitter Harvest being one of their most extreme moments ever. Despite this, the atmosphere conveyed is rather dreamlike, and indeed this album boasts some of Primordial’s catchiest songwriting coupled with their tasteful use of repetition. With their second album, it was probably the common expectation for Primordial to return with an even more blistering and fierce interpretation of their debut, but instead they opted to turn inwardly for inspiration. This just goes to show that even in their younger days, Primordial have always been an incredibly professional band.

Primordial’s second and probably most revered or even “legendary” album, Journey’s End, has not acquired this status out of luck. As of now, this release is, along with The Gathering Wilderness, the band’s most consistent and emotional work. Nothing was left to doubt and all songs, both in musicality and lyrics are offering only the necessary, nothing feels useless or forced. The eight track long follower to Imrama, I must say, didn’t have much to do to surpass its predecessor. Imrama was young, true, and a little awkward, uncertain. Still it is a very rightly part of Primordial’s discography but in my opinion, the band truly captured its sound and vibe with Journey’s End.

Now to understand Primordial, one has to understand the band members’ environment. Ireland is a unique country, with a very profound and sad history. The country’s folklore carries as much pride as it carries melancholy. Primordial is entirely bathed in this difficult atmosphere, and it’s the main focus of their music. Very few folk instruments were used on any of the band’s albums and they still are in my opinion one of the most folk influenced group in metal. Also, Primordial is tagged as a black metal band and very rightly so, for most of their metal influences are from Bathory, Celtic Frost and other leaders of the Norwegian Black metal scene. What makes Primordial so different is that they achieve a black metal sound without sounding anything like black metal, or almost. I am one to believe that Primordial is the band, in the entire metal scene, to have the most unique sound, instantly recognizable and impossible to confound with any other formation.

Journey’s End is, to date, their darkest piece. The album is very unique in its profoundly melancholic atmosphere. Sadness leaks from every song but is balanced with such pride and strength that the album isn’t depressing; it only leaves the listener with the desire to stand up and fight on, until the end. I’ve only felt these complex emotions through Primordial’s music, no other band I’ve heard as yet managed to create the same feelings. In overall, Journey’s End is a great release, lacking very few elements to make it perfect. Nemtheanga is delivering a very passionate performance, but he was still learning in the times of Journey’s End, and he still had some things to improve back then. Although, memorable and worthy of mention, his singing on Journey’s End cannot rival with his later work, especially on The Gathering Wilderness.

Musically, the album is very heartfelt, and the atmosphere is perfectly displayed in every song through the mix of acoustic and electric guitars and tribal, sometimes enraged, but always very “folk”, drums. You won’t find solos or tremolos or any kind of guitar or any other instrument “heroism” in Journey’s End. That’s not what the band is about, their approach of metal is very progressive, very dark and their goal is to create an atmosphere with the combination of all musicians, as one would assemble all the pieces to a puzzle. Journey’s End can hardly be correctly described song by song. Of course, there are highlights: the opposition of intensity and sadness in Autumn’s Ablaze, the progression of Journey’s End, the dark melancholy of Bitter Harvest, but in the end, this album is to be listened at least a couple of times as a whole before one could take the liberty to pin-point his favorite songs. This is one of Primordial’s best and the early precursor to their latest achievement, The Gathering Wilderness. Journey’s End is for everyone who enjoys either black, progressive or even folk metal. A crowning achievement in its whole.

This is Primordial's second album, released over 3 years after their first venture Imrama. Partially this had to do with labels falling apart, and partially to personal issues that created the dark brooding quality to this recording. Beginning with the folky more aggressive riffs of Graven Idol this doesn't immediatly jump out, but on Dark Song suddenly one is cast into a tragic feeling. Opening with acoustic guitar this song simply builds until a Irish drum is hit and he are cast into a neo-folkish song, very dark and beautiful, featuring a perfect vocal performance by Nemtheanga, very deep and clear he sings with much passion. Then Autumn's Ablaze starts and I am drawn into what is one of their best most epic and tormented songs, and by this time I am simply entranced into the world created by Primordial. This Irish feeling, aritisitcally calling forth to so many different muses of their artistic and heathen past. Though this is much less heathen then their next few albums, the influence of the Volkish spirit will always be strong within Primordial.

Nearly everything about this album is perfect, every song captures a dark atmosphere, Nemtheanga sings and screams with such passion as you do not see often (except on a Primordial record), bringing much emotion to this work, which is highlighted by the brilliant songwriting and playing of everyone in the band. Don't expect anything too fancy, except excellent and powerful songs. Also the lyrics like always are excellent, portraying a soul at the end of existence passing through darkness and desolation.

This record is perhaps Primordial's most personal, rather then see the personal tragedy in the light of the human tragedy as on The Gathering Wilderness, or the heathen pride and power combined with torment and despair on Spirit the Earth Aflame, Primordial focus on the personal tragedy of the soul. As such this album can often cut to bone, but so much Primordial can do so, speaking to the soul and spirit, directly working through. This album would be a great place for any listener to start hearing Primoridal, as this album begins in my mind the deep importance of Primordial upon the metal world.