Rulebreaker

Primal Fear were on a tear during the first half of the 2000s, but the other end of that decade had them make more regular power metal (well, what was considered such in that era, anyway) with the keyboards and everything, and they just couldn’t quite hack it there. Then Alex entered the fray and from there, they got their mojo back. Unbreakable brought back the no frills, no bullshit, all killer, all anthemic fare of old, with a smattering of the pomp that did permeate through Seven Seals and New Religion. Then Delivering the Black came out and it upped the ante with even catchier songs, even more epic moments, “One Night in December” and all sorts of other things that make great albums truly great. Rulebreaker has them lined up for a hat-trick, which they manage to achieve by upping the ante even further…

…and from the get-go, there’s definitely a case for this album being even better than its predecessor. “Angels of Mercy” makes “King for a Day” sound like a fucking Firehouse track because hot damn, this riffs hard and heavy! A rousing anthemic fare that hits like a dump truck betwixt the riffs, the pounding drums and Scheepers’ vocals coming together as a right call to arms. This continues throughout the next few songs, with their usual anthemic sort of mid-paced heavy metal fare permeating throughout, but particularly with the ultra-catchy “Rulebreaker” bringing in more of that rock and roll attitude and pushing out infectious verses and a right sing-a-long chorus that engraves a permanent residence in your head. “In Metal We Trust” picks the speed right on back up to really pump you up with its rapid-fire riffs and Scheepers’ mighty shout delivering “RAISE! YOUR! FIST” kinda lyrics. This shit is just too much fun, man.

But while these songs show Primal Fear’s “keep it simple, stupid” formula at its best, the tail end of the album… doesn’t. A song like “Angels of Mercy” takes what sound like the simplest core progressions ever and make them sound badass; meanwhile, a song like “Raving Mad” takes the simplest riffs and does nothing with them. It becomes disposable since it makes nary an impact, and forgettable because it doesn’t forge any real significant melody. It just… exists. That’s also the case with songs like “Constant Heart” and “The Devil in Me” – there’s just nothing to really hold onto, and that’s a problem when you’re not doing a lot outside of some standard metal riffs. It’s to a point where a decent ballad-y track like “The Sky is Burning” can stand tall. It’s also bizarre that “Don’t Say You’ve Never Been Warned” was exclusive to special edition releases and the whims of record labels letting streaming services host them because this song is the motherfucking tits! It’s got more of a rock and roll motif going on, but the way the riffs ebb and flow make this shit rather catchy – not to mention genuinely invigorating after a barrage of mostly mediocre heavy metal.

Though where this really comes to a head is with the monolithic “We Walk Without Fear”. It’s definitely one of the most ambitious tracks they’ve done… period, honestly. Granted, they’re no strangers to long songs as they’ve been putting at lease one of those in their albums since Devil’s Ground which came out in 2004. But they still operated on more linear melodies. Yeah, it’s weird to say that a Primal Fear song is non-linear, but “We Walk Without Fear” cycles through quite a few riffs and motifs to create a right monolith. Certainly one with some legitimate twists and turns as the various speed metal and mid-paced rhythms don’t head off into entirely predictable directions. Going back to listen to the likes of “All for One” and “Where Angels Die”, there’s a clear-cut path through them, going through the motions to make a long song work – and work, they certainly do. It’s a craft that they’ve clearly improved upon each time, culminating in the positively spellbinding “One Night in December” from the last album… but “We Walk Without Fear” raises the bar even higher with even more riffs, even more motifs and what have you, while still giving the quieter moments time to set the scene for the big riff and vocal moments whilst shining on their own terms. A deliciously melodic bouquet, to say the least.

Realistically, Rulebreaker could end on this song. It bows out with a music box playing right before the creaky door closes, ending things ever so gracefully. After “We Walk Without Fear”, Rulebreaker then becomes rather disposable, redundant and somewhat uninspired. Like, you already did “Constant Heart”, “The Devil in Me” and “Raving Mad” earlier on the album, only with far better melodies than the most standard mcdefault heavy metal rhythms you could possibly think of. It’s the kind of thing that lets down any album because after starting off so well, it ends on a highly anti-climactic note with the most rote generic heavy metal you could possibly imagine. It’s weird because it works among the same ethos as most of the other songs on here. But it’s like I said before. On the better songs, it’s like they took the simplest riffs and made them sound fucking badass. On these lesser cuts, though, it’s like they took these basic riffs and did nothing with them.

So yeah, I mean, Rulebreaker does continue the streak, but that comes with quite the caveat. Its highs are Primal Fear at their best, but its lows dangerously approach 16.6 (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) levels of low. A top-heavy album, if I ever heard one.

The album’s opener, “Angels of Mercy” starts with a bang and a whimper. How? The riffs are awesome and the tune is a total banger but the devil’s torture instruments aka pinch harmonics, drag it down to a whimper. They committed a songwriting fallacy and for that, they must be punished. Full point deduction! Other than that mishap though, the riffs on this album are nice and heavy and the songs move at a pretty decent clip. Rolf Scheppers’ voice is in fantastic form on this album and the melodies and lyrics are killer as is always the case with Primal Fear.

The one time the band falters lyrically is in the song “In Metal We Trust”. It’s a great song honestly and I love metal as much as the next guy but I’m getting tired of hearing songs about its greatness. How many of these have Primal Fear written in the past and how many have been written by so many other bands? I love metal but it’s gotten to the point where it feels like a songwriting and lyrical cop-out for bands when they can’t think of original lyrics. Find something original and relevant to sing about.

The biggest problem is the lack of variety in the riffs. The melodies and the solos are killer and show enough variety to satisfy me but every riff sounds so similar that it’s hard to distinguish them from each other. The solos in “We Walk Without Fear” really are incredible though it’s kind of disappointing for a 10+ minute song. There is no progression, nothing different except for the frivolous intro that lasts more than a minute and builds you up to be let down.

All in all, this is another great album from one of the most consistent bands in the genre. I dig the acoustic interludes on here too. Nice touch guys. This is far from their best album though and it’s not even as good as their last effort, “Delivering the Black”. Better luck next time guys.

Veteran status is something of a relative concept in metal, but it is pretty safe to say that when a band is coming up on 20 years of breaking the silence and the prime members have an additional decade of experience in other acts, that the collective is far from amateur. With experience comes a sense of what works and what doesn't, so stylistic evolution tends to be a secondary concern, particularly when the style is a longstanding one. There's always a group of depressingly deluded people who expect some grand, genre-redefining moment that will still magically be coherent, and Primal Fear have always taken the wise route of failing to acknowledge the existence of such people when at their craft. They are a band that will occasionally tinker around the edges, but avoid any sort of wholesale abandonment of their adopted power/speed metal orthodoxy, and Rulebreaker is a powerful yet all too typical reaffirmation of existing traditions.

In terms of songwriting and production, this album functions largely as a souped up sequel to Delivering The Black, playing off the same established formula of speeding nods to Painkiller, mid-paced crushers a la Accept, and the occasional epic nod to Iron Maiden and Helloween that came in with New Religion and have become a staple of the band's sound ever since. They've again employed the engineering services of Jacob Hansen, who's work with Tyr, Pyramaze, Anubis Gate and countless others has brought new meaning to the notion of modern yet masterful, and the result is a massive sound that rivals the bombastic character of a number of symphonic acts, despite only occasionally featuring keyboards. But as with any fine piece of metal craftsmanship, the magic that takes place at the refinery would otherwise come to naught if the existing elements were not already an exercise in raw power.

After a rather cinematic yet fleeting barrage of keyboard sounds and the burst of broken glass, that age old "take no prisoners" approach to speed metal that Primal Fear has always lived on makes its appearance. "Angels Of Mercy" is actually an exercise in showing no mercy at all, as a riff heavier than an anvil and a compressed to the point of critical mass rhythm section explodes into a celebration of metal infused mayhem. Along for the ride in the fast lane are "In Metal We Trust", "Constant Heart" and "Raving Mad', each one showcasing similar displays of busy guitar lines, driving bass and drum work, and a downright astounding vocal display out of Ralf Scheepers. How this guy shrieks at the upper end of the tonal spectrum comprehensible by the human ear at the ripe age of 51 is anyone's guess, but from the beginning of this album until the last note fades he's putting forth a display that rivals Rob Halford circa 1990.

Naturally all is not speed and sheer mayhem with this band when considering past offerings, and along with the massive punch this album packs is a degree of nuance and innovation within their already established formula. There are obviously a few obligatory crowd-participation oriented mid-tempo rockers such as the title song, the homage to Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law" in "Bullets & Tears", and the marriage of chunky Accept riffing with a subtle nod to "The Immigrant Song" of a single "The End Is Near", but there are two particular songs were these guys do break the mold ever so slightly. The somewhat Dream Theater inspired ballad "The Sky Is Burning" bears some similarity to a number of past ballads, but is far more memorable. The absolute coup de grace, however, is the towering 10 minute epic "We Walk Without Fear", which eclipses their previous forays into quasi-symphonic, Iron Maiden post-1983 (namely "Fighting The Darkness" and "One Night In December") while featuring arguably the most insane dueling guitar shred fests every applied to this style.

Although I am still partial to the vintage mastery that was Nuclear Fire, this is probably the closest that Primal Fear has gotten to topping said magnum opus, and there is definitely a solid case to be made that this is the most ambitious album they've put together. Most of it deals with what speed metal fanatics already know, but there are a few very pleasant surprises along for the ride that should be enough to please those with an originality fetish, barring those expecting the sea levels to recede. This is an album that presents a rule-breaking rebel in the classic sense, as the leather toting biker who lives by his own terms, rather than some geek turned musical genius trying to turn equations in speculative nuclear physics into music. Like the eagle featured on the album's cover, this music has teeth, so prepare to get torn up when the sounds leave the speaker.

I felt slightly ashamed for not being overly familiar with Primal Fear. A few songs in the past have alerted me to their presence, I won't lie ("Carniwar" is an absolute tune!). But unfortunately, they remain strangely under the radar to me. However, last month I was caught in a record shop with enough money to buy their newest LP - and the artwork was pretty damn cool, so here went nothing...

So what can I say? I'm not really feeling too bad about my previous ignorance of these German headbangers. I am also in disagreement of their branding on this website as 'speed/power metal'. If "Rulebreaker" is a release by which to accurately judge the band - it's neither speedy nor power-y. What we have here is an overly-long collection of mid-paced heavy metal anthems that don't do anything wrong exactly - but could really use a dose of energy to liven them up a little. This is far more akin to early-80s Judas Priest, rather than, say, Helloween or early Blind Guardian (ACTUAL speed/power metal). I'm all for traditional - but Primal Fear feel way too much in their comfort zone here.

Things begin promisingly enough. "Angels of Mercy" and "The End Is Near" are two truly heavy numbers which pound away reliably, full of attitude. The guitar tone is de-tuned and grinds away menacingly with the bass and drums. Ralf Scheeper's legendary vocal cords feel gruff and aged - but in a way that garners respect, and doesn't come across as weary. These two tracks feel right paired together, and pave the way nicely for a different mood...

...which simply doesn't arrive. A welcome change of pace was necessary, be it slower and broodier, or more rapid and energetic. But disappointingly, both "Bullets & Tears" and the title-track are more mid-tempo plodders, except with far less power than the previous two, making them seem like modern AC/DC rejects. If it weren't for tracks like "In Metal We Trust" and "The Devil In Me" - which actually make an effort to alter the pace - this album would have easily fallen below the 30% mark due to sheer boredom.

The true star of "Rulebreaker" is track 6: "We Walk Without Fear". This 10-minute epic is the only song here that I can happily label as 'power metal', thanks to its melodic leads, anthemic chorus (layered with beautiful vocal harmonies), and dramatic keyboards used to great effect throughout its duration - especially 7 minutes in. The song is well structured and varied - making you wonder why they used up the majority of their creativity on this one track. Once that ominous door slams at the song's climax - the CD should really stop spinning.

The production is spot on, all band-members are playing up to par, the raven-adorned artwork is super cool, and there are some stand-out tracks which are at least worth a listen from any heavy metal fan. Annoyingly, the creativity lapses beyond this, and the songwriting suffers as a result. Listeners with patience will be rewarded for the few gems - but this is best left as background music for a gathering of metalheads.

The eleventh studio album from German power metal horde Primal Fear is pretty consistent in tone and style from the band’s signature formula for mixing strong power metal melodies with thumping speed metal rhythms. Both are equally in force throughout here and tend to remain at the forefront for numerous songs throughout here in that there’s a rather fine amount of tracks that tends towards one or the other. Whether it ranges from a fiery melodic mid-tempo banger or a roaring up-tempo charge lead by thumping grooves and a pounding rhythm section that allows for plenty of dynamic and wholesale melodic flurries present alongside the heavy-handed riffing, it still retains that same dynamic hard-hitting sound they’ve perfected and employed since the very beginning and rarely deviate from either style throughout the course which does present this with the album’s lone weakness. As the music here tends to shuffle between up-tempo grooves or more melodic marches, the deviation from the tracks isn’t really there and it does seem as though the album is stuck on repeat for numerous tracks as it fires up another similar number to others already present in here whether it be any variation of their styles and can make the album seem like it drags at times, though this tends to be emblematic of their albums overall and doesn’t really seem too big of a hurdle on this one.

The first half here is a fine representation of what to expect without too many surprises overall. Opener ‘Angels of Mercy’ slowly builds from a sampled intro into a ripping mid-tempo chug with fiery riffing and pounding drumming carrying along at a steady pace with fiery melodic rhythms running through the churning solo section that leads into the strong finale gives this a strong and impressive opener with a lot to like about it. ‘The End Is Near’ features another hard-hitting mid-tempo charge with heavy chugging riffing, fiery rhythms and pounding drumming carrying the thumping rhythms along with plenty of energy throughout the more melody-driven solo section and continuing on through the thumping final half for yet another strong highlight. ‘Bullets & Tears’ uses a melodic rhythm running throughout the main driving riff as the melodic leads continue on throughout the simple, stylish main rhythm that brings the thumping energy into the stylish solo section and into the fine finale for a solid enough outing that doesn’t really match the first of the previous efforts. The title track features a melodic swarm of riffing that drops off into a simple chug that matches the similarly streamlined drumming that continues on throughout the main section as a whole with the soaring solo section whips through a fiery rhythm that carries on into the final half for a strong and enjoyable effort. The utterly energetic ‘In Metal We Trust’ fires off a thumping, rousing series of sing-a-long riffs and thumping drumming that bounces along at a fiery pace with the charging riff-work driving into the intricate, dynamic solo section with graceful leads and melodic rhythms that continue on through the finale for the album’s overall highlight work that retains the full power of their glory days quite capably. The epic ‘We Walk Without Fear’ slowly works past the orchestration intro leading into the charging drumming alongside the mid-tempo riff-work full of soaring melodic rhythms that alternate effectively with the bombastic orchestration charging along with the mid-tempo riffing and stylish drumming that moves along with the stylish solo sections leading into the final half for a much more listenable and engaging effort than expected.

The second half here plays much like the first in what to expect here. ‘At War with the World’ blasts through a pounding drum-beat with plenty of fiery melodic riffing and thumping drum-work that keeps the energetic mid-tempo pace charging along into the rousing solo section with the dynamic drumming carrying on into the finale for another strong offering. ‘The Devil in Me’ offers strong melodic riffing and pounding mid-tempo drumming that work the simple mid-tempo rhythm throughout the main section as the soaring riffing and dynamic drumming keep the streamlined pace charging along into the final half for a disposable but still enjoyable effort. The fiery ‘Constant Heart’ works a thumping series of hard-charging riffs with pounding mid-tempo drumming charging along into the steady rhythms with the fiery patterns charging along into the restrained solo section while kicking back into the rather charging tempo for the finale which makes for a wholly enjoyable and highlight-worthy effort. Their de-rigeur ballad ‘The Sky Is Burning’ offers light melodic guitar-work and simple, romantic patterns that offer plenty of soaring melodic passages with numerous soft rhythms buoyed by the rather strong choruses with more thumping arrangements that hold nicely against the more romantic elements at play in the final half for one of their best efforts in the style. Lastly, ‘Raving Mad’ features blistering drumming and a pounding mid-paced groove with strong melodic riff-work and thumping rhythms which feature plenty of majestic melodic riffing along into the strong solo section that continues on into the final half for a rather strong lasting impression that ends this one rather nicely.

All in all, there’s not a whole lot to dislike about the album which is its greatest strength and weakness as it doesn’t really deviate much from the norm of what’s to be expected from the band that hasn’t really done much of this in their career anyway, really leaving this one a solid choice for old fans of the band looking for some familiar enjoyment or those new to the scene and need a solid choice to get them started into their other works.