Primal Fear - Unbreakable

Primal Fear hail 2012 with their 9th studio album which is entitled “Unbreakable” and finds the band with a more back-to-the-roots attitude. That doesn’t mean that Primal Fear are presenting anything new here… they continue to deliver heavy/power metal songs with nice melodies, great vocals, sharp guitars and heavy rhythm section.

 

Ralph, may be, a very good vocalist but he lost the golden chance for a sky-rocketing career back then with Gamma Ray… just for chasing the dream… to be the voice of Judas Priest. After that… Primal Fear became his port and since then, he has been true to the band. The fact that Primal Fear are making the same music all these years doesn’t seem to matter to the band’s die-hard fans… and that’s not absolutely bad. Judas Priest, Accept, Gamma Ray, Helloween are always among the influences of the band... and the songs vary from fast power metal ones to heavy mid-tempo tunes… the performances are great, the production is strong and heavy (the album was produced by Mat Sinner, engineered and mixed by Achim Koehler & the House Of Music studios and some more studios in Germany & Sweden between summer and autumn 2011) and everything seems to be working very well here. But… that nasty “but” is always there to ruin some good moments… the music is full of heavy/power metal clichés… nothing ever changes… although, I believe that “Ubreakable” is among the top 3 works of the band… that just wasn’t enough to please me. I’m not a big fan of the band… but I was hoping one day they would release something to shake my ground… but after 15 years in the scene, I do not see it coming anymore.

 

The heavy mid-tempo songs: “Metal Nation”, “Where Angels Die” and the very good ballad “Born Again” are the best moments of the album. I strongly believe that the band delivers very good md-tempo heavy songs… while their power metal ones are not so pleasing. Of course “Unbreakable” is recommended to the fans of the band… it will surely satisfy them… as for others that are looking for something more than the cliché-“classic” heavy/power metal music… then better try out something else…