Let’s face it, a new Primordial album is always something of a special event these days – from the moment the band truly unfurled their songwriting wings on 1998’s ‘Journey’s End’ album, has there been another act in the extreme metal scene that has managed to marry so effectively genuine consistency and longevity throughout their career? Enslaved perhaps but that’s about it. The Irish men are in rare company as they prepare to release this, their eighth album in an existence that has spanned over twenty years.
So what is new on ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen’? Given that the band pretty much defined their unique sound in the late nineties, subsequent Primordial albums have been more an exercise in refining their own distinctive template and forging powerful songs as opposed to continual reinvention/experimentation – and this record is no exception. What’s immediately apparent is the power of the production – producer Jaime Gomez (Ulver, Cathedral, Altar of Plagues) has worked wonders on this front, delivering a sound that is massive, full of space and an organic, pulsing power.
This lends the opener (and title track) a genuine sense of exhilaration, propelled by the song’s galloping pace, surging riffs and vein-popping vocals courtesy of Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill. It’s a stone-cold classic, a true anthem and easily the best song the band have written in years – possibly topping their calling-card hymn ‘Empire Falls’ (from 2007’s ‘To The Nameless Dead’). It really is some tune – which makes the decision to follow it with the somewhat plodding ‘Babel’s Tower’ even more strange. I appreciate that dynamics in album track listings are important – switching pace/tone to maintain interest from the listener is certainly sensible – but the track really doesn’t go anywhere, meandering in a torpid fashion until its conclusion. It’s a bit of a shame and neuters somewhat the adrenalized momentum generated by the opener.
Luckily, that’s the only real blip on what is otherwise a sterling set of tunes. Primordial are not a band that moves particularly quickly – their last album ‘Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand’ was released back in 2011 – but this works to their favour, allowing the band to fully hone and polish the songs on each release. This lends each song a sense of purpose, namely that there’s a reason for them to be on this album. A case in point ‘The Seed of Tyrants’ is classic ‘raging’ Primordial, scything, fuzzed-out guitars underscoring some savage blasts that really injects some ferocity into the album whilst ‘Ghosts of the Charnel House’ that follows it is a rolling, fist-raising number.
The band even dabble in more contemporary discordances with ‘The Alchemist’s Head’, jagged chords bringing a touch of modern, almost Deathspell Omega like dissonance to proceedings. It also sees Averill deploy a rare batch of his harsh vocals, an acidic snarl that makes a welcome (and appropriate) return here. The closing one-two of ‘Born to Night’ and ‘Wield Lightning to Split the Sun’ meanwhile ramp up the epic factor considerably, the former building and evolving in a splendid fashion over its near nine minute length.
Mention again must go to Averill’s vocal performance across the whole of this record – he really is pushing himself further than ever before on this album. Thanks to the nuances of the production, one can practically here his vocal chords thrumming with effort. There’s absolutely no doubting the sheer passion that he’s putting into each and every line.
There’s no doubt that ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen’ is a good album – great even – but it is hard to escape an underlying notion of familiarity here. Aside from the ‘wind-in-the-hair’ charge of the title track, there’s a tiny suspicion that Primordial are now operating very much within their comfort zone. ‘The Alchemist’s Head’ aside perhaps, there isn’t anything here that would be out of place on any of Primordial’s releases from the last ten years or so.
This is not a criticism, merely an observation – given their track record and uniqueness, Primordial have more than earned the right to continue to plough a furrow that they (and they alone) started to mine many years ago. That they are still able to forge fresh, inspired sounding songs to a template that they have so firmly defined should really be a cause for celebration. Primordial are something of an institution now and ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen’ is another splendid entry in their ever-expanding canon.
(8/10 Frank Allain)
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