Ralf Scheepers has built himself quite a reputation for being one of the finest German Heavy Metal singers. With a career spanning three decades (he debuted with Tyran’ Pace’s “Eye to Eye” album in 1983), Scheepers sung on true Power Metal manifesto releases such as Gamma Ray’s first three albums, before starting Primal Fear in 1997, with Mat Sinner.

His voice is high-pitched and tenor-esque and his abilities were often compared to some of the finest Hard Rock and Heavy Metal singers ever (from Rob Halford to Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan). Both Helloween and Judas Priest considered him as their possible next lead singer.

Over the years Ralf wrote and collected a few tracks that did not fit exactly in the Primal Fear concept. As often happens, he had just been waiting for the right chance to present itself and that happened when himself, his buddy Mat Sinner and Frontiers Records President Serafino Perugino sat together and discussed plans for the future in… 2007!

Over three years later and the results are finally here and in Scheepers’ words “I’m really proud of the result!”

Ralf Scheepers’ artistic intention was to please the existing Primal Fear fan base, but he also wanted to add some surprises and include as much variation as he could in the recording.

So he went ahead and covered one of his own favourite - but untypical Judas Priest songs “Before the Dawn” and for the first time, Ralf played all instruments on a song, except the fantastic guitar solos added by Victor Smolski (Rage). “Compassion” is another special track with a very positive vibe, recorded only with acoustic instruments. Two of the songs were composed with former Primal Fear guitarist Stefan Leibing, while Gamma Ray’s Kai Hansen added guitar on “The Pain Of The Accused”. Halford’s Metal Mike played lead-guitar on the album opener “Locked In The Dungeon”. One more highlight is the vocal duet with Tim “Ripper” Owens on “Remission Of Sin”.

Additional guest appearances include Sander Gommans (ex After Forever), Snowy Shaw (King Diamond, Therion) and Scheepers Primal Fear band mates Magnus, Alex, Achim & Mat!

Enjoy the ride and stay Forever Metal with Scheepers !

SCHEEPERS
Ralf Scheepers: Lead & Backing Vocals; Acoustic Guitar; Keyboards; FX Sounds
Tim “Ripper” Owens: Lead Vocals on “Remission of Sin”
Magnus Karlsson: Lead Guitars; Guitars; Banjo; Accordion; Keyboards
Sander Gommans: Lead Guitar, Guitars
Mike Chlasciak, Alex Beyrodt; Kai Hansen; Victor Smolski: Lead Guitars
Mat Sinner: Bass, Keyboards
Snowy Shaw: Drums