PRIMAL FEAR
Bassist Mat Sinner sent us his track by track comments for the songs included on the forthcoming PRIMAL FEAR album "New Religion" due out on September 19th on Frontiers Records. Enjoy the insight !
SIGN OF FEAR
We wanted to create a very unusual introduction for the album: like a metal band with a kind of orchestra tuning or like Dire Straits did with Money For Nothing. We wanted to create a moment when people are listening very concentrated on what comes next! Of course, we wanted to start the album with a fast paced heavy track. All the people who thought that Primal Fear is getting more & more a pop band should get a kick in their butt with the first song! In my first demo version, my own vocals were based an octave lower, but Ralf is the master of screams and he delivered in an unbelievable way! For a part of the lead guitar on this song, we recruited my good friend Magnus Karlsson, Ralf gave me a lead vocal part in the Middle 8 part and we shot a video clip for this song!
FACE THE EMPTINESS
One thing counts for sure on the new album - we worked hard as never before on Ralf's lead vocals and overall on this album, in my view it's by far his best performance in his entire career! Face The Emptiness shows exactly this statement, in a sovereign manner. What a great chorus line. Here we used the first little orchestration, conducted by me and maestro Matz Ulmer on a basic idea by guitarist Stefan Leibing. The rhythm of the song is very complicated and it was a tough time for Randy and me recording the rhythm section, but it worked out great, always with the fine ears of co-producer Charlie Bauerfeind.
EVERYTIME IT RAINS
Seventh album and again we planned to go another big step ahead with our musical claim. What we've didn't realize in the past was indeed a duet with a female singer. We talked with some girls in Europe about joining us on a track for the new album and Ralf finally decided, that he wanted to record with Simone Simons. Next was to find the right track for this exciting new idea. We had a great time during the recordings of this song. Ralf built up a special cabin for Simone with drinks, roses and a candle - very nice and finally a great idea to record this track! We're working on the idea to shoot another video clip for the song shortly! My sincere compliments to Simone & Ralf for this great performance!
NEW RELIGION
The burning tribal eagle marks the reincarnation for the band. The band is born again, with new record company partners in the entire world and we have Henny Wolter back in the band. Henny was always one my favourite guitarist in his Thunderhead days. Then he played on Sinner's Bottom Line album and he blew me away. I knew, that Ralf & Stefan are big fans of Henny's playing and his character. We discussed a lot, who will be the right guy for Primal Fear's future and all guys in the band wanted Henny back! Then we split up after 6 albums with our basic record company partners and we're looking for a new path for our future. This all together can describe the title of the album and the resurrection of our trademark - the eagle and this song lives by the typical Primal Fear guitar riff which switches to a untypical harmony change in the big chorus and a very nice breakdown part!
FIGHTING THE DARKNESS
Fighting The Darkness
This is a very important song for Primal Fear and I worked very hard with both my brothers from Sweden, Ronny & Tobias on the song. Maybe this is the 15th song we wrote together but the vibe of our songwriting is still magic! You can hear a very detailed orchestration, between power chords and silence. I still get goose bumps when I listen carefully to the song on my headphones. Again an outstanding lead vocal performance by Ralf and a very tasteful lead guitar solo by Stefan, but all of the guys worked very hard on this track. For me personally it's the best sounding track Primal Fear has ever produced and released. A huge credit goes to mixer Ronald Prent. He worked with a lot of major acts in his career and now we know why all this special bands like Rammstein, Def Leppard, Manowar etc. worked with him. His feeling to understand the music is unbelievable!
The Darkness
A lot of bands in the seventies used this kind of combination of huge and long songs. I'm always searching for some new influences to make the next Primal Fear record exciting and interesting, with content, which wasn't used so many time before. I've learnt from Yes, Deep Purple, ELP, Kansas etc. that they built up ten minute songs with different parts. We follow the main melody of the A-Part and then moving into an halftime part, later into a fast part as built up throughout the composition, again with nice choirs, keyboards and orchestration! What I really like here are the outstanding drum breaks by Randy - always creative and played with such an enormous power! I really see a new album as a huge musical project for myself and the band now, which is not only to write and record 4 minute metal song. I think music overall is so special with never ending targets and temptations!
Reprise
Of course the Grande Finale of the track with a late "comeback" of the huge chorus line and the end of our opus. Well I'm looking forward to realize the song in our forthcoming concerts. This will be a huge mission to bring this song on stage, but I can imagine, that it will give a Primal Fear concert something special to include and perform this monster song in our set!
BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS
Well, after so much sophisticated music, we need to rock - that's exactly what we want to do on Blood On Your Hands and of course Primal Fear style. The song is based on a fast paced killer riff from the guitars and the dedicated and controversial lyrics. Stefan is a fan of this kind of guitar riffs, he delivered in the past on some other PF songs like "Fear", "Evil Spell" or "Fight The Fire" and it is great to play these songs on stage. Great breakdown part right before the lead guitar plays some oriental harmonies!
THE CURSE OF SHARON
Here we can listen to a lot of harmony guitars and a great Ralf idea to singalong the melody line on top the guitars! I can already hear the fans singing with us at the concerts - be prepared! Even this song has a lot of different parts it feels very fluid to play and to listen to. Nice breakdown part with very creative drumming and very cool vocal fills. I really love the vibe and the chorus of the song. It's very special for me and it's really great how the band played especially this song!
TOO MUCH TIME
………. is starting a two song package with the a back to the roots feeling of the harmonies in Primal Fear's music and we want to bring the kind of "Nuclear Fire" vibe back into our new album. The first song "Too Much Time" starts with vocals J and turning into a furious pace! Henny is playing a great duelling solo with Stefan and we're going through a lot of emotion and different parts here! Cool track!
PSYCHO
A big factor in Primal Fear's and my songwriting, was always a kind of groove and combination between riff and steady bass guitar, like we did on "Running In The Dust", "When The Night Comes", "Eye Of An Eagle" etc. or what was a trademark of, for example, Accept. The new song "Psycho" is a nice example to follow this path of Primal Fear special groove and history in very cool quality. I'm really excited about the great bass guitar sound and it's not easy to push it, before the guitars are getting too low, but great executed by Ronald! It was the first song Henny played on, since he rejoined the band!
WORLD ON FIRE
Well it is really nice, that we have such great songs like WOF at the end of an album. This song could also be easily an album opener in my view. Nice double bass drum playing by Randy and a typical Primal Fear chorus, great harmony vocals and tasteful orchestral parts. I love the bombastic breakdown part and again a very furious played lead guitar. One nice little spot too, is the rhythm & lead guitar work at the end of the song - killer! Yes, I love the track!
THE MAN (That I Don't Know)
Based on an idea by Stefan, "The Man…" is a very special song on the album. I have always the James Bond kind of score song vibe in my head, when I listen to this total bombastic album closing track. Nice lyrics about when you look into a mirror and you really don't know if it's you. Scary J - Ralf interprets this song in an insane quality. I especially love his vocal performance on this track. It's a kind of untamed cannonade and I really laughed, when he killed a microphone in the recording studio, because his vocals where so extreme loud in the chorus. Finally the album closes with a nice bluesy outro guitar for an overall wonderful dramatic track.