In these modern times of over-produced, churned out music for the masses, it’s easy to become jaded and think that perhaps Heavy Metal’s glory days are well and truly behind it. There are, however, voices in the void who resist the cheapening of art, and Primordial have been crafting their epic heavy metal grandeur contrary to all trends and short-cuts for over thirty years. How It Ends is the Irish band’s tenth studio album, and if we leave off the plague years (as the band’s singer Alan Averill notably does), this one comes roughly three years after its predecessor, though that is more like five if we count 2020/2021. Released on September 29, 2023, the new album is brought to the world courtesy of Metal Blade Records.
Difficult to pigeon-hole, for the uninitiated Primordial’s music straddles genres between epic traditional Metal, Doom Metal, with a healthy underpinning of Black Metal menace lurking inside some of their compositions. Vocalist extraordinaire Alan Averill has honed his abilities as the years have passed, and on the opening title-track, he soars with the song into man’s darkest future. A rousing ode to our march towards doom, the guitar work of founding axe-man Ciaran MacUilliam moves toward a massive crescendo. A superb solo caps this one off; it’s the album equivalent of opening a football season with ten straight victories.
As is Primordial’s wont, the songs unravel languidly, with attenuated passages to create a feel before going for the throat. Similar to the way Iron Maiden builds up their songs, though arguably with more fury, “Ploughs to Rust, Swords to Dust” offers plenty of double bass drumming courtesy of Simon O’Laoghaire and chances to bang your head. This is music for thoughtful rumination by an autumn fire pit, but it also gets right up and kicks down your door.
“We Shall Not Serve” is a pitiless number constructed with more immediacy, reminiscent to the astute fan of their darkest of numbers, “God’s Old Snake” from 2011’s Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand. Made from the same traditional guitar melodies they employed on their earliest albums, it is a fantastic amalgamation of Primordial’s entire vibe.
Following a quick departure of an instrumental, the stately “Pilgrimage to the World’s End” is a grower. Gloomy and slow, it provides lush guitar work that gets under the skin, and yet another platform for Averill’s voice to pierce the heart. Seriously, compilers of top metal vocalist lists are going to have to shove over the usual greats to make room for this guy. “Nothing New Under the Sun” only solidifies the peerless majesty of the vocal performance. In structure, the guitar melodies come off like Iron Maiden mixed with something more ponderous like Candlemass, but injected with prognostications of destruction unique to the Irish lads.
Primordial has been lumped into the Paganfest family of more Folk Metal bands in the past, though their music rarely coincides with it. Every so often the band regales us with some Celtic traditional formats, and “Call to Cernunnos” is one such gem. Generally setting their themes and songs in a roughly modern context, this song sounds like it could have been chanted by druids, or some army of ancient Eire, hailing the mystery of nature and fertility beneath some ancient moon. It is a fantastic departure and adds even more magic to the proceedings.
Pivoting nicely from the wistfulness of traditional music to pure menace, “All Against All” is the meanest song on the whole album. The song stalks around with a sword in its hand, looking for blood. It has some of the best placement of double-bass drumming to augment the mood. Averill sounds almost demonic here; but always with clarity.
“Death Holy Death” is a true Doom Metal song, and will appeal to those who appreciate the nuances of a slow burn. Averill’s voice is clearer and melancholy. The album culminates in “Victory has 1000 Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan.” A jaunty repeated riff provides the backdrop to what Primordial does so well – rouse the listener out of somnolence and inertia. This is music for the thinking man with a savage heart. Another slow-build guitar solo emerges out of the ruffage of the song, culminating in such an epic and fist-in-the-air crescendo, one wonders how so many such moments could be found in a band’s repertoire.
Fans unfamiliar with Primordial could do well to start with this album, as it meshes a lot of the band’s styles into magnificent songs that sprawl without taking up too much time and space. How It Ends is a triumph from top to bottom; it is living proof that there is only one way to make such peerless Heavy Metal, and that is the old way of chemistry, time, and trial and error. This is an odyssey and should not be cast aside. Cryptic Rock gives How It Ends 5 out of 5 stars.
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