Primal Fear - Seven Seals

[Liu]

Primal Fear - Seven Seals
Nuclear Blast

In the past I haven't been exactly receptive regarding Primal Fear's discography. Sounding like a poor-man's Judas Priest, the band were capable of writing some great songs here and there but the whole experience really lacked something to me. Bearing this in mind I approached Seven Seals with no real expectations of greatness. But nevertheless, greatness is precisely what I got.

Starting out with the stellar Demons And Angels, the the album doesn't let up with the great melodic hooks. The album takes the mid-paced approach of the last album, Devil's Ground, but improves the songwriting greatly. The first four songs here are back-to-back kicks to the ass, the title track being the album's high point. The band stumbles momentarily halfway through with the by-the-numbers sounding The Immortal Ones but rebounds with Diabolus and Carniwar. All For One is great during the verses (very Dio-esque) though lacking during the chorus. Sinner's Question Of Honour is covered here and perfectly fits the rest of the material here, very melodic and epic. Mat Sinner (who helped produce the album) lends his hand to that cover. In Memory closes out the album, a somber tune that goes into a very triumphant finish.

Long-time Primal Fear fans may decry the lack of any lightning speed scorchers, but the solid songwriting more than makes up for the controlled speed of the songs. This really is the first Primal Fear album that has been permenantly fixed into my cd player, and in my book that can only be a good thing.


01. Demons And Angels
02. Rollercoaster
03. Seven Seals
04. Evil Spell
05. The Immortal Ones
06. Diabolus
07. All For One
08. Carniwar
09. Question Of Honour
10. In Memory

Score: 8/10

[Demolition Hammer]

Nice review. This album was a surprise for me, too. I had only heard the Black Sun album and a few other tracks from compilations but wasn't really interested in the rest of their catalog, and then Seven Seals totally shocked me with how good the songs are. Not to mention Ralf Scheepers' awesome pipes.