If your talking about today’s European top metal acts the discussion is heading straight towards Primal Fear. If you don’t think so, here are the facts: the debut album “Primal Fear” entered the German Media Control LP Charts straight ahead on position 48 in March 98. The second one “Jaws Of Death” entered on position 49 in July 99 , but you can regard this as a bigger success, cause there was a big release overkill at this time, especially in the Heavy Metal scene. The following headliner world tour became a huge success! Sold out locations everywhere and especially in countries like Brazil, Spain, Italy and Japan a kind of PF hysteria broke free. Same way in Germany; crowded clubs and astonished, surprised Metalheads which could not understand what kind of thunder was raging above them. Ralf Scheepers (Vocals/Ex-Gamma Ray), Mat Sinner ( Bass & Vocals/Sinner), Stefan Leibing & Tom Naumann (Guitars) and drummer Klaus Sperling established Primal Fear as one of the hottest live bands.
After the JoD tour, the band had to find a replacement for Tom and as usual the solution was not far away. Henny Wolter (ex- Thunderhead), who played for Tom in Sinner was the perfect new member. Not only because he is a good friend of Primal Fear, he also is recognized as one of the best Metal guitarists and an excellent songwriter. The new PF started with a "sold out" show in their hometown Esslingen, to proof the quality of the new line-up. And guess what, it was one of the best shows in the history of the band! Due to this bombastic, euphoric mood, PF started the songwriting for “Nuclear Fire”. The result was their heaviest and strongest album so far. The album starts with „Angel in Black“ (their first viedeoclip), a song where you can hear that Primal Fear are not willing to do any compromises in favour of mainstream. Typical PF trademarks like twin guitar solos, killer riffs and a catchy refrain marks „Angel in Black“ as a classic, which is already one of the highlights in their live set. If you’re a fan of the legendary Bay Area Thrash period you should check songs like „Fight the Fire“ or „Back From Hell“ the most brutal Primal Fear songs ever.
The combination Stefan/Henny is probably the most exciting guitarduo in scene and the world class groovesection with drummer Klaus Sperling and bass player Mat Sinner turn songs like “Nuclear Fire” , “Kiss Of Death” , the groovemonster “Eye Of An Eagle” and the crushing “Now Or Never” into absolute highlights. If there should still be anyone believing that Ralf Scheepers is not an extraordinary shouter, is going to be convinced by “Nuclear Fire”. Ralf has never sung in such an extreme way like the one you will hear on the new output and the PF choirs from Ralf Scheepers / Mat Sinner have never been such tight and powerful. With the over the top ballad “Bleed For Me” Ralf proves that he can sing such emotional like no other. This song will end up in the history of metal as one of the big ballads. Produced in House Of Music in Winterbach by Mat Sinner himself, “Nuclear Fire” has set new standards concerning the sound quality. Never before a Metal album has been produced more powerful than this , which was mixed from the Hollywood Blasers. NUCLEAR FIRE charted in four charts incl. Germany Pos. 37, Italy Pos. 71, Switzerland Pos. 77 and Japan Pos. 23!!! Their following headlining European Tour was a huge succes. PF played 10 countires with packed audiences and a fantastic response with guests "Cildren of Bodom" and "Sacred Steel". Their first visit to US was the Metal Meltdown in New Jersey, followed later this year with the visit at the legendary Milwaukee Metalfest, where PF was billed as the Headliner for the Saturday! But we should not forget the European Open Air festivals, where the Metal Commando sets the world on fire: Gods of Metal (I), Bloodstock (UK), Graspop (B), Wacken (D) & Summer Breeze (D). The Wacken show was filmed and should be the basic of PF's first DVD release later in 2002. Now the guys are heavy into pre-production for their next album "Black Sun" which is scheduled for a release in late April 2002. The new tunes are sounding as powerful as ever - "We go down", "Lightyears from Home" or "Black Sun" will not disappoint you, they will impress the metal fans with an untamed power, which is definatly 100% pure heavy metal and 100% Primal Fear. The metal commando will start recording in December, before moving to the Sonic Ranch in El Paso/Texas, to finish the album in January - Eddy Freiberger Nov/2001
PRIMAL FEAR
