Primal Order

A salute towards the old school. That’s what my initial impression of how Primal Order sound like. There’s a lot of things that made Death Metal back in the late 80′s and early 90′s excellent and that’s what I can hear here. It’s pure ear-candy to me. After a week of listening to their new album “Conform”, let’s see how it holds its ground.

Primal Order is comprised of Rik (ZombieJesus) doing the vocals, Maarten (Necromaartje) skillfully holding the drumkit, Maxime (Psyborg) on guitars, and last but not the least, fellow Filipino metalhead RD (Masochino) handling the other axe. The band hails from the red light district of Europe, Amsterdam. The band was introduced to me by RD. After a few emails, we got the ball rolling in making this review happen.

Starting off the record is probably the title track, “The Conqueror”. For a song that lasts just over 8 minutes, the song keeps me on my toes in its entirety. Unless we’re talking about Opeth here, it’s quite uncommon for a Death Metal band to have this effect on me. Reaching the half part of the song towards 3:35, I thought I must be listening to some Gorefest-inspired riffage there. Excellent stuff.

To me, this is where Primal Order succeeded. They hail from the Netherlands, and they fucking prove just how metal things are on their side of the world. Oh and also, I happen to be a Gorefest fan.

Primal Order

I love how they crafted the third song on their album “Doombringer”. It’s got to be one of the highlights of the entire record, if not the title track. Starting off with what seems to be a standard doom metal intro, by the time I reached listening to 3:20 I realized that Primal Order’s got me hooked by my entrails and they’re not letting go. This is Death Metal the way it should be played. Wicked song title as well.

The next track that really shines is “Lust”. Again, at the magic spot of just after 3:10. It’s a bit difficult to describe how they’ve managed to pull off a mid-album climax that doesn’t rest until the end. Here we’re treated to a good slab of Death Metal. I even found myself having to repeat the song just to experience it again (just because I feel the next song would be a few notches more exciting), but then the next song “Plagueridden” hits and it hits hard.

Like I said, pulling off a climax and carrying it all the way to the end, well done Primal Order. I’m looking for my decapitated head now.

The vocals are old school guttural growling with screeches and they’re well done. If I was nitpicking I’d say that the vocals could have been louder, but I like how it is. The entire sound gives way to the drums and the guitars. Taking it all into consideration, Primal Order barrage the listener with a wall of great death metal.

I’ve been listening to them for over a week now and I don’t think that’s going to stop. I personally feel that Primal Order’s Conform will go down in my books as one of the highlights of 2010.

More on Primal Order: MySpace