I first came across Primitai getting on for a decade ago, opening for White Wizzard one night in Wolverhampton, in the interests of declaration I bought their albums that night and immediately declared them to be the future of metal (hyperbole is a great thing) to anyone who cared and plenty who didn’t. One of the great triers since, it might now have worked out as they’d have wanted in the eight years that followed. Indeed, when they announced their singing to a new record label a month or two back, the boss said this: “[Primitai are] an exciting band that to my mind has been criminally overlooked thus far. I hope signing [with] us will put them on the map, they deserve it!”
He’s not wrong either – and let’s cut to the chase, “The Calling” is the record that might just do it.
The feeling of make or break is shot straight through these 10 songs. But the pressure – if there was any – has brought the best out in them, because this is the best record of their career (and the others have been ace….)
Why? Well – and this is not to decry other metal bands, as I’ve reviewed some mighty trad metal records this year – but Primitai take the outright metal as a starting point, not the end of the journey. On “Demons Inside” they are epic, not trad, and although Guy on vocals has a set of pipes to match anyone, and Srdjan & Sergio are as good a twin guitar pair as there is, they don’t feel the need to rehash “The Trooper”. Instead, the five piece are like a jam between a power metal band, a thrash metallers and one of those bombastic melodic metal things, which gives them the ability to write songs with the horns up passion of “Overdrive” but always to make sure there is a catchy hook.
“Curse Of Olympus” is more overtly power metal, but there is a touch of Dream Theater about things too, certainly you can imagine Symphony X doing this with no problem at all, while “No Survivors” whips up the kind of maelstrom that fellow underground, should be huge heroes Savage Messiah might on their recent work, but the solo here takes them to a new level.
A couple of years ago they acquired themselves a new rhythm section and former Dry The River men Jonny & Scott are in stunning form throughout, but never more so than on “Memories Lost” that is primed and ready for big things, and the machine gun drumming, plus a gift for harmony, is across the title track too.
“Into The Light” has big intentions with its classical overtones, before heading off on a real, proper gallop and its follow-up – literally and metaphorically – “Into The Dark” continues the theme of being huge, but never overblown.
As if to prove the point, only a couple here are north of six minutes, and the closing “The Tempest Returns” does its work at just under, but still manages to pack more in than many bands on an entire career, including starting with a solo, a primal bass beatdown in the middle and above all, managing to sound like it should end the classiest album by a British metal band anywhere this year.
Make no mistake that’s what “The Calling” is – the finest metal made by a band on these shores so far in 2018. It’s the sound of a band who is finally realising how good it is.
Rating 9/10
