ALBUM REVIEW: Code Red – Primal Fear

In a parallel universe, seminal German power-metallers PRIMAL FEAR are down to two original members. At the beginning of the decade, founder Mat Sinner was struck down with a serious illness, forcing the band to cancel all shows; even now, the bassist has said he’s still not fully recovered and had to relearn everything. At the time, he spent eight months in as many hospitals and doctors told him that it was a miracle he had made it that far. As such, it’s rather poignant that the band’s 14th studio album Code Red – released on September 1st via their new label of Atomic Fire – has an air of a phoenix rising from the ashes, right down to the artwork: a bird of prey, replete with fiery eyes, cutting through a planet like a hot knife through butter.

Musically, Code Red is what you’d expect from PRIMAL FEAR – there’s no wheel reinvention, no drastic change in style, just an hour of rather beefy, teutonic power metal tunes. Some are more stereotypical than others, like Deep In The Night, which has the stomp to make an entire audience play synchronised guitars a la PRIEST, QUO or fellow countrymen ACCEPT. Their Gods Have Failed may draw comparisons to Mother Russia by MAIDEN in terms of the swing in the guitars, but it’s a good fist-pumper, while opening song and lead single Another Hero chugs along well, a solid opening track containing a soaring chorus. Vocalist Ralf Scheepers, now two years shy of 60, is in impressive form throughout, hitting every note and stopping the ‘obligatory’ ballad of Forever from collapsing under the weight of its own cheese and, in the grand scheme of things, it really feels like the band haven’t missed a note.

Except that, well, if Sinner is saying he’s still not fully recovered now, by extension he wasn’t when in the studio, and it shows. Code Red feels reined in, a notch or two shy of going full throttle and whilst it’s perfectly understandable – the last thing PRIMAL FEAR would want is to push their bassist too quick, too soon – there’s a sense that the songs still have another level. Bring That Noise is a good example: Scheepers shows off his range with some lower, gruffer vocals and the guitar work from Tom Naumann, Magnus Karlsson and Alex Beyrodt is good, but it has an air of not being let off the leash. There are a couple of tracks that miss more than hit in other ways – Play A Song is, to put it bluntly, terrible lyrically; the sentiment behind the track, talking about the power of music, means well, but it manages to be too cringey, even for power metal. The other example is more on the nose, and that’s Cancel Culture. Musically solid, with a thumping opening courtesy of drummer Michael Ehré, to use the popular internet terms, there’s a real ‘Ok boomer’ and ‘Old man yells at cloud’ air around the words coming out of Scheeper‘s mouth.

After over 25 years of existence and having gone through a lot in recent years, PRIMAL FEAR have shown they still have fuel left in the tank and Code Red has a good stash of high moments. However, a combination of Sinner‘s continuing healing and a couple of questionable song matters have clipped this record’s wings; it’s solid, but no more.

Rating: 6/10

Code Red is out now via Atomic Fire Records.

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