Primordial Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

PRIMORDIAL: “HOW IT ENDS”

Sep 262023

(Below we present a review of the new album by the Irish band Primordial written by NCS contributor Didrik Mešiček.)

I’ve always found it a bit surprising that Ireland, given its significant influence on the rock scene, hasn’t really provided us with many well-known and successful metal bands. But there’s no denying Primordial have been one of the fiercest forces in the black metal spheres, and when you have a band like that not much else is needed.

The Irishmen will be releasing their 10th album, How It Ends, on September 29th on Metal Blade Records, five years after their previous album, Exile Amongst the Ruins. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, PRIMORDIAL, PERMADEATH

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Aug 162023

Happy Hump Day. To help you celebrate the crest of the week before we all fall down the other side, here’s a very short but pretty damned sweet roundup — just three brand new songs, but one of them is long.

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (U.S.)

To begin, here’s “Twin Mouthed Spring“, a breathtaking new track from a new EP by WITTR named Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge. Continue reading »

PRIMORDIAL: “EXILE AMONGST THE RUINS”

Album Reviews 14 Responses »

Mar 282018

(On March 30th Metal Blade will release Primordial’s new album, and Andy Synn reviews it below.)

Success, or so they say, can be a double-edged sword. And, if the reviews I’ve seen thus far are any indication, this is something that Primordial are finally discovering with the release of their ninth album, Exile Amongst the Ruins.

On the one hand are those people who have seen fit to declare this album a “masterpiece”, a “superlative triumph”, a “stunning success”, before they’ve even properly heard it, content as they are to blindly believe that the Irish quintet can do no wrong, while on the other are those whose reaction to Exile… can perhaps best be summed up as “slightly unhinged”, castigating the album as a titanic disappointment because it fails, in their estimation, to live up to the extremely high standards of their very best work.

And, of course, since so much of today’s music press is dedicated to the pursuit of exaggeration and excess over clarity and nuance, these voices have been amplified to the point where you’d be forgiven for being convinced that this album is either the best thing ever written, or the absolute worst… and nothing in between.

But the truth, unsurprisingly, is more complicated than that. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PRIMORDIAL, NOCTURNAL GRAVES, SECTIONED, BLOOD TSUNAMI, ORYX

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 21 Responses »

Feb 242018

Two nights ago on my way home from a late meeting in Seattle I hit a patch of black ice less than a mile from my house. My car skidded off the road, rolled over, and landed on its side in a deep ditch. I missed hitting a telephone pole by two feet, but did destroy a mailbox and probably my car as well.

On the other hand, I’m unharmed, just a bit sore in a few places. I spent three hours sitting in a police car with a very decent officer while we waited for and then watched some remarkable tow-truck guys figure out how to get the car on its wheels and out of the ditch, in 20-degree weather in the middle of the night. The cop finally drove me home at 4 a.m. yesterday morning.

That scary incident fucked up my plans for a round-up yesterday. I’m afraid to go back and read the premieres I wrote after a sleepless night and in an addled frame of mind, but I sure didn’t feel up to writing anything I hadn’t already committed to do.

Anyway, the past week was another blockbuster in terms of new metal, and I’ve left a lot of stuff out of this post — which is still pretty long. I picked the music of the following five bands to provide a wide spread of different genres.

PRIMORDIAL

So far, the Irish troubadours in Primordial have released videos for two singles from their new album, Exile Amongst the Ruins, the second one appearing last week. Both songs will likely be surprising in some ways to Primordial fans, although Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill‘s remarkable voice is still front and center in both. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PRIMORDIAL (ALAN AVERILL)

Interviews No Responses »

Aug 252017

(Greek writer John Sleepwalker of Avopolis.gr brings us another interview, and this time we have his e-mail discussion with Alan Averill (Nemtheanga), frontman of Primordial and Dread Sovereign and the once (and perhaps future) Blood Revolt. This interview was conducted in anticipation of Primordial’s headlining appearance at the Arcane Angels festival in Athens on September 16, 2017.)

It’s been 3 years already since Where Greater Men Have Fallen. A release considerably dark, compared to the ones that preeeded it. Do you believe Primordial lost a part of their darkness along the way, or maybe it has transormed in more subtle ways?

Have we lost a part of it? I don’t know about that… the last album is definitely darker, for example, than the debut. Or in my opinion any of the first 4 albums. If we did lose our darkness, then how is the last album darker than the ones before? Strange question. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PRIMORDIAL — “WIELD LIGHTNING TO SPLIT THE SUN (LIVE)”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Nov 172016

Those who have witnessed the great Irish band Primordial on stage know first-hand the emotional power and immediate intensity of their live performance. For those who haven’t had one of those unforgettable experiences, and for those who have, but wish to re-live them (or at least to come close), Metal Blade Records is releasing a live Primordial double-album on November 25 called Gods to the Godless, which was recorded at the 2015 Bang Your Head Festival in Germany.

Today we’re helping premiere one of the tracks from this live concert recording, and it happens to be one of the strongest single songs that Primordial have created in their illustrious career: “Wield Lightning To Split the Sun“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ALAN AVERILL (DREAD SOVEREIGN)

Interviews 5 Responses »

Nov 252015

(Here we have another interview from our friend Comrade Aleks, and this time he talks with Alan Averill about Dread Sovereign.)

Dread Sovereign is known as a doom band formed by Alan Averill, frontman of legendary Irish band Primordial, Simon O’Laoghaire, who played drums in the Celtic black metal band Geasa (as well as in Primordial), and guitarist Bones, who gained experience in the sludge / crust band De Novissimis.

It’s said that Dread Sovereign was formed in 2013, and after the EP Pray to the Devil in Man was released in the same year, Ván Records put out full-length record All Hell’s Martyrs in 2014, which attracted attention from many listeners, and not only doom heads…

All has been said about this album, and I just needed a reason to get in contact with the band to hook out any plans… I was lucky enough ‘cause Alan found the time to answer my questions. Thanks Alan! Continue reading »

DAMNATION FESTIVAL 2015

Concert Reviews 6 Responses »

Nov 132015

(Andy Synn provides this report on the 2015 edition of Damnation Festival in the UK.)

It’s been a few years now since I last attended Damnation Festival, the annual celebration of all things dark and metallic hosted (as always) at Leeds University Student’s Union. But this year I knew I simply couldn’t miss it, as not only were a number of my favourite bands playing (hello Sólstafir, hi there Primordial) but also two bands I’ve been a fan of since their very first albums, but whom I’d never actually managed to see live before (The Ocean, Altar of Plagues).

Oh, and some band named At The Gates. Who are apparently pretty famous or something. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG BREAK (PART 3)

Concert Reviews 18 Responses »

May 252015

Alas, our revels now are ended. Maryland Deathfest XIII is over and in the history books, and it was an amazing experience. I’ve got to pack up and vacate my hotel room soon, and I don’t have nearly enough time at the moment to say everything I want to say. For now, I’ll show you some photos I took from the first three performances I saw yesterday (the last day of the festival), with a few words about each of those first bands I saw on Sunday. More pics and words will come in the next few days.

PRIMORDIAL

I arrived late to the Edison Lot and missed the first four bands of the day, but caught all of Primordial’s set — which floored me. Alan Averill is an amazingly intense and charismatic front man, and his voice is an instrument of incredible power and passion. In the category of clean vocals, he probably took the prize for the fest, though ICS Vortex performing with Arcturus the night before was a very close second. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PARADISE LOST, PRIMORDIAL, DE PROFUNDIS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

May 062015

Photo by Ewan Cawood

A flood of new music and videos appeared yesterday. I found a dozen of them I’d like to recommend, but I’m squeezed for time at the moment, so I’ve made some hard choices and picked three for this post. Perhaps I’ll be able to collect a few more later today — though it’s likely that as this day wears on even more good new music will appear. Anyone who thinks there’s something wrong with the state of metal in 2015 is just WRONG.

PARADISE LOST

My Facebook news feed blew up with friends posting about the new Paradise Lost video yesterday. Most of the links were accompanied by exclamations of surprise and praise. To those I’ll now add my own.

The song is “Beneath Broken Earth” and it appears on the band’s forthcoming album The Plague Within, due for release on June 1 by Century Media. The video was directed by Ash Pears. Here’s a quote about the song and video by the band’s guitarist Greg Mackintosh (who we hope has recovered from his recent mishap on stage in Seattle with Vallenfyre): Continue reading »

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