Metal Blade Records recently reissued "Imrama", the debut album from Ireland's Primordial (originally released in 1995 by Cacophonous Records), which is quite interesting for me as I had only heard the band's later material, and always intended to go back and investigate their beginnings. Apparently the reissue set "includes the two discs and a 16-page booklet with new liner notes from the band, the original artwork, interviews, and additional photos", but I don't have a physical copy so I can't speak to the contents of the booklet or the DVD. Their first demo, 1993's "Dark Romanticism", is tacked on as a bonus, and provides exactly what you'd expect: A rawer, stripped down, slightly more straightforward take on what ended up becoming "Imrama" (granted two of the songs from the demo weren't re-recorded for the full-length). That being said, the core album is an intriguing listen where the roots of the band's present approach are almost surprisingly prevalent. There's definitely a hint more of a tangible black metal vibe happening both musically and vocally, and I'm still hearing distinct similarities to bands like Drudkh here, so it really makes me wonder if this album may have set the standard from whence some of those later bands (like Drudkh) drew significant influence? However, occasional bursts of blasting percussion, fast-paced tremolo picking riffs, and sneering vocals don't automatically categorize an album as black metal (it's not), and it's obvious that even in these early stages of Primordial's advancement they held a loftier vision that defied basic genre classifications. The songs were a little shorter than they are today, but there's still an extremely epic sensibility to the arrangements and the overall feeling of the songs, with plenty of the singing and spoken passages, atmospheric interludes, and dissonant midpaced rhythms that the band has honed and perfected in the years since. I believe Metal Blade will be reissuing more of Primordial's early works in the future, and if so I'll certainly look forward to finally catching up on the band's entire discography!
Primordial "Let the Sun Set on Life Forever"
Get It
Metal Blade Records (CD/mp3)
Amazon.com (CD/mp3)
Relapse Records (CD)
iTunes (mp3)
Comments
This is the bee’s knees. I like how Metal Blade reissues really cool back catalogue without the hype accompanying inferior reissues on other labels.
4.21.2009 | By Invisible Oranges
great! I always liked Primordial and this song is good enough to consider purchasing the whole album…
4.22.2009 | By Carlos