Primal Fear

I Will Be Gone

---

ft. Tarja Turunen.
Genre: Power Metal.
Released: 09/04/2021
Via Nuclear Blast

EP Review: Primal Fear – I Will Be Gone

Primal Fear has been a force to be reckoned with ever since they formed back in the late ’90s. Their 2020 record ‘Metal Commando’ was received extremely well from both fans and media with the song ‘I Am Alive’ already amassing over 1.3 Million streams on Spotify. The band have made it clear that they are masters of their craft when it comes to their more hard-hitting tracks however, The new ‘I Will Be Gone’ EP is 5 tracks, built around the ballad to show a new side of Primal Fear. This is bound to be something unique so without any further delay, here are my thoughts of Primal Fear’s ‘I Will Be Gone’ EP.

The title track ‘I Will Be Gone’ has been re-recorded for the new Ep with the addition of Finnish metal’s own Tarja Turunen. As far as the structure of the song goes, it’s more or less exactly the same as the release of the song on the ‘Metal Commando’ record however, Tarja’s angelic vocals add so much more to the track. A constant back and fourth’s between her and Ralf Scheepers adds a lot of emotion and power to the track which seemed absent from the songs original version. Following that is ‘Vote of No Confidence’. A much more heavy affair that rocks. Tom Naumann and Alex Beyrodt’s harmonies on the guitar are simply outstanding and the drumming from Michael Ehré manages to tie the whole song together nicely. A strong opening to an ambitious project from Primal Fear!

Up next is the short but sweet ‘Rising Fear’. The acoustic instrumental opening is a pleasure to listen to and the way it builds up to the full-on metal instrumental is a thing of beauty. A short yet effective mix that leads right into ‘Leave Me Alone’ pleasantly. Speaking of ‘Leave Me Alone’, The song seems to be a step below what the band have put out recently and the chorus really doesn’t sit well with me. I can safely say I never once thought the phrase ‘Bugger Off’ would be inside a song like this however it is and it just sounds a bit comical which makes it hard to take the song as a whole seriously.

The fifth and final song on the EP is ‘Second to None’ which features one hell of a groove that is laid down by Mat Sinner on bass. We are all guilty of underappreciating a bass line however when they are done well, They make a decent song a great one and this is a great example of that. The swing that is created from the bass and drums working as one gives the song a fresh and exciting feel that is extremely hard to do when you’ve been releasing music since 1998!

Primal Fear fans will be more than impressed by another 4 new tracks from the band plus the reworked version of ‘I Will Be Gone’, and they’ll quickly become some fans favourite track without a doubt. The EP isn’t perfect however there are far more positives than there are negatives so I can happily say that this is worth a listen!