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Primordial: Imrama
25/03/10 || Smalley
Ireland’s Primordial have been ridin’ the top of the metal heap for the past 15 years now, and while I regret that those bastards Banesupper and Euthanatos beat me to their most recent albums, I’ll be happy with just “Imrama”, where the band’s current global dominating started out at. It was here that their signature, shamrock-flavored folk metal (it IS a real genre) was established, and while “Imrama” isn’t as sophisticated as their subsequent albums, with more of a black metal edge to frontman Nemtheanga’s vocals, less engaging songwriting, and a rougher sound overall, it still holds up as an inspired, compelling debut album.
“Fuil ársa” starts off with a soft, jaunty acoustic guitar, which doesn’t stop once the (somewhat low-fi) electric guitar begins, but rather, simply continues to play alongside it. It’s cool as hell to hear Primordial make this melding between metal and traditional folk music work , and while the basic songwriting isn’t as powerful as what the band would accomplish later, it’s still pretty solid, and energetic all-around as well. Vocally, Nemtheanga gives us an extra dose of Celticness by reciting a spoken-word part in Irish, before transitioning to something close to a harsh, black metal shriek, a bit surprising to hear from him, but not entirely unwarranted in this context.
All in all, a decent way to open up the album, and “Infernal summer” makes for a logical follow-up, with Nemtheanga turning up the energy on his dignified clean singing and his shrieking, and the song keeping up an intense tempo all throughout. “Here i am king” ups the energy level even further, with riffing that actually manages to be catchy, even with that abrasive guitar sound, and an overall good balance between black metal harshness and folk metal melody.
“The darkest flame” makes for a good change of pace at the mid-album point, with its leisurely overall tempo, a nice switch-up from the faster previous tracks, and good despair-ridden lyrics “Bow your head/Deep in silence…/Take your time/Sorrow is timeless…”. “The fires…” speeds “Imrama” back up, and has Nemtheanga’s most passionate, impressive shrieks of the entire album (you’ll wince in sympathy for his vocal chords), so it’s yet another solid track, and “Mealltach” is a short, atmospheric lead-in song, with Derek MacAmlaigh’s constant cymbal-playing in the background providing a source of endless tension, as Nemtheanga performs a soft, eerily-lifeless spoken-word part.
The epic “Let the sun set on life forever” continues directly from there, and leaves the biggest impression of any song on the album, with its melancholic clean guitar work, concise songwriting, and pure core of emotion. After that, “To the ends of the earth” fails to make much of an impact; on its own, it’d be fine, but coming near the end of this album, it seems relatively lacking in personality. The creepy, off-kilter acoustic section near the middle is very interesting, but unfortunately, seems like too little, too late.
Luckily, “Beneath a bronze sky” throws us a curve ball at the end of the album, since it’s an all-acoustic track with unique, traditional folk percussion, catchy acoustic guitar work, and beautiful flute-playing, an unconventional way to close the album out, but I’m definitely happy with it, as am I with “Imrama” as a whole. Even though you can definitely tell Primordial’s style still needed a lot of work at this point, this group of greenhorns still managed to create original, passionate heavy metal that The Emerald Isle should be very proud to call it’s own. Go get drunk off yer ass with some Guinness, get into a fight or two (or dozen), and have the jukebox play some Primordial instead of The Rolling Stones for the billionth fucken time.
- Information
- Released: 1995
- Label: Cacophonous Records
- Website: Primordial MySpace
- Band
- Naihmass Nemtheanga: vocals
- Ciáran MacUiliam: guitar
- Feargal Flannery: guitar
- Pól MacAmlaigh: bass
- Derek MacAmlaigh: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Fuil Ársa
- 02. Infernal Summer
- 03. Here I Am King
- 04. The Darkest Flame
- 05. The Fires…
- 06. Mealltach
- 07. Let The Sun Set On Life Forever
- 08. To the Ends Of The Earth
- 09. Beneath A Bronze Sky
- 10. Awaiting The Dawn
