To the Nameless Dead (CD - 2007)

Ireland's first black metal band, Primordial have been making their Celtic-tinted thrash for close to 16 years without flagging. Their sixth album, TO THE NAMELESS DEAD, shows them evolving further from their black roots to create a textured, almost romantic sound that's equal parts harshness and pastoral beauty. "Heathen Tribes" takes advantage of the band's ethnic background to introduce traditional Irish instruments into the thick metal stew, while the moody slow-burners "Gallows Hymn" and "Failures Burden" cast twilight shadows on emerald hillsides. TO THE NAMELESS DEAD's sound is such that the title could refer to either comrades lost in battle or lovers lost to time.

While some may be quick to lump Primordial in with the oodles of other black metal bands, these natives of Ireland are certainly not your run-of-the-mill extreme metalists, as evidenced by their 2007 release, To the Nameless Dead. The group thinks in an impressively "epic" scale throughout, while successfully eschewing all the bad habits that black metal has picked up along the way. In other words, there is no high-pitched vocal screeching and no faster-than-the-speed-of-sound rhythms, and the lyrics are not straight out of A Nightmare on Elm Street. In fact, certain metal acts could learn a thing or two from Primordial -- playing as fast as your fingers will humanly allow does not always equate with the darkest and most foreboding metal. Sometimes, slow and grinding metal builds up the tension just as much, as evidenced by such standout tracks as "Gallows Hymn" and "As Rome Burns." To the Nameless Dead is arguably Primordial's finest offering to date, and is one of the more pleasant surprises among 2007 metal releases. ~ Greg Prato minimize