Primordial is one of those bands who, admittedly, I was late getting around to. I had heard their name as far back as high school, but didn’t finally explore their catalog until after reviewing the most recent album from frontman Nemtheanga’s doom metal side band, Dread Sovereign, that being Alchemical Warfare. Upon first listening to Primordial, I was taken aback by the band’s unique approach. Sure, they’re black metal in the spiritual sense of the term, but musically are far more dynamic than the usual blast drumming/tremolo riffing/shrieking vocal trifecta that has been the genre’s status quo for the past 30+ years.
Never ones to merely throw an album together, Primordial take their sweet time in between releases, determined to formulate music and an underlying concept that will impact the listener in the long run. The gap between albums this time around was the longest yet, as fans waited 5 years for Primordial’s latest epic, How It Ends. Granted, I’m sure COVID didn’t help matters, but the concept which threads this album together is a rather ambitious one. To quote Nemtheanga himself, “The title is a question – is this how it ends? How it all goes down: culture, language, history, society – humanity – who knows?”
As ambitious as the concept itself is the music accompanying it: 10 songs that together clock in at an hour and 5 minutes. Despite my love of classic prog, seldom do I have the patience for a release of this length. That said, when the music is as compelling as Primordial’s, an hour and 5 minutes feels like a breeze. Like nearly every Primordial release before it, How It Ends plays like an old school, headphones-centric, album rock opera: a mesmerizing display of epic, doom, and black metal with celtic flourishes and an undying pagan spirit.
The sinister delivery of cuts like “We Shall Not Serve” and “All Against All” are as black metal as any Norwegian horde, but with far greater musical and songwriting depth. “Nothing New Under the Sun” and “Death Holy Death” utilize somber guitar melodies and powerhouse vocals reminiscent of Candlemass. In between are those epic folk suites, which really give the album its flair. Whether it be the tribal “Call to Cernunnos”, the atmospherically vast opening title track, or the colossal closer “Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is an Orphan”, Primordial makes it abundantly clear that their ethos is “go big or go home”.
While How It Ends doesn’t immediately hit me the same way The Gathering Wilderness (2005) or To the Nameless Dead (2007) do, there’s no denying it’s yet another thrilling outing from one of the most innovative extreme metal bands of the past 30 years. Now 10 albums into their career, Primordial continue to be dedicated to crafting only the most compelling and memorable metal, defying convention like only they can. It’s an album like this that makes me proud to have Irish blood coursing through my veins, as if Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore, and Rory Gallagher weren’t enough already.
7 out of 10
Label: Metal Blade Records
Genre: Pagan Black Metal
For fans of: Bathory, Enslaved, Cruachan