Album Review: Primitive Warfare - Extinction Protocol
Reviewed by Sam Jones
I dearly love extreme metal. I love it when a band comes along and they’re looking to go even further than their contemporaries in death metal are currently doing; that band here is Primitive Warfare. Formed in 2018, out of South Carolina, United States, Primitive Warfare are this particularly black/death metal act that have similarities to what we would dub War Metal where songwriting and aesthetics are completely savage and void of kindness. The band released their first self-titled Demo in 2019 before unveiling their first Split a year later with Complot! Another Split followed suit the same year with Bog Body (another band I thoroughly recommend) but, it’s only now at four years on, the band are finally seeking to release their debut full length work: Extinction Protocol. Utilising a striking white background with a body splayed across barbed wire, it immediately sets the tone for the record, primed for a May 10th release date and via Godz Ov War Productions. So, let’s see what this record has in store for us and what Primitive Warfare could offer for the future.
Right out of the gate, Primitive Warfare unveil what fans can expect to receive right to the ending sequences of Extinction Protocol: utterly unbridled, unrepentant devastation. Following in the footsteps of numerous war metal entities like Revenge and Diocletian, the band here are looking to eviscerate any concept of psyche and rationality in your being. It’s a sweeping array of riffs, guttural vocals but, most of all to me, a completely destructive drumming performance. Whether the band are tearing your head clean off your torso or giving you a moment’s reprieve, the drums are always on point and ready to lead the charge that is their songwriting. We’ve heard fast tempo playing before but this is something fearsome; their performance has been so mixed into the record that whilst the drums don’t bludgeon your at every given moment, you feel the insane speed they’re playing at through their Tom-toms and cymbals. The rapidity by which the drums are struck is astonishing and even when the band are gathering their breath and the intensity relaxes, you still feel the mania of the cymbals which only carries us forth to the next maddening piece.
This style of metal isn’t concerned with how you feel and Primitive Warfare really help bolster that sensibility. Their riffs, far from the technical, evolved pieces we’ve heard from other metal acts, are these huge, imposing obelisks that consume your attention and then have you thrown right into the midst of their nightmare. As a fan of extreme metal, I found it really easy to experience Extinction Protocol since it provided everything I knew it would provide me with. There aren’t any surprises to be had; it’s a record that does what it promises to do and I couldn’t have been more satisfied. I did appreciate, however, the production applied herein as I’ve encountered War Metal records that have been a little more raw, and some even a little cleaner, but Primitive Warfare get the balance just right as a totally clean aesthetic wouldn’t fit the band’s vibe but it’s just muddied enough that we can buy into the believability of their monstrous onslaught. The dirtier production also imbues their songwriting with a grit and scrape that feels wonderfully innate to the band’s scathing vitriol.
Sometimes, people have viewed War Metal with dubious approach since its songwriting has become synonymous with visceral riffs and a focus on rabid violence within its soundscapes. This can result in songwriting that’s seemingly without structure and is merely a flurry of chaos; Primitive Warfare however clearly demonstrate their understanding of not only rudimentary track structure, but how the audience interprets such a brutal display of songwriting as inherently structured. Though the band rarely ever put the brakes on for their music, I never found myself losing the way with what direction they were moving in, and I always had an inkling of what the songwriting may be doing next, though it was never always guaranteed. Thankfully their tracks don’t run on for too long seeing as an elongated piece of this intensity would start weighing down on us and thus they’re kept nicely brief, so while they may blister your senses for a few minutes at a time it doesn’t go on for too long before you have a moment to catch your breath before diving back in. Furthermore, there’s good variety here as each track often has some minutiae helping to separate one from the next so, while the band may destroy our eardrums without mercy, the band clearly did not want us thinking there were just playing the same song eight times in a row.
It’s worth nothing that while the band don’t exactly hold back on the ruthless nature their sound entails, listening to Extinction Protocol is a surprisingly pleasant time. Their songwriting is awash with blast beats and annihilation but it never feels like you have to pause the record at any point to give yourself a breather, except between where one track ends and another begins. This is all the more interesting seeing as their record is tightly sealed, whereby nothing could potentially enter from the outside and anything contained within had a hope of escape. It’s this ambience that makes Extinction Protocol such an invigorating experience since while the record effectively tries to murder us at every turn, it never feels like a great weight that’s continuously pressing down on us which is a feat in of itself considering the murderous intensity Primitive Warfare have rendered through their songwriting. It therefore gives you the freedom to really crank up the volume should you wish so since you’ve learnt the band aren’t trying to punish you for keenly listening in.
In conclusion, Primitive Warfare’s first outing with a full length album is a success in my books. It’s hard to balance War Metal so meticulously but throughout this record that barely surpasses a half hour long, I never once struggled to follow the band along as they sped through one seething track to the next. It’s good to see the band release their first album and it’s as refined as it is. Though the band may not implement too many elements or ideas into the songwriting, it is after all a record one should have an idea about or going in. The cover and band’s logo alone should inform audiences this will be a nightmarish, eviscerating work and, having spent time with it from start to finish, I still came away happy with what I got and would be down for repeated listens in the future. Considering the band is formed of just two members, it’s a blinding performance as they rip right into us with zero mercy or hand holding. Extinction Protocol is a record bound to delight fans looking for that added edge and ferocity in their extreme metal. With little fanfare closing the record out, Primitive Warfare have become another name in the annals of War Metal as this fledgling style only continues to legitimise itself.
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