Album Review: Primal Fear – Domination
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Once a stapple of Bloodstock shows, German-based power metal juggernaut, Primal Fear, have been releasing high quality albums, packed full of Euro metal anthems since 1998’s self-titled debut. Based around the collaboration of vocalist Ralph Scheepers and bassist Mat Sinner, the band are contemporaries of Helloween and Blind Guardian, without having found the widescale success of either of their fellow-countrymen.
Yet, Primal Fear have been issuing albums on a consistent basis, even when Mat was taken seriously ill after 2020’s Metal Commando release and spent an elongated period of time in recovery, he was focused on the next record, which would be Code Red from 2023.
Two years later and Primal Fear is back to business with their Reigning Phoenix debut, Domination, to remind the metal world of their intention to rise once again. Scheepers and Sinner are joined again by long-serving guitarist Magnus Karlsson and have been supplemented by the recent arrivals of second guitarist, Thalìa Bellazecca and drummer André Hilgers.
In order to save risking repetition here, know that this iteration of the band is a pristine metal machine: the rhythmic relationship between Sinner and Hilgers is solid and provides a robust foundation up which Karlsson and Ms Bellazecca can weave musical magic, alongside heavy, aggressive chugging riffs.
And Scheepers’ voice? The man fronted Gamma Ray for five years and was in line to replace Rob Halford in Priest until Ripper snaffled that slot, so we can be assured we’re getting a masterclass in heavy metal vocals.
Domination finds Primal Fear 2025 in a less than conciliatory mood, with more than half of the baker’s dozen tracks being big, aggressive, hard-hitting slices of belligerent speed metal. The Hunter, the album’s second single, kicks things off with a bombastic, driving riff from the outset. Chugging guitars and soaring solos set the scene for the record as a whole and it’s clear from the start that there’s a chemistry between the six-stringers that will be exciting to explore. This was the onlynew song played at the band’s Stonedead Festival appearance last month and fit into the set as though it were made to measure.
Previous single, Far Away plays into the band’s more thrashy, speed metal side, featuring a big, mid-section, breakdown and screaming guitars; Destroyer gets down and dirty and, despite its soaring chorus, it never stops being confrontational and aggressive. If ever there were an appropriately titled power metal song, it’s Heroes and Gods, and seems custom-made for the live environment, featuring some of the most forceful drumming on offer, as though André has a personal vendetta against his kit. And if you want to know why Ralph was in the running for Priest, just take note of how similar his vocals arehere to Rob’s on that first solo album.
Scream and Crossfire continue the neck-breaking pace, but tucked away, almost as an afterthought, comes March Boy March, which is about as hostile as Primal Fear get, both musically and vocally. André bullies his kit once more and, pre-solo, Ralph even sounds likes he’s in a brutal slam bandfor a moment. It all starts with eastern influences before turning frenzied and becoming a personal highlight.
For those preferring a more mid-paced tempo, the band have you covered, with I Am the Primal Fear’s mean sounding guitars, and Tears of Fire’s anthemic, huge choruses. Fist-pumping gut-punches both; The Dead Don’t Die takes us back to the Eighties heavy metal sound for an unstoppable slice of nostalgia.
Just to flex their creative wings, Primal Fear include the short instrumental passage, Hallucinations, in which Magnus and Thaila’s guitars are set free and fly, to the accompaniment of ticking keys; closer, A Tune I Won’t Forget is sombre and reflective, utilising intersecting lines – like Nigel Tufnel’s magnum opus – and melancholic, introspective vocals, leaving Domination to close with the tolling of a single bell.
The album’s lengthiest track is the epic ballad, Eden, which features a guest appearance by Ad Infinitum vocalist, Melissa Bonny, duetting with Ralph on a gloriously overblown and bombastic seven-minutes. Orchestral and symphonic, atmospheric and emotional, Eden arrives as a sorbet to cleanse the palette before Domination’s second half begins.
I don’t recall enjoying a Primal Fear album, start to finish, as much since Devil’s Ground, but listening to this new collection – and seeing the band again the other day – just reminded me why it is that Primal Fear should be widely ranked in the upper echelons of the heavy metal canon.
