PRIMORDIAL: How It Ends (BLACK METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

If "How It Ends" is the title of Primordial's new album, rest assured, this doesn't mean the end of the band, but rather raises questions about the evolution of the world and our societies at a time when everything seems set to collapse, like a replica of the fall of the Roman Empire. This questioning is answered by a cover whose character, cut out of it in a cloud of smoke, gun in fist and cap betraying his popular stock, sounds like a call to revolt, to revolution, a theme that runs through all the Irish band's work.

In so doing, they deliver a tenth offering in the fine tradition of their predecessors, carved out of material that belongs to them alone and is black metal in name only. Their style has long been fixed, severe and melancholy, rooted in the bloody history of the country that gave birth to them and these lands full of harshness and beauty. If they won't be surprised by the successor to "Exile Amongst The Ruins" (2018), the Primordial faithful may at first be (slightly) disappointed by its content, which doesn't propel any bravura tracks of the calibre of 'Empire Falls' or 'To Hell Or The Hangman'. As an appetizer, 'Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is An Orphan' is a typical songwriter's composition, effective and haunting, but doubtful to be a landmark in their career.

In truth, as is often the case with great records, "How It Ends" only reveals its treasures nestled in its painful, dark intimacy in small, pointillist strokes. Of course, the charismatic A.A. Nemtheanga's inhabited, expressive vocals is still moving, and his shoulders bear all the world's misery ('All Against All'). Then there are the drums whose rollers crash against a cliff in the night ('Call To Cernunnos'). Then there are the guitars that drain a haunting despair ('Pilgrimage To The World's End'), at once mineral and beautiful. Finally, there are the chiselled, heavy, tumultuous compositions, veritable jewels of progression and atmosphere ('Nothing New Under The Sun'). Little by little, they make their mark, never letting go and haunting us long after we've finished listening.

Admittedly, for anyone familiar with Primordial, this album holds no surprises, such as 'We Shall Not Serve', whose heady six-string lines seem to have escaped from "The Gathering Wilderness" (2005), but with further listens, it comes to stand out as one of the band's best albums, classic and rumbling with subterranean, dramatic force. "How It Ends" is a massive, painful block whose individual tracks coalesce into a compact, indivisible whole. - Official website

PRIMORDIAL

HOW IT ENDS

METAL BLADE RECORDS

BLACK METAL