Veteran power metal outfit Primal Fear released its latest album, Code Red over the weekend. The band’s 14th album and its first for Atomic Fire Records, Code Red offers much for audiences to appreciate, not the least of which is its featured musical arrangements. Said content will be examined shortly. The lyrical themes that accompany the album’s 11 total songs make for their own interest and will be examined a little later. The record’s production rounds out its most important elements and will also be discussed later. Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of Code Red. All things considered they make the album, yet another key addition to this year’s field of top new hard rock and metal albums.
Code Red, the latest album from Primal Fear, is another strong new offering from the veteran power metal band. It easily holds its own against so many other hard rock and metal albums released so far this year. That is due in part to its featured musical arrangements. From its opener, ‘Another Hero’ to its midpoint, ‘The World Is On Fire’ to its surprising finale, ‘Fearless,’ the arrangements featured throughout the album are full-on power metal compositions that are just as powerful as anything that audiences could expect from the likes of Judas Priest, Saxon, and so many other power metal acts. This is especially important to note considering that the band has allowed no more than three years to pass between any of its albums. It would be so easy for the band to simply let itself phone it in and just churn out the same style of content from one record to the next, leading to the content getting real old real fast. Yet as the arrangements featured in this song show, the band has not let that happen. Each arrangement boasts its own unique identity from its counterparts and from the works that make up so much of the band’s catalog. Audiences who listen closely to the record will note the subtle differences that make each arrangement so engaging and entertaining. All things considered here, the musical arrangements that are featured throughout Code Red form a strong foundation for the record.
Building on that foundation is the record’s lyrical content. The lyrical themes that accompany the album’s musical arrangements strengthen the record’s foundation because of their familiarity and accessibility. As the album’s trio of singles – ‘Another Hero,’ ‘Deep In The Night’ and ‘Cancel Culture’ – have shown, there is plenty of variety in the record’s themes. As Scheepers said of ‘Another Hero,’ the song centers on the need for something optimistic in a world that is quickly going from worse to worst. He said of the theme, “Sometimes I wish there would be ‘Another Hero’ who shows mankind how to get along with each other in peace and harmony.” It is a theme that is not relegated to just Primal Fear’s music. Plenty of other bands out there have tackled the topic throughout rock’s modern history. What’s more the way in which the message is delivered makes this theme easy to understand.
Speaking of getting along, that is essentially what ‘Cancel Culture’ tackles. The album’s latest single, Scheepers said during a recent interview that the theme centers on the equally familiar topic of all of the keyboard warriors out there, hiding behind screen names and arguing with one another, talking trash about everything and anything. It is another theme that goes so well with the album’s title, which bassist Mat Sinner (who produced the record) explains is a commentary on the negative direction in which the world is headed. Those keyboard warriors out there are only serving to keep moving the world in that direction. By being another band that brings attention to this aspect of things, maybe just maybe more people will get away from the keyboards and start getting along again.
On a different note, the band also takes on the equally familiar topic of overcoming life’s adversity in this album. That topic comes in the album’s closer, ‘Fearless.’ The thing of it is that in the case of this song, the theme is addressed in a completely unexpected fashion. Rather than simply telling listeners to push on through the negative, Sheepers openly sings that humans were created to fail. Yes, he goes there. Yet even despite this, we as a race, as a species, need to push on and overcome that manifest destiny of sorts and defy the odds, we learn from our mistakes and grow, as he points out in the song’s chorus. This is a very rarely if ever taken course in delivering that familiar message of perseverance. To that end it makes the familiar lyrical theme all the more accessible, engaging and entertaining and one more example of the importance of the album’s lyrical themes. When this and the other themes addressed here are considered along with the rest of the album’s lyrical themes, the whole makes fully clear why Code Red’s lyrical themes are just as pivotal to the record’s success as its musical arrangements. When that primary and secondary content is considered together, the album’s overall presentation becomes all the more successful, too.
As much as the musical and lyrical content featured in Code Red does to make the album worth hearing, it is collectively just part of what makes the album a success. The production that went into the album adds the finishing touch to the whole. As noted, Sinner produced the album. Having that personal ear from one of the band’s own members play into the production obviously helped a lot. That is because it ensured even more, that the best was brought out from each musician’s performance throughout the album and that each musician’s line compliments those of his fellow performers. The end result is a record that succeeds just as much for its overall sound as for its content. The whole becomes another powerful offering from Primal Fear that has made it that much harder to choose this year’s top new hard rock and metal albums.
Code Red, the 14th full-length studio recording from Primal Fear, is a welcome new release from the veteran power metal powerhouse. The record’s success comes in part through its featured musical arrangements. The arrangements are right up there with those of the likes of Judas Priest, Saxon, and Accept. Each boasts its own unique identity especially thanks to its subtle touch. The lyrical themes that accompany the album’s musical arrangements are of their own importance in that they are so familiar and accessible at the same time. The album’s production puts the finishing touch to its presentation. It ensures the record succeeds just as much for its sound as for its content. Each item examined is important in its own way to the whole of the album’s presentation. All things considered they make Code Red just as powerful as so many of this year’s other hard rock and metal albums.
Code Red is available now through Atomic Fire Records. the band launched a tour in support of the album Friday in Stuttgart, Germany. The tour is scheduled to run though Sept. 10 in Pratteln, Switzerland.
The tour’s schedule is noted below
Primal Fear Live:
w/ The Unity – Code Red European Tour – Part 1:
9/01/2023 Im Wizemann (Halle) – Stuttgart, DE
9/02/2023 Kaminwerk – Memmingen, DE
9/03/2023 Frankenhalle – Naila , DE
9/05/2023 Backstage (Werk) – Munich, DE
9/06/2023 Zeche – Bochum, DE
9/07/2023 Batschkapp – Frankfurt, DE
9/09/2023 Le Port Franc – Sion, CH
9/10/2023 Z7 – Pratteln, CH
More information on the album is available along with all of Primal Fear’s latest news at:
Website: https://www.primalfear.de
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/primalfearofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matsinner1
