Decent Combination of Metal Styles

Ten years after their first album, Primordial has released Exile Amongst the Ruins. Primordial has a distinct sound that merges the power metal of Iced Earth and Judas Priest’s black metal into a truly unique combination. Sometimes they sound tight and catchy, while other times they sound bombastic and rough. Exile Amongst the Ruins stands as the latest installment in their discography, and it shows some slight change in the band’s song structures and movement.

The first track, “Nail Their Tongues,” emerges with a beautifully composed acoustic guitar ambiance, followed by a unique guitar riff. This song, as with many others on the LP, goes through several stylistic alterations. Although the song changes its style to black metal halfway through, the change does not necessarily accomplish much. Yes, the style of delivery changes, but what is delivered itself remains the same. The same chord progressions follow the same timing and structure throughout the track, almost as if the song plateaus with nowhere else to go.

“To Hell or the Hangman” starts off with infectious rhythms, galloping vocals and accompanying lead lines. This starts off promising, and though the rhythm of the song is catchy, the same exact rhythm persists throughout all seven minutes of the track. As mentioned before, this seems to be a trend on Exile Amongst the Ruins and it is not clear whether that is a stylistic choice or a lack of fresh ideas.

One of the only tracks where this is not as apparent is on one of the singles, “Stolen Years.” “Stolen Years” is a metal slow burn at its best, as it slowly builds up to a great climax that could certainly get lighters moving in the air. Though the riff in that song is also the same throughout, the dynamics of the song present it in such a way that makes the overall product come together and flow tactfully.

The musicianship here is impressive and emotional, however, the great majority of Exile Amongst the Ruins continuously recycles itself within each track. The songs are long and powerful, but when the songs remain the same from the intro to the outro, there is really no point in evolution. Primordial performed very well on Exile Amongst the Ruins, but it, unfortunately, may be the band’s most lackluster effort yet.