By Carl Begai

In a recent interview with SINNER bassist/vocalist Mat Sinner about the band's new album, One Bullet Left, he offered BW&BK; his thoughts and impressions on the forthcoming PRIMAL FEAR record, Unbreakable, which the band had just finished recording at press time. He reveals the band opted to go back to square one rather than trying to one-up their over-the-top 2009 effort, 16.6.

Following is the exclusive look into the record, due to be released on January 20th, 2012:

“We reduced the journeys to different styles of music on the new album," Mat reveals. "I’m trying to find the right word… let’s just say there weren’t a lot of strange experiments. We went back to where we started with the riffs, meaning that the main riff is the main point in the song. That’s how we made music in Primal Fear when we first started (in 1997). With Magnus (Karlsson) and Alex (Beyrodt) on guitars, and Randy (Black) on drums, we have the strongest Primal Fear line-up ever, and the shows we’ve done recently prove that. We played Wacken this past summer, we just did some shows in Poland, and it was killer. We tried to get that vibe, that attitude, and put it on the album. We wrote songs that go back to the basics, and some fans will love them for that reason alone. You hear the riffs and you know it’s Primal Fear.”
“It will be a different album. If people want to hear totally innovative and new music, they shouldn’t wait for this album.”

By the sound of things, it's fair to say Primal Fear managed to exorcised the need to step out of the box, or at least bash it around a bit, with 16.6

“Yes, but it was also a first step back to the direction we’re going in now. On the last album we had songs like ‘Riding The Eagle’ and ‘Killbound’ which were very basic Primal Fear. There’s a lot more of that on Unbreakable. There’s a ballad on the new album and it’s very orchestral; I think it’s on the same level of quality as ‘Fighting The Darkness’ (from New Religion). I love it. And we have an eight minute track on the album called ‘Where Angels Die’ with a lot of different parts, which is very close to progressive metal.”

Alex Beyrodt, a long-time friend to Mat, joined the band following the recordings for 16.6 and has been touring with Primal Fear ever since. His presence quite naturally had some affect on Unbreakable, but he didn't influence the everything-old-is-new-again direction of Unbreakable.

“Having Alex in the band wasn’t the only kick in the ass; we kicked our own asses as a group because we wanted to make a brutal, basic album (laughs). Even Magnus, who comes from that whole progressive side of guitar playing and composing, he was really into the idea of writing basic four-minute songs.”

Between working in the studio and live on stage with Sinner, VOODOO CIRCLE, the annual ROCK MEETS CLASSIC tour, and keeping Primal Fear as his top priority, it's amazing Mat hasn't lost his mind entirely...

“I only lose my mind with technical issues and little fuck-ups (laughs). That costs me more energy than being enthusiastic about the new Primal Fear stuff. I know the new music will convince Primal Fear fans all over the world that this is a kick-ass album. One riff after another, and each one more Primal Fear than the next.”

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