Primal Fear recently released their highly anticipated 13th studio album, Metal Commando, which has entered the charts worldwide, achieving their highest entries ever and six Top 10 positions; including #7 in Germany, #6 in Switzerland and #4 in the UK Rock charts. Following is an excerpt from the forthcoming BraveWords feature story with vocalist Ralf Scheepers: 

Metal Commando checks all the boxes diehard fans require for what can be considered a top tier Primal Fear album. In other words, the band knows better than to stray too far from a working formula as that would spell disaster. That said, they threw in a few curves like the vocal ballad "I Will Be Gone" and the 11 minute epic "Infinity" for their own satisfaction.

"First of all, that's not the way we approach things," Scheepers says of keeping in line with fan expectation. "It's important to please our fans, yes, but we have to be satisfied with what we're doing. There's always somebody bitching about something and you can't please everyone. When we released (first single) 'Along Came The Devil' there was a very small percentage of the fans complaining about it. We just do what we do best, which is making heavy metal. If they judge the whole album based on one track, whether it's 'Along Came The Devil' or 'I Will Be Gone' they're very narrow-minded."

"Mat wrote 'I Will Be Gone'," he adds, "and Magnus did a great job in auto-tuning the demo version (laughs), so I had to repeat that with a natural voice and I'm happy that I pulled it off. 'Infinity'... we did this on the last album, having an epic and bombastic track. That's also another red line that we wanted to keep, but as soon as you try to force something like that it's not going to work. We're very relaxed people, as you know (laughs), so we would never force two more minutes into a song because we want to hit that 11 minute mark."

The title of the album is self-explainatory - Metal Commando contains 110% Primal Fear and is full to the brim with their signature power and energy.

In celebration of the release, last week the band has issued the new single and video "Hear Me Calling". Watch the clip below.

Bassist Matt Sinner comments: "The special thing about 'Hear Me Calling' is, that we are combining the vibes of the first PF albums with the new Primnal Fear of 2020. It's great, because Tom (Naumann) was a part of the song-writing and the basis of the song was made in my studio. Ralf (Scheepers) made the lyrics, perfectly interpreting all the emotions and with a really strong chorus. Far away from home, in a shady plane somewhere between Peru and Bolivia, thinking about home... a strong combination of powerful guitar riffs, awesome melodies, groove and a great hook!"

Metal Commando was produced by Mat Sinner and mixed by Jacob Hansen - an experienced dream-team. The album will contain 11 tracks.

Tracklisting:

“I Am Alive”
“Along Came The Devil”
“Halo”
“Hear Me Calling”                                     
“The Lost & The Forgotten”
“My Name Is Fear”
“I Will Be Gone”
“Raise Your Fists”
“Howl Of The Banshee”
“Afterlife”
“Infinity”

Bonus CD (Ltd. Edition 2-CD Digipak):

“Rising Fear”
“Leave Me Alone”
“Second To None”
“Crucify Me”

"I Am Alive" video:

"Along Came The Devil" lyric video:

Lineup:

Ralf Scheepers - Lead & Backing Vocals
Tom Naumann - Guitars
Alexander Beyrodt - Guitars
Magnus Karlsson - Guitars
Michael Ehré - Drums
Mat Sinner - Bass & Vocals

(Photo - Heiko Roith)