Primal Fear - Wolverhampton Review

So far this year I have been to a surprising amount of melodic metal gigs. The year's first outing, an Epica and Amaranthe co-headline affair, is probably still the year's best gig to date - but last weekend in London I enjoyed one of the current big names on the block in Powerwolf, with long-standing act HammerFall in direct support. Last night, too, I enjoyed a band that many class as power metal - but, for me, the German band Primal Fear are largely just a great, old-school sounding heavy metal band. It is well known at this point that the band was formed by frontman Ralf Scheepers and Mat Sinner (bass guitar/vocals) when the former was not hired as Rob Halford's replacement in Judas Priest in the mid-1990s. Essentially, then, Primal Fear play Judas Priest-style heavy metal - albeit with a European power metal edge thanks to some perhaps slightly flashier guitar pyrotechnics and more reliance on fast-paced double bass drumming. I have been a casual Primal Fear fan for many years at this point, but it was likely only during the past seven or so years that I really started to pay attention and look to complete my Primal Fear collection. There are still a couple of their albums that I need to get, but in general now I am pretty familiar with the band's quite lengthy catalogue - and their last few albums have all been reviewed here. In recent years, though, the band have not been regular visitors to the UK. Like HammerFall, then, the band did used to visit the UK more regularly - but this has dropped off in more recent years. There are quite a few European metal bands that have become this way, and I can only imagine that Brexit has made it harder for bands to come over and play one or two small-scale shows. Either that or the fanbase has dropped off somewhat, but, in truth, the reason is likely a combination of many factors, but it is a shame that we in the UK often miss out on bands like Primal Fear. I had a ticket to see them in either 2020 or 2021, but clearly the show was cancelled due to the pandemic and was never rescheduled. Primal Fear tour in Europe fairly regularly, so I am sure that the tour eventually happened - it just did not include the UK. The band did return to the UK last year, though, playing a set at the always interesting-looking Stonedead Festival. It was the band's first UK show for a while, but when the headline tour for last year's Domination (which I reviewed here) was announced there were no other UK shows. That was, though, until the second leg. It would have been great to see one, presumably in London, let alone two - but with a second show being in Wolverhampton at KK's Steel Mill it gave me a good excuse to return to one of my favourite venues and plan my first Midlands trip of the year. I have waxed lyrical about KK's Steel Mill so many times on this blog now that people must be getting bored of me talking about it - but it really has become my favourite venue of its size. I rarely get to Nottingham these days, so Rock City has dropped down the list - and Rock City can be a bit unpleasant when it is sold out. There always feels like there is at least a bit of room in KK's Steel Mill, even when full, and the space is just used so well. Primal Fear certainly did not sell the place out, but there were a few hundred in attendance - which likely pleased the band given the assumed risk of playing a couple of UK headline shows. The venue can be laid out in a number of ways to make crowds of differing sizes look like they are filling the place - and there were a number of curtains employed last night, as is often the case, to make the crowd pack the area in front of the stage. Wolverhampton had not escaped the recent rain - so it was a pretty wet walk down to the venue, with the doors opening slightly earlier than planned to allow people in out of the rain.

Clearly Primal Fear were the reason I was at the show, but I was also looking forward to seeing the support act - a solo set from journeyman rock/metal vocalist Ronnie Romero. As was likely the case for many, I first discovered Romero when he joined the final incarnation of Rainbow, with whom I saw him live twice, but before that he fronted the Spanish metal act Lords of Black - and has since sung with many guitar greats including Michael Schenker, Adrian Vandenberg, and Richie Faulkner as part of the band Elegant Weapons. I last saw him with Schenker, at KK's Steel Mill in fact, so I was looking forward to seeing him as a solo artist - having given last year's Backbone a few listens in the run up to the show. He came on stage around half an hour after the original door time, but there was already a decent-sized crowd in attendance when he took the stage. The set was largely culled from his two solo albums of original material - but also included a couple of Rainbow numbers and a Deep Purple cover to keep the casuals happy. With a tight band that consisted of José Rubio (guitar), with whom Romero wrote many of the songs that featured, DGM's Andrea Arcangeli (bass guitar), and Chris Allan (drums), whom I once saw playing rather different music with Karnataka, Romero rocked through an 11-song set with relative ease. The title track from his latest album kicked things off, and the mid-paced hard rocker set the tone which was to follow. Rubio's big riffing and melodic soloing style was impressive throughout, whilst Romero is a great frontman - and really owned the venue's big stage. The only disappointment was the absence of a keyboard player - meaning that all the keyboards were pre-recorded and low in the mix. Music like this needs the Hammond organ to roar through the speakers - but the guitars did much of the heavy lifting. Despite Romero's material largely sticking to type, there was some variety throughout. Eternally allowed for a slightly more mid-paced, melodic rock sound to shine through - whilst a heavy take on Rainbow's Stargazer certainly had most in the crowd singing along. The latter did include the one obvious mistake in the set, though, which consisted of either Rubio soloing for too long or Allan ending the solo section too early - meaning that the band were out of sync for a few bars. There were faster moments, too, such as the power metal-esque Black Dog - whilst I enjoyed the epic Castaway on the Moon from Romero's previous, and first, solo album of original material; which I will need to check out. The Deep Purple knowledge of the crowd was also tested with a fun version of the relative deep cut The Battle Rages On, whilst the song which was announced as the final number Vengeance was suitably metallic given its title. Clearly realising that they had a little more time to play with, though, the supposed final number segued into Rainbow's Kill the King - which was a fun end to a powerful overall set. The setlist was:

Backbone

Never Felt This Way

Eternally

Stargazer [Rainbow material]

Black Dog

Castaway on the Moon

Bring the Rock

The Battle Rages On [Deep Purple cover]

Chased by Shadows

Vengeance

Kill the King [Rainbow material]

Following a 30 or so minute changeover, the lights went down again and Primal Fear took to the stage. The room was busy by this point, and this led to an excellent atmosphere throughout. Like me, many in attendance had likely not seen Primal Fear live before - so the opportunity to do so was certainly welcomed. I was not especially close to the stage, but even those around me somewhat further back were largely all singing along to every song - and the responses to Scheepers' attempts to get the crowd to sing were generally successful. The band crammed 15 songs into their 90 or so minutes on stage - with material coming from throughout their career. Five songs from the latest album were included, though, with two kicking things off. The tough Destroyer, with a snippet of We Walk Without Fear used as an intro to it, kicked things off - with the more anthemic and melodic I Am the Primal Fear following. These two songs really set the tone going forward - and it was clear that the night was going to be a good one. Scheepers was in great voice throughout, his ability to hit those high notes intact, whilst the guitar duo of long-time member Magnus Karlsson and newer face Thalìa Bellazecca peeled off riff after riff throughout the night. The pair's guitar tones during the set sounded huge, and they brought the band's muscular metal to life with ease - whilst it was good to see Sinner on stage following his seemingly very serious health issues of recent years. Scheepers was a great frontman, too. He is a tall and just overall very big man, so he is a commanding presence on stage - but he took quite a few opportunities to talk to the crowd. The band as a whole seemed pleased to be back in the UK, and with the turnout and the reception that they were getting - so perhaps they will not leave such a gap between UK visits in future. I hope not, as I would certainly see them live again based on this performance. When anthems like Final Embrace and the more melodic Seven Seals come thick and fast, there is never time to stop having fun. The band's mix of tougher, old-school metal and the more melodic, power metal-influenced songs helped to keep things fresh, too, and they excel at both sounds. The Hunter, one of the strongest cuts from the latest album, was a great example of the latter, and saw Scheepers singing in a cleaner and smoother manner - whilst later in the set Chainbreaker from the band's 1998 debut album was delivered with plenty more crunch and plenty of vocal grit. Favourites came one after the other, though, but some other highlights included the anthemic The End Is Near, with some of Scheepers' highest notes of the night, and the somewhat more delicate instrumental piece Hallucinations - which was essentially a guitar showcase for Karlsson. The best overall moment, though, was the lengthy, semi-ballad Fighting the Darkness, which the aforementioned instrumental acted as an intro to. It felt like the real centrepiece of the show, with Scheepers delivering the vocals with real emotion. The central chorus is perhaps one of the band's best, and it was sung loudly by those around me, whilst the lengthy instrumental section in the middle of the song allowed for more soloing from both guitar players. It was the moment of the night for me overall. The set really flew by, so it was not too long before Scheepers announced Metal Is Forever as the final song - but it was clear that it was not going to be, as the band dispensed with the usual encore silliness after the genre-based anthem to play a couple more. A delicate version of Hands of Time was played as the set's penultimate number - which saw Karlsson playing the song on the guitar the rest of the band sharing the vocals in a campfire-esque manner. The slower arrangement worked well, but it was left to the Accept-like Running in the Dust to bring the night to a close - with one last shout-along chorus for the crowd to enjoy. The setlist was:

We Walk Without Fear/Destroyer

I Am the Primal Fear

Final Embrace

Nuclear Fire

Seven Seals

The Hunter

Tears of Fire

King of Madness

The End Is Near

Hallucinations

Fighting the Darkness

Chainbreaker

Metal Is Forever

Hands of Time

Running in the Dust

Given that I have been into Primal Fear for quite a while at this point, it was great to finally get the chance to see them live - especially after missing out a few years ago due to the pandemic. They delivered a powerful set to a decent-sized and appreciative crowd - and nights like this always give me hope that more promoters will realise that there is an audience for power metal and similar genres outside of London. Romero's opening set was a lot of fun, too, so overall the night was a great one - and another in a long list of such in Wolverhampton of late.