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I was usually writing about Norwegian bands and their history and the way they have been through, but now I have the honor and privilege to write about outstanding band that fought all the odds and made outstanding progress. This is the band that has set the roots of extreme metal in their country, this is the band that I personally like a lot, this is the band from Ireland, this is Primordial.
Primordial is an extreme metal band from Skerries county Dublin, Ireland. Formed in 1987 by Pól MacAmhlaigh (bass) and Ciáran MacUiliam (guitars). Since 80s and 90s were not such good years for Ireland, the country was much poorer than most of Europe, the band members went through the same problems. No money, nowhere to rehearse, no support from the state so the band had to find the way to keep going on their own. Dublin was a violent place so this was always an undercurrent.
The band's history began back in 1987 when Pól and Ciarán together with Pól's brother Derek decided to play together. In the beginning the band was called Forsaken and played a rough, primitive thrash and death metal, playing covers of a bands such as Death, Sepultura …
Vocalist Nemtheanga joined the band in 1991after seeing an advertisement in Dublin Metal store “The Sound Cellar” that the band was looking for a singer, only two hours after advertisement was posted. At that time he was only 16 years old and he wanted to be in the band. He was running a fanzine and wanted to be involved in the underground. Upon Nemtheanga's joining the band, the band started to pursue a darker direction influenced by Bathory, Celtic Frost and the emerging Greek and Norwegian black metal music. Ireland had no rock culture and was not supported at all by the industry, so the band was totally under the radar, but especially in the last ten years Irish people have travelled abroad for festivals and have seen the band from their own country playing on a big stage in front of thousands of people, they began to realize what Primordial and other bands were doing abroad; this changed their attitude mainly. This was without any doubt a great thing to do, because it inspired some of those people and made others proud that someone was flying the flag.
Primordial are the pioneers of Irish black metal and with the release of their Dark Romanticism demo in the early summer of 1993 Primordial draw the attention of Lee Barrett from the UK label Candlelight Records but he failed to move on signing the band, so after a live soundboard recording from Dublin in 1994 was sent to Cacophonous Records (Cradle of Filth, Bal Sagoth, etc.), the band signed with them for the release of their debut album Imrama 1995.
Although their debut album, Imrama, was characteristic as being in a more melodic black metal musical direction, they gradually came to refine their sound with A Journey's End released in 1998, which included the use of mandolins and whistles and a more epic style.
The two subsequent releases, The Burning Season and Spirit the Earth Aflame from 2000, showed the band's reflection of cultural geist and emotion, woven into an amalgam of black, Celtic, and folk metal musical styles.
They have toured with many metal bands from the extreme metal genre, one of them are the Norwegian black metallers Immortal, but too many to mention over the 20 years. These days, since of the way touring has gone, they mainly play on weekends in different areas. The days of them playing in the small towns are more or less gone, so people have to travel to see them.
They released their dark fourth studio album Storm Before Calm in 2002, but the band's fifth album The Gathering Wilderness from 2005 turned out to be a much darker and bleaker record than anything Primordial had made before, providing the listener with a rawer sound as well. It was chosen as album of the month in Terrorizer Magazine and appeared in many top lists of the year 2005.
In January 2006 the band played their first US show alongside Thyrfing and Moonsorrow at the Heathen Crusade metalfest in Columbia Heights, Minnesota.
The band's sixth album To the Nameless Dead, was released on November 16, 2007 with universal praise for its raw sound used from the first or second recordings.
In November and December 2010, the band entered Foel Studio in Wales to work with producer Chris Fielding once again. The resulting album, Redemption at the Puritan's Hand was released via Metal Bladeon April 22, 2011.
In July 2014, Primordial announced their eighth studio album under the working title Where Greater Men Have Fallen. It was released November 25 2014 in the US and November 24th elsewhere.
As for the listeners, the same for the band as well all the albums and songs are special in their own way and on my question about that topic the answer from the band amazed me “They are all special… or else we would not have made them”.
During the years Primordial made cooperation on their work with several bands, like Rotting Christ, Marduk, Desaster, Void of Silence, Blood Revolt, Revenge, Twilight of the Gods and many more.
Curentlly Primordial is working on a new album and ideas.
Studio albums
Text by Dragana
dragana@unholyblackmetal.com
Primordial is an extreme metal band from Skerries county Dublin, Ireland. Formed in 1987 by Pól MacAmhlaigh (bass) and Ciáran MacUiliam (guitars). Since 80s and 90s were not such good years for Ireland, the country was much poorer than most of Europe, the band members went through the same problems. No money, nowhere to rehearse, no support from the state so the band had to find the way to keep going on their own. Dublin was a violent place so this was always an undercurrent.
The band's history began back in 1987 when Pól and Ciarán together with Pól's brother Derek decided to play together. In the beginning the band was called Forsaken and played a rough, primitive thrash and death metal, playing covers of a bands such as Death, Sepultura …
Vocalist Nemtheanga joined the band in 1991after seeing an advertisement in Dublin Metal store “The Sound Cellar” that the band was looking for a singer, only two hours after advertisement was posted. At that time he was only 16 years old and he wanted to be in the band. He was running a fanzine and wanted to be involved in the underground. Upon Nemtheanga's joining the band, the band started to pursue a darker direction influenced by Bathory, Celtic Frost and the emerging Greek and Norwegian black metal music. Ireland had no rock culture and was not supported at all by the industry, so the band was totally under the radar, but especially in the last ten years Irish people have travelled abroad for festivals and have seen the band from their own country playing on a big stage in front of thousands of people, they began to realize what Primordial and other bands were doing abroad; this changed their attitude mainly. This was without any doubt a great thing to do, because it inspired some of those people and made others proud that someone was flying the flag.
Primordial are the pioneers of Irish black metal and with the release of their Dark Romanticism demo in the early summer of 1993 Primordial draw the attention of Lee Barrett from the UK label Candlelight Records but he failed to move on signing the band, so after a live soundboard recording from Dublin in 1994 was sent to Cacophonous Records (Cradle of Filth, Bal Sagoth, etc.), the band signed with them for the release of their debut album Imrama 1995.
Although their debut album, Imrama, was characteristic as being in a more melodic black metal musical direction, they gradually came to refine their sound with A Journey's End released in 1998, which included the use of mandolins and whistles and a more epic style.
The two subsequent releases, The Burning Season and Spirit the Earth Aflame from 2000, showed the band's reflection of cultural geist and emotion, woven into an amalgam of black, Celtic, and folk metal musical styles.
They have toured with many metal bands from the extreme metal genre, one of them are the Norwegian black metallers Immortal, but too many to mention over the 20 years. These days, since of the way touring has gone, they mainly play on weekends in different areas. The days of them playing in the small towns are more or less gone, so people have to travel to see them.
They released their dark fourth studio album Storm Before Calm in 2002, but the band's fifth album The Gathering Wilderness from 2005 turned out to be a much darker and bleaker record than anything Primordial had made before, providing the listener with a rawer sound as well. It was chosen as album of the month in Terrorizer Magazine and appeared in many top lists of the year 2005.
In January 2006 the band played their first US show alongside Thyrfing and Moonsorrow at the Heathen Crusade metalfest in Columbia Heights, Minnesota.
The band's sixth album To the Nameless Dead, was released on November 16, 2007 with universal praise for its raw sound used from the first or second recordings.
In November and December 2010, the band entered Foel Studio in Wales to work with producer Chris Fielding once again. The resulting album, Redemption at the Puritan's Hand was released via Metal Bladeon April 22, 2011.
In July 2014, Primordial announced their eighth studio album under the working title Where Greater Men Have Fallen. It was released November 25 2014 in the US and November 24th elsewhere.
As for the listeners, the same for the band as well all the albums and songs are special in their own way and on my question about that topic the answer from the band amazed me “They are all special… or else we would not have made them”.
During the years Primordial made cooperation on their work with several bands, like Rotting Christ, Marduk, Desaster, Void of Silence, Blood Revolt, Revenge, Twilight of the Gods and many more.
Curentlly Primordial is working on a new album and ideas.
Studio albums
- Imrama (1995)
- A Journey's End (1998)
- Spirit the Earth Aflame (2000)
- Storm Before Calm (2002)
- The Gathering Wilderness (2005)
- To the Nameless Dead (2007)
- Redemption at the Puritan's Hand (2011)
- Where Greater Men Have Fallen (2014)
- Live
- All Empires Fall (2010)
- Gods To The Godless - Live at Bang Your Head Festival Germany 2015 (2016)
- EPs
- The Burning Season (1999)
Demos - Dark Romanticism (1993)
Split releases - Primordial / Katatonia Split 10" (1996)
- Primordial / Mael Mórdha (2006)
Current Members - Alan Averill "Nemtheanga" – Vocals (1991–present)
- Ciáran MacUiliam – Guitars (1987–present)
- Micheál Ó Floinn – Guitars (2001–present)
- Pól MacAmhlaigh – Bass (1987–present)
- Simon Ó Laoghaire – Drums (1997–present)
Former - Feargal Flannery - Guitar (1993–1997)
- Derek MacAmhlaigh - Drums (1987–1997)
Text by Dragana
dragana@unholyblackmetal.com