Rating: 10/10
Release: 29 September 2023
Label: Metal Blade Records

The Irish band Primordial are back with their tenth full-length album on Metal Blade Records. The Irish band has 32 years of career, full of albums, hits and tours. This follow-up to 2018’s “Exile Amongst the Ruins”, “How It Ends” sees them delivering more of their seminal blend of Celtic and black metal, with an extra added urgency, and staring down the apocalypse: “The title is a question – is this how it ends? How it all goes down: culture, language, history, society – humanity – who knows?” says vocalist A. A. Nemtheanga. “Regardless of who you are or were, you get one chance at all of this, and it’s asking is this the end of your town, state, nation? Myths, traditions, relationships, and I suppose it asks the question, who reacts, who rebels – how does it end now for them?”

In the 10 tracks that are in the full-length there are several that stand out, here are a few: “We Shall Not Serve” that is the most aggressive of the full-length; “Call to Cernunnos” the most “folkish” one; “Nothing New Under the Sun” the blackest track on the entire full-length, when Alan’s voice sounds like Abbath voice (in a good way); “All Against All”, the longest track on the full-length, which is drenched in a sinister air and driven by pounding rhythms, wielding a towering climax; “Death Holy Death”, which sounds more doom, with the lyrics that sounds like a prayer; “Victory Has 1000 Father, Defeat is an Orphan” which has a wonderful balance between the acoustic part and the electric one.

With this full-length Primordial take the lyrical inspiration both from modern and historical ideas, that made “How It Ends” a full-length in the style of Primordial, in the words of Alan: “It certainly sounds like Primordial, there is no doubt about that, we have our own style and this is a new chapter of the same book. If we have done anything new it’s really to work with more conviction than ever, and trust more than ever our instincts”. This tenth full-length is very angry, defiant, visceral and kind of rebellious, “It may be the note we go out on but it will be a note of resistance, in musical terms. I think it’s also more metal! And more epic!”, Alan says. And he is right, “How It Ends” is a solid full-length, maybe the one with a more fluent style, that makes a pleasure to listen to all the 10 songs one after another. Good job.

Tracklist

1. How It Ends
2. Ploughs To Rust, Swords To Dust
3. We Shall Not Serve
4. Traidisiúnta
5. Pilgrimage To The World’s End
6. Nothing New Under The Sun
7. Call To Cernunnos
8. All Against All
9. Death Holy Death
10. Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is An Orphan