My total and guaranteed attention to bands where the drumming does all the magic with tempos and speed. “Opaque Fixation” has a magnificent variety of speed drumming where the bass drums play in an accelerated speed than vocals and guitars. Basically, the drumming doubles the tempo giving a faster speed sensation. The responsible for this is drummer James Farn whose technique exceeds the necessary.
There is a lot of the early 1990’s Extreme Metal music in Primal Code. The slow harsh vocals is one of them. Most of the time vocalist and guitarrist Gene Marino almost speaks. Alone this would mean some kind of lazyness, but – there always one – the combination of the slow vocals with the high speed double bass drumming plus the guitars gives the mesmerizing effect that captures the fan. Tracks as “Iwl” show this very well. There is also a prone to Doom Metal in some tracks – most of them mixed with other features – as “Extinction” where it starts real slow and goes getting more speed with minimal guitars. By the way, the impression it gets is that Gene Marino does the minimun necessary with his axe. In fact, Primal Code are the mix of a Power Metal drumming with Doom Metal guitars and 1990’s Extreme Metal vocals. On the other hand, “Terminal” is a kind of exception to the rule being faster than the usual.
Primal Code are a minimalist band in terms of instrumentals. “Opaque Fixation” is an album where less means more. The only instrument allowed to show more is the drums which brought to light the spirit of the band, if you know what I mean.
Primal Code “Opaque Fixation” will be released on November 15th via Relapse Records.
Track Listing:
01. Intro
02. Anapsid
03. Totem
04. Derelict
05. Hive
06. Iwl
07. Extinction
08. Terminal
09. Angler
10. Stuck
Watch “Anapsid” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!