Dublin, Ireland-based Pagan metal legends PRIMORDIAL have unleashed their moving new video for “How It Ends,” the title track of their tenth studio album, out today on Metal Blade Records!
Having lasted thirty-two years and now returning with their devastating new studio offering, the follow-up to 2018’s critically lauded Exile Amongst The Ruins finds PRIMORDIAL 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?,” considers 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?’”
Working alongside founding members – bassist Pól MacAmlaigh and guitarist Ciáran MacUilliam – and longtime drummer Simon O’Laoghaire, the band started writing in earnest in the Fall of 2022, having lit a fire under themselves to work hastily and productively. The album was tracked at Hellfire Studios on the outskirts of Dublin, produced by the band and engineered by previous collaborator Chris Fielding.
“How It Ends is a very angry, defiant, visceral, and rebellious album,” notes Nemtheanga, “and as we worked, it all began to take more shape and form itself. 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!” It only takes one listen for these claims to be proven true, whether it’s the surging, gruff, dark “Ploughs To Rust, Swords To Dust,” the moody, desperate “Pilgrimage To The World’s End,” or the sprawling “All Against All,” which is drenched in a sinister air and driven by pounding rhythms, wielding a towering climax, How It Ends is a truly thundering offering.
Drawing lyrical influence both from modern and historical ideas, Nemtheanga always gives the listener something to think about. The title track continues the themes that have always been a part of PRIMORDIAL, looking at “the life cycle of people, of nations, of languages, songs, myths and tradition. This song, as much of the album, asks the question, ‘do you have the stomach for the fight? The guts to stand against the crowd? To rebel, to dissent, to stand up to authoritarianism?’”
