609. Primal Fear / 16.6: (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead). 2009. 3/5

Given the super start this band had when they formed in the mid-1990's, I still look forward to each new album when they are announced. In recent times before this was released however, you couldn't really be sure what sound the band was going to go for. They were a band whose music was in flux, and the cocoon this time was even darker and dimmer than it had been.

The assortment comes straight at you from the very beginning. The album kicks off with the power metal standard of "Riding the Eagle", which is well done and includes a nice solo and melodic vocals from Scheepers. This is then followed by the heavier and harder "Six Times Dead (16.6)", whose influences are much better defined than "Black Rain", which isn't sure whether it wants to be a power metal ballad or a guitar experimental Spanish serenade. In the end, it tries to be both. Very unusual, and I don't think it works.
Perhaps the problem lies in that the band itself isn't sure in what direction it wants to go. There is none of the sheer power and sponteneity of their earlier releases. the drumming is metronome-like, but in some songs it could just as well have been replaced by a machine, such is the lack of variety (see "Under the Radar" as an example).

Overall, they have moved away from any definition of speed metal that they might once have had, and in its place is a combination of melodic and power metal tunes that, on the whole are not bad songs, but likewise they do not have anything that sets them apart from each other. Songs like "Smith & Wesson" and "The Exorcist" are like that for me on this album. I like the songs, but they just feel like they have missed a trick with them! Scheepers does not extend his vocal range at all, Black's drumming could have been played by just about anyone on the planet, while the guitars are efficient without being scintillating.

It is disappointing more for the fact that the band itself are better than they have produced on this album. It is average, middle-of-the-road fare that only offends those of us who expect more from them. Such is the standard timing and beat throughout, you could almost send yourself off to sleep listening to it. Probably not the greatest compliment for a metal band.