598. Primal Fear / Unbreakable. 2012. 3.5/5

Primal Fear have built themselves up to the kind of band that you want to be - they have the reputation that, once you know they have a new album on the way, you are excited about it, and look forward to hearing it and buying it. As a band you couldn't ask for much more than that. Given the excellent quality of  their previous release, 16.6: (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, this was one I was looking forward to.

Overall, it is another great Primal Fear album. The songs here are more melodic that those on recent releases, and the keys are more prominent. From the very beginning the album is kick-started and driven by the powerful drumming of Randy Black, who again excels in the precision and speed of his tubs, and the vocals of Ralf Scheepers, who just keeps the intensity of the songs at a premium. These two are the stars on the album for me.
You won't find anything too different on here than you can find on other Primal Fear albums. There is the mix of the faster speed metal type songs as well as the power metal slower ballad style songs. My preference has always been for the faster, heavier songs, such as "And Then There Was Silence" and "Unbreakable (Part 2)", whereas the token balled "Born Again" for me is in the category of song filler - not a bad song, but not one that does anything for me.

It may sound a little generic in places, but that is a small price to pay for a band that continues to produce such wonderfully adept albums. For me it doesn't quite match the previous album, but it certainly ranks ahead of its predecessors New Religion and Seven Seals.