Hi Guys, how you doin?. First I wanna thank you for spending some of your time with METAL SYMPHONY. Also want to congratulate you for this wonderful album called “166 before the Devil Knows you are dead”.
M.S: Thanks!
With “166 BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU ARE DEAD” Primal Fear has given an important step ahead in his carreer. You have made a pretty diversed album where one can find classic songs like “killbound” and others more melodic like “black rain”..is this diversity something you planned from the beginning?.
M.S: We wrote 25 tracks for this album after we’ve finished the 10 Years Of metal anniversary tour. As we have a lot of experienced and technical ambitious guys in the band, we finally wrote a great bunch of diverse quality songs together. Everybody in the band was in a good spirit and the ideas were flowing. Finally we sorted out a bunch of track, we thought would be the best to record to present Primal Fear 2009. We wanted to combine the vibe of the older days with the PF of the future and we wanted to create the most interesting album of Primal Fear.
Since your first albums PRIMAL FEAR has always been a heavy metal band related to Judad Priest, “166 before the devil knows you are dead” continues in that direction with songs like “killbound”, a song made to be performed live. How did this song come up?
M.S: we all agreed, that with Henny back in the band, we will catch up the vibe of the Nuclear Fire album again and with such a competent and strong team in the guitar section, we can drive the entire guitar arrangements ahead in the real Primal Fear style. We wated to have more metal approach back on this album and will be in the future, combined with the trademarks of Primal Fear and Ralf’s outstanding vocals!
In general terms, “166 before the devil knows you are dead” is kind of a conceptual álbum about death and all that surround it. You can tell that by the art cover of the album. Why such a dark subject?…who made the art cover of the album?
M.S: No it’s not a concept at all – simply all guys have their input in the lyrics, some more, some less – but with this long setlist, we didn’t wanted to write a concept album, even the code of 16.6 is all over the place.
The artwork of the last two albums were simple and this time we’ve started a new area and a new style of our cover artworks, still the wings are prominent placed!
The band has gone through some changes lately..why was that and who are the new members of Primal Fear?
M.S: Henny and Magnus helped out on the last record, so you can imagine, we had something in our minds. Henny re-joined the band immediatly during the New Religion recordings. As we found an agreement with Stefan and his private situation, Magnus was the No. 1 contender and we knew that he is a Primal Fear fan. He joined us 18 months ago – so that’s not so „new“ anymore for us. Magnus is known for his work for Allen/Lande, Bob Catley etc etc. Great talented musician from Sweden. Not only a fantastic guitarist, he’s a great songwriter, keyboarder and singer!
If Im not wrong, there are some songs in which other members of the band sing along with Ralpf Scheppers, and I think this is one of the most remarkable aspects of “166 before the devil knows you are dead”. Do you agree?…How did it occur to you to add new voices to the songs?
M.S: I’m always joining Ralf on the backing vocals in the studio and even more on stage. We wrote Hands Of Time at Magnus studio and Ralf wasn’t there. Just for fun, we shared the vocals between Henny, Magnus and me. In the end everybody loved that new element and we’re always searching for some surprises. We added another part for Ralf to make the song even more exciting and then we started to record the track. We never worked with such an arrangement and so many acoustic guitars. Now finally four guys of the band sharing the lead vocals. This is new and gives the album some extra interesting elements at the end of the record!
You can also notice the orchestration in songs like “no smoke without fire”, a song with a clear approach to classical music. Is this just an occasional experiment or you want to continue this musical path in upcoming albums?
M.S: We started to use this orchestral sounds on The Healer (Devils Ground) long time ago! Then used even more of these combination of strings, violins and cellos on Seven Seals and New Religion. In my view, this is even stripped down in relation to New Religion, but still an interesting element in the music of Primal Fear!
In “166 before the devil knows you are dead” we have notice an interesting evolution in Ralf´s vocal, he has changed his aggressive classic tone for a more acoustic and subtle one that can be heard in “hands of time”. Could you tell us something about the story that lies behind “hands of time”?
M.S: In Hands Of Time, four guys are singing here – first Magnus, than me, than Henny and Ralf joins in the big chorus – overall I have to agree that Ralfs performance on this album is his best and Ralf always works very hard on his parts and some progress.
To really appreciate the whole potential and energy of Primal Fear you have to see the band performing live, your next show in spain will be at the Metalway festival. Are you excited about it?.will you play some of your new material there?
M.S: we plan to perform some new songs at the Metalway Festival – always a great festival to be part of. We will come back to Spain in October 2009 with three shows Spain – I think we will come up with a great set list incl. a lot of new songs and some cool surprises!
I suppose you will prepare an exclusive tour to present “166 before the devil knows you are dead” in our country. Any date settled.
M.S: Yes, we will play three shows during our 16.6 tour on Oct 23 Barcelona, 24 Madrid, 25 Navarro and of course we will have two great other bands with us and have a very special set prepared for the new tour with a lot of surprises!
Within the current heavy metal scene there are lots of bands that sounds the same, so we miss something original in this musical genre. What do you think about this?..what new bands do you use to listen to when you have some time off?
M.S: your fans have to feel that this is an honest non bullshitting act! It’s important that there’s a great vibe between fans and the band and this has to come across to the future fans of the band. Good songs, good quality are always a key to work on an own fanbase! I listen to a lot of bands and diverse style of Metal from Shinedown, Disturbed, Slipknot or other stuff like Buckcherry and of course the classic stuff!
Primal Fear will present its new álbum in Germany this month (May 20th at the Braunschweig) through a series of presentation parties. How do you prepare this tour in your own country?
M.S: Our promotion team has lined up nearly 20 of these parties and it was a good job. Ralf and me attended the one in our hometown! Next Saturday, we will play our first show in Germany – this is even more important for us, but azer the great chart success of 16.6 in Germany, Sweden and Japan, we’re ready and fired up for the stage!
Talking about “166 before the devil knows you are dead”, there´s a lot of details in its sound, I think you have exceeded your older albums with this one. How long did it take you to finish this album?
M.S: All the guys in the band were very well prepared and I have to give credit to the entire band & our team in the studio. Great work! 2 month of pre-püroduction, 5 weeks of recording, 2 weeks of mixing plus mastering and the endless hours for photo shootings and the video clip!
Well Guys, I think this is it. Thank you very much and we´ll see you soon onstage. Would you like to say something else to our readers?.
M.S: Of course – check out the best Primal Fear album so far 16.6 and come to our concerts for a big party with Primal Fear!
Luis Ignacio Orós