Band:	Primordial
Album:	Where Greater Men Have Fallen
Style:	Black metal, Celtic folk metal
Release date:	November 21, 2014
Guest review by:	Netzach

01. Where Greater Men Have Fallen
02. Babel's Tower
03. Come The Flood
04. The Seed Of Tyrants
05. Ghosts Of The Charnel House
06. The Alchemist's Head
07. Born To Night
08. Wield Lightning To Split The Sun

If someone were to ask me a "yes-or-no" question such as: "Do you think this is their most accomplished album yet?" my answer would be "yes or no," because such a question simply cannot be answered with a single yes or no. However, would the question be rephrased as: "Did the latest Primordial album fulfill your expectations?" my answer would be a definite "no," whereas the question "Did you enjoy latest Primordial album more than any other Primordial album?" would yield an instant "yes." Did this introduction confuse you? Did I confuse myself? Yes and no.

Let me elaborate. Two tracks from Where Greater Men Have Fallen were released in advance: the title track and "Come The Flood." While the title track at least satisfied my Primordial fix, it felt just sub-par compared to most other lead songs in their discography. It is not a bad song per se, but very simplistic and straight-up heavy metal compared to, for example, the emotional and melodic "Empire Falls" or the vitriolic blastfest that was "No Grave Deep Enough." Not bad, but slightly uninteresting.

Then my expectations were shattered completely. "Come the Flood" is, at a first listen, plodding, meandering, repetitive and Alan Averill sounds a bit out of place. It sounded to me as if the acoustic guitar frenzy of "Fuil Arsa" from their debut album got infected with whatever virus Metallica were afflicted by when they wrote songs for St. Anger. Directionless and awful, I thought.

Hence the unfulfilled expectations. My expectations were through the floor. Luckily this is an expectation-defying, floor-breaking beast of an album which I enjoyed immensely. Aforementioned "Come The Flood" becomes something completely different when played in its context. It does a magnificent job of lifting the album from the slow, dreary, and almost "Gallows Hymn"-ish "Babel's Tower" to the most aggressive track "Seed Of Tyrants." With the emotions from "Babel's Tower" melting into "Come The Flood" the meandering becomes meaningful, the repetitiveness becomes hypnotic and the lack of direction becomes a one-way road.

There are two oddities on this album that I would like to mention, that both sound completely unlike anything Primordial has ever tried before. The first one is "Ghosts Of The Charnel House" which is plain Black Sabbath-worship until it breaks down into a relaxed and melodic, bass-driven atmospheric part which would make Isis' old dusty instruments rattle in their coffins and Cult Of Luna's guitars magically turn their heads towards Ireland.

The other oddity is "The Alchemist's Head" which has to be heard to be believed. It has a very disjointed feeling with strange, almost psychedelic rhythms and the dissonant melodies have me checking if I did not queue Deathspell Omega by mistake. It is also the single track on the album with harsh vocals. I enjoy it a lot but it is quite "out there." While the album initially did not appear to reach the heights of such great past releases as The Gathering Wilderness or To The Nameless Dead, some patience rewarded me with Primordial's most professionally sounding, ambitious, energetic, and innovative album of their whole career.

Recommended songs: "Ghosts Of The Charnel House," "The Alchemist's Head," "Born to Night"