“Other bands are old school, we are Primitiv,” with such a
grand tag line the war lords of PRIMITIV,
a death-doom metal band from Mumbai [India] march into a barren land of dead
man’s desert. Having followed the band closely ever since their inception, with
having seen a clear growth in overall cohesion, song writing, and musicianship,
I was quite interested in what the debut album - Immortal & Vile would
bring forth. Needless, to say the album does not disappoint!
The band with the misspelled anthropological age, instead of
dwelling into the past as its name would suggest is actually peeping into a
future land. The band talks of the future where humanity has been nearly wiped
out after post-nuclear war fallout (what is referred as World War Zero). The
few, who survive have to re-learn the ways of the old. It’s a time when man,
machines and nuclear mutations all rule the earth! The concept, with the lyrics
by Dr. Hex (of Albatross) make for a really interesting tale as the album
unfolds. What was really pleasing was that even while laying down the plot, the
band leaves certain elements of the story to the listener’s interpretation.
With a grand (and slightly prolonged) symphonic intro ‘Clash of Gods’, the band introduces
their theme and then gets straight down to business with ‘World War Zero’. The track in a way represents exactly what
Primitiv is, some well written lyrics, heavy doomy- distorted riffs, packed
together with haunting death metal growls. The later mentioned growls of Nitin
Rajan really stand apart on ‘Dead Man’s
Desert,’ as the track comes to a crawling end midway before the echoing
deep vocals once again awaken the spirits from their slumber.
Praise must be given for the production on the album, as it
perfectly matches the kind of music the band puts on display. While all the
instruments are clearly audible, it’s the bass and vocals that stand out on the
mix. The sound on the record is heavy, crushing and loud, but never comes
across as one of the many brick-walled albums one comes across these days.
The album with its good music and even greater production,
does have a few trivial flaws. Firstly, the band at times tries to creep into old school death metal territory, with not-so perfect results.
Secondly, the album on few repeated spins comes off as a bunch of single’s
jammed and recorded around the theme, with the flow from one track to the other
being jarred at times and breaking the overall continuity. This does not come
as a surprise, as the band has just come together a couple years back and are
still perfecting their sound.
Nevertheless, the band clearly showcase the potential within
them, and given how good the music on the record is, they are bound to get even
better with time. The debut album, with its death influenced doom metal sound
(or is it doomy death metal? Heck let’s just call it Primitiv!) would be a treat to anyone who loves their
music to be heavy, yet slow and broody. It’s time to gather around the sign of
the bull, and let loose the war lords of Primtiv!
