FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL…
On November 16, 2007, Celtic Black Metallers Primordial released their sixth full-length studio album To the Nameless Dead via Metal Blade Records.
It was made available in a limited edition as a digibook, featuring a different cover design, a 40-page booklet, and a bonus DVD. The album was recorded at Foel Studio, Wales, with producer Chris Fielding.
Background:
Harsher and faster than its predecessor, To The Nameless Dead wasn't recorded digitally, it was recorded using all analog equipment and using mostly first or second takes for the final recording, making for a more raw, powerful and spontaneous sound.
According to the press release to promote the album, the group's second CD for Metal Blade was quoted to be "a timeless statement and an ode to their forefathers which lives and breathes the ancient spirit mixed with anger, pain and despair. . . To The Nameless Dead is defiantly at odds with a modern metal scene that often seems to place banality, mediocrity and safety above passion, honesty and truth."
Touring & Promotion:
While touring for To The Nameless Dead, the Irish dark metal masters headlined the Winterfest 2007 on December 15, 2007 at Cruiscin Lan, Cork City, Ireland. The festival bill also included Crowning Glory, For Ruin, Hallowed, Flatline, Slave Zero, Sirocco, Defect, Ground of Ruin, Five Will, and Diered River.
To promote the album, Metal Blade Records launched a special Primordial MySpace page which featured streaming versions of two tracks — Empire Falls and Heathen Tribes — from To The Nameless Dead.
Critical Reception:
To The Nameless Dead received virtually universal and overwhelming praise for its raw sound used from the first or second recordings, rising to such accolades as being named 2008's Metal Album of the Year by Chronicles of Chaos (continuing an unprecedented back to back honoring for Primordial by the webzine).
In his review, AllMusic’s Greg Prato praised To The Nameless Dead, stating;
“While some may be quick to lump Primordial in with the oodles of other black metal bands, these natives of Ireland are certainly not your run-of-the-mill extreme metalists, as evidenced by their 2007 release, To the Nameless Dead. The group thinks in an impressively "epic" scale throughout, while successfully eschewing all the bad habits that black metal has picked up along the way. In other words, there is no high-pitched vocal screeching and no faster-than-the-speed-of-sound rhythms, and the lyrics are not straight out of A Nightmare on Elm Street. In fact, certain Metal acts could learn a thing or two from Primordial -- playing as fast as your fingers will humanly allow does not always equate with the darkest and most foreboding metal. Sometimes, slow and grinding Metal builds up the tension just as much, as evidenced by such standout tracks as Gallows Hymn and As Rome Burns. To the Nameless Dead is arguably Primordial's finest offering to date, and is one of the more pleasant surprises among 2007 Metal releases.”
Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells
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