Phonebook Eater 7/10

“Redemption At The Puritans Hand” is a really good follow up to “To the Nameless Dead”, without repeating the formula too insistently.

After four years, Primordial return with a new album to the joy of the fans. This release was highly anticipated, after following their masterpiece “To The Nameless Dead”. We get something that is highly similar in concept to the previous album, perhaps toned down just a bit.

If you expect something different from the previous album, you’ll be disappointed; musically, the two albums share the same style and sound, as it was simply a second part to “To The Nameless Dead”. Thus, we have an archaic sounding production, with harsh guitars, vocals, and drums. Together, they create a dark, bleak, but at times hopeful sounding atmosphere. Whether this album is darker and more effective, it’s highly debatable. However, I can’t deny that this album has quite some moments that are distinct and unique from the other albums.

“Redemption At The Puritans Hand” is a solid release overall, consistent, and very much coherent lyrically speaking, however, I can’t help not enjoying it all the way through. Some parts of the songs, aren’t necessarily bad, or boring, the album as a whole I guess was too long, or at least it felt like it was going on forever. One of the reasons might be that the band always stretches out their songs, without adding another part to them, but of course this band is not progressive, and I never expected them to do so.

I found myself really liking some songs on this one, like the first two songs that open the album, “No Grave Deep Enough” and “Lain With The Wolf”, both having an amazingly dark and bleak atmosphere, even in the harsher moments. “The Mouth Of Judas” was kind of catchy for this record, it has a brilliant melody and a great atmosphere, and “Death Of The Gods”, the final track, is a perfect ending for such an album. Other good songs would be “The Black Hundred”, in all it’s diversity, and “Blooded Yet Unbowed” once again having a good melody and haunting atmosphere.

A solid effort, no one can deny it: one of those albums you feel like something is wrong, but you just don’t see it, because in the end you have almost no complaints. Possibly the only thing is that it is feels, like I mentioned, way too long, and much more than just an hour. Nevertheless an album that is certainly worth the wait for Primordial fans.

Time Signature Death of the gods...

Genre: Celtic metal / black metal

"Redemption at the Puritan's Hand" delivers dark melancholic Celtic metal music with elements of traditional Irish music and black metal. The black metal elements are restricted to the overall atmosphere, a ubiquitous use of tremolo picking (which is not insanely fast though), and snarling black metal growls every now and then.

So, if you expect black metal mayhem, then you are perhaps going to be disappointed. But the dark atmosphere is there, and this is not your stereotypical polka bopping troll metal. The instrumentation primarily consists of the classic rock music configuration, and the folk inspiration is anchored in the more melancholic department of Irish and Celtic folk music, and its loci are the melodies, the underlying drive and the lyrics.

The music itself is not technical as such, and the production is not too polished, and that suits the dark nature of this release quite well. The drums have an awesomely broad and deep booming sound and provides an excellent bottom for the quite dirty sounding guitar. The vocalist A. A. Nemtheanga has a very powerful, expressive and very rock-ish voice, and, in addition to being an excellent vocalist, he has no problems also delivering harsh black metal vocals. He certainly is one of the main fortes of this Irish metal band.

"Redemption at the Puritan's Hand" delivers dark and melancholic metal with a couple of black metal elements, which perfectly contribute to the dark atmosphere. This is an interesting dark metal album which certainly is worth a listen.