Nightfly It’s always great to discover a new band, especially one as good as this. When I say new, of course I mean new to me as these guys have been kicking around since 2011. I missed out on Vampire’s eponymous debut album back in 2014 (though I did have a quick listen retrospectively) so With Primeval Force is my first taste of this Swedish band.

There’s a distinct 80’s vibe here though Vampire still manage to sound like a breath of fresh air in these days of often clinical precision production. They don’t sit easily in one particular genre either – Tribulation’s Children Of The Night, another album that didn’t sit easily in one place, came to mind but listening to that masterwork later, apart from the organic production and a slight vocal resemblance, sitting between Mille Petrozza of Kreator and a black metal rasp, there wasn’t as much common ground as I first thought. They do share a similar sense of dark melody though. These guys are from Gothenburg but they certainly don’t have that cities melodeath sound. Sure there’s death metal here but equally they have one foot in the thrash camp which is where the retro vibe comes in.

Nine compositions in total with not a weak one amongst them. These guys have plenty of aggression, pace and pack a considerable punch and whilst there’s not a massive amount of variation between one song and the next they inject them with plenty of accents and tempo changes. This along with the dark melodies makes for a very enjoyable forty minutes. As I said earlier I’ve only had a quick listen to their debut but initial impressions are they’ve upped their game considerably here. In fact the more I listen to this the better it gets, which is not always the case with albums that hit you straight away as this did. The musicianship is also great and with a drummer called Abysmal Condor and a vocalist called Hand Of Doom you’ve got to be drawn in.

Overall then this is one hell of a good album which should appeal to lovers of the old school of extreme metal, though don’t let that put you off if you’re firmly in this century, With Primeval Force has much to recommend.