In recent years, many reliable metal bands have let me down, while bands that sort of slipped under my radar for years manage to thoroughly impress me. Last year, it was Septicflesh. Now it is Primordial that has released one of the better albums I have heard this year. Truth be told, the Irish quintet already had its moments of appeal to me in their more traditionally metallic material with clean vocals by A.A. Nemtheanga. And it is exactly that side of the band that is put front and center on ‘Exile Amongst The Ruins’, an atmospheric, melodically strong metal album.

Primordial’s background in somewhat folky black metal is mainly limited to dissonant chords and two more extreme passages. As a whole, ‘Exile Amongst The Ruins’ feels more like a relatively experimental doom metal album. Even in their most black metal days, Primordial tended to be more about atmosphere than aggression and despite the occasional outburt, their latest offering takes that approach to its logical extreme. The pace is generally moderate, though there is more variation in tempos here than on the likes of ‘The Gathering Wilderness’. The band has also shown great progress in their use of dynamics.

Those dynamics are a large part of what makes the album so good. A song like ‘To Hell Or The Hangman’ doesn’t have so much of a verse-chorus structure, but rather builds layers in a way industrial metal bands usually do. It does so splendidly though, making it the best song on the album. However, where Primordial used to have albums full of these “builders”, they switch up approaches quite nicely here. ‘Where Lie The Gods’ slowly builds towards its climax – a passionate howl by Nemtheanga – while songs like ‘Nail Their Tongues’ and the title track have great, pronounced, almost catchy choruses.

Surprising is the tranquil and melancholic ‘Stolen Years’, which provides a bit of a breather before the last twenty minutes of the album. Eight of those are taken up by ‘Sunken Lungs’, which is the brightest example of the album’s organic recording process. Many metal bands finetune their albums to death these days, but in the sound and the fluctuating tempos of Simon O’Laoghaire’s incredibly creative drum parts, you can really feel that the album is alive. The long closer ‘Last Call’ has some nice ebb and flow workings, which makes it sound considerably shorter than it actually is.

Anyone with a strong preference for Primordial’s black metal roots will probably be disappointed by ‘Exile Among The Ruins’. While its predessor ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen’ at least had one full-on extreme metal track, this one leans on powerful melodies, strong songwriting and Nemtheanga’s best vocal performance yet much more. For me personally, that can be considered a great asset. The mood of the album absorbs its listener and refuses to let go until the album is over. And with the album clocking in over 65 minutes, that is quite impressive. Highly recommended to fans of atmospheric doom metal.

Recommended tracks: ‘To Hell Or the Hangman’, ‘Stolen Years’, ‘Nail Their Tongues’