No, Primal Fear has not lost their tremendous vocalist. Supposedly consisting of material not cut for his main band, vocalist Ralph Scheepers tries a few new things on his solo debut, Scheepers.  And considering that Tim “Ripper” Owens appears, it seems Scheepers took a few pointers from the aforementioned vocalist’s first solos disc as well.  Armed with a backing band consisting of Primal Fear’s Mat Sinner and  Magnus Karlsson,  After Forever’s Sanders Gommans and drums courtesy of Snowy Shaw (Therion, ex-King Diamond, ex-Momento Mori, ex-Dimmu Borgir), the majority of the guitar solos are from notable guest axemen (Kai Hansen, Mike Chlasick, Alex Beyrodt).

Album opener “Locked in the Dungeon” is the best Primal Fear opener in several years.  It’s built on rumbling drums, shredding melody, pulsating bass and Sheepers’ notable range. But this time there is a bit a groove thrown in.  “Remission of Sin” is a duet between Sheepers and Owens and if you aren’t paying attention the two vocalist’s virtually identical range is hard to differentiate.  The song has a massive Judas Priest vibe and Sheepers actually hits a few higher notes.  Perhaps that’s payback for Owen’s beating Scheepers to the Priest gig?

“Cyberfreak” hits harder and faster than the previous tracks. A slight Annihilator-style to the riffing really takes control while Scheepers actually snarls way more than usual.  Things get a bit soggy on “The Fall” which drops the rather traditional Metal bite for a more epic feel. The mid-paced pulse is rather ho-hum but the keyboards that leapt out at the beginning of the track are reduced to a minimum beneath the bass and guitars. The thing keeping “The Fall” from failing is Scheepers’ vocal effort.  “Doomsday” is a great about-face as the exceptionally moody, grinding track takes off to a hurried pace and allows from some great shredding and melody in the middle.

Scheepers covers his first band, Tyran Pace, with the fist-pumping rocker “Saints of Rock.” Judas Priest’s “Before the Dawn” gets an excellent treatment from Scheepers.  Handling the vocals and the acoustic guitars, Scheepers effortlessly channels his heroes.  “Back on the Track” does what the title implies and gets back to the Power Metal.  Except this song twists and turns rather unexpectedly and makes for one of the best moments on the album. The Metalhead appreciation track “Dynasty” struggles to break free from its thick bass groove while “Play with Fire” is a by-the-numbers melodic Power Metal burner.

“The Pain of the Accused” is about as grand as it gets here.  Soaring vocals and guitars take a strong hold of this exceptionally striking track. Scheepers sounds tremendous and what would be a bit of a too saccharine sweet Metal track turns out to be just tremendous.  Album closer “Compassion” finds is a traditional Rock n’ Roll power ballad that will probably throw a lot of people off as it sounds like something that could have hit big on the radio in the mid-70s if it weren’t for Scheepers’ higher register and the weird keyboard solo.

Unfortunately, Scheepers solo debut is not a return to Primal Fear’s glory days.  In fact, a lot of the music is on par with what Primal Fear has been doing on their last few releases. Except this is slightly better as a lot of the pure-Metal tracks have a bigger bite while songs like “Compassion” are very atypical for Scheepers and his full-time and previous bands.  Primal Fear fans will undoubtedly dig most of what is on Scheepers. The rest is better off starting with Primal Fear’s early discs or Scheepers-era Gamma Ray before trying out his first solo disc. 

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Locked in the Dungeon
2.  Remission of Sin
3.  Cyberfreak
4.  The Fall
5.  Doomsday
6.  Saints of Rock
7.  Before the Dawn
8.  Back on the Track
9.  Dynasty
10.  The Pain of the Accused
11.  Play with Fire
12.  Compassion

Total playing time:  52:32

Release Date: February 18, 2011
Label:  Frontiers Records

Scheepers - Scheepers

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

April 3, 2011