I stopped really paying attention to Primal Fear a while ago, somewhere around Delivering the Black, which was damn near a decade ago. Not that I thought that album was bad, but it wasn't really their A-game, and I had started to think we weren't going to see Primal Fear really kick ass again. After all, it's been over 20 years since their glory days with Nuclear Fire and Black Sun, and they spent a long time just being kind of mediocre.

I don't know if I would call Code Red up there with their best works, but it is a lot closer. For one, this is the heaviest, angriest album Primal Fear have made, maybe ever. Ralf sounds better than he has in years, partly because they dialed down the fucking track stacking, so you are mostly hearing the man sing, not 20 of him washed through ProTools, and Ralf is still a hell of a singer. The riffs on here sound heavy as fuck, and maybe they are not as hooky as in the old days, but they still crush. The vocal melodies are overall strong, and this is not an album that goes for the obvious chorus or lazy verses. The lyrics are still pretty bad in places (they have a song on here called "Cancel Culture," followed by "Play A Song") but that's not really new for this band. Overall this is the strongest Primal Fear have sounded in a long time.