• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

It feels weird reviewing this considering how many albums Primal Fear have released in the past 25 years. This was actually my first Primal Fear album, which I picked up at the mighty metal section at the HMV store on Yonge Street in Toronto (pretty sure that store has since closed down). Long story short, Tim Henderson of BW&BK Magazine fame, was running that section of the store, so had enough good stuff to fill several credit cards. Anyway... Second album for Primal Fear, Jaws of Death kind of deserved, to some extent, the "Painkiller clone" moniker (though I never adhered to that limiting description for the band's material). Ralf Sheepers' voice certainly was—and still is to this day—rather Halford-esque, and the very energetic heavy metal on offer, with some "proto-power metal" leanings, certainly was reminiscent of Priest's highly acclaimed 1990 album. Lots of power, insanely catchy vocal lines that you can't help but sing along to, heavy and aggressive yet accessible guitar melodies and lots of cool solos are all at the rendezvous here. Unless you're only into extreme metal with harsh vocals and nothing else (which is perfectly fine), there's no way in hell you can listen to this album without singing along, air-guitaring, throwing your fist in the air, the works. It's a fun album filled with powerful music, released at a time when this kind of metal was barely recovering from a 10-or-so-year slump. It's been 25 years, but it still sounds like a band that can teach today's bands playing the same style a lesson or two. This is an album that has aged very well.