Stolen Years
The record was tracked at Dublin's Camelot Studios, located adjacent to their rehearsal room. While this proved very convenient for all concerned, the recording process was anything but easy.
"Sessions were good and productive to start, but as we were thinking on our feet for some songs and getting to hear things for the first time, we had to reassess at times, and this caused a bit of tension," says MacUiliam. "Also, we had gaps between recording sessions, so an idea which was good in week one didn't always sound so good in hindsight, and sometimes one person's vision did not match another's, and quarrels would ensue."
“Nemtheanga notes that the environment in which they tracked Where Greater Men Have Fallen was comfortable for them - based in an old farmhouse in the Irish countryside with time and space from each other, and having a big, open live room available to them. With the circumstances they found themselves in tracking Exile Amongst The Ruins almost the polar opposite, the vocalist feels that:
"I had to pay for the last one with the stress and darkness surrounding this one. It was fucking hard, cold, nothing worked like it should and it was more or less a total endurance test filled with conflict and discomfort."
However, he is quick to note, wryly, that while this adds up to a miserable experience, the results are unequivocally Primordial, and the record ultimately benefited from the trials faced.
"It all adds to making the music what it is - and if it was easy, we'd be a power metal band, right? Strife is life."
“Commenting about the album’s first single, Stolen Years, Nemtheanga added: “Stolen Years may seem like a strange choice as our lead single, and on the face of if I guess it is. It’s not a blood and thunder epic about tragedy and might and the ruin of nations, nor is it 9 minute epistle of doom. Have no fear, the album does contain those also but to open this time we chose something different. This album has some surprises and this is one of them, a short and painfully simple song which almost didn’t make the final cut if you can believe so. The video, cut by Costin Chioreanu, is about the journey involved in finally getting to that moment where you walk on stage, the song itself about that last night on earth that comes to us all, sometimes we never know when that might be, hold your loved ones tight tonight, this could be it…"
PRIMORDIAL will release their new album on March 30
"Exile Amongst The Ruins" track listing:
01. Nail Their Tongues
02. To Hell or the Hangman
03. Where Lie the Gods
04. Exile Amongst the Ruins
05. Upon Our Spiritual Deathbed
06. Stolen Years
07. Sunken Lungs
08. Last Call