Mat Sinner's story of the Black Sun

My view on the Black Sun? wow, where should I start ..............

first of all, we decided very early to write an album about adventures of our eagles in the universe. Japan gives us a hard time about the cover of Nuclear Fire and we have to solve these problems with the new album. In Japan the attitude of the new managing guys is to be very west-like and rude, which is totally different from the japan business I learned, but if you come up with something poiltical and even if it's against war and totally anti-war, if there is an atomic bomb on the cover, you've lost in the media. ok, but we have a lot of fans there and we really like the fans attitude in Japan - they keep the faith.

No more politics planned - adventure - we take the eagles to the universe on their search for the Black Sun - a mystical planet, the center of the universe, nobody have seen it before, where all the power is concertrated etc etc. - allright we like the story and we wrote our lyrics about what happened to our eagles on their way to the Black Sun. Most of the lyrics describes the different stations and the different places, till they reach the Black Sun indeed and then ........... I don't want to tell the entire story here. We started the band-songwriting with parts of our personal ideas in October after we came back from our "sensational" tour in Greece. We pre-produced 20 songs, what means we worked out the songs on Stefan's great working PC, mainly in our expensive practice room. As Primal Fear was always a democratic company, we had a meeting in early December and we've chosen 12 tracks out of the 20.

We moved to the House of Music Studios in Winterbach/Germany, which is the working place for my friend and longtime engineer Achim Koehler, who has already made a nice move as a metal producer with bands like Sacred Steel, Brainstorm and others. We've recorded every PF album so far and we really like the place as after us some others guys found out. We started with Klaus playing the drums and then Henny, Stefan and me started to record our tunes, with Ralf alsways been on hand, when we were ready with the basics to start with his lead-vocals. We interrupted the session over Xmas and new years eve. We re-started the engine again on Jan. 2nd - what makes me wonder this time, was that Ralf's voice was in a fantastic shape even he had to fight a cold, like every singer in these situation. Overall I have to say, that the recordings were very impressive. Every musician gave 150% and was totally focussed and dedicated and we had still fun, which is always an important factor in recording an album. In mid Jaanuary we moved to Texas to the Sonic Ranch to mix the album and record some little extra spots. Nice place, great people, super steaks and a cool studio and now after some remixing and mastering, we have Feb. 20th and the album is ready. The musical approach overall impresses me. Jerks who are telling "there are no surprises" are talking shit again that we're sounding like "Priest" should switch on their master button to their brain and listen carefully. The metal commando never ever sounded like this. The production ultrathick, the parts are better arranged and recorded more precise than ever, the guitars are played that good, I couldn't even believe it now and Ralf voice is on the peak of his career. There is a different musical approach, maybe we're sounding more modern, more complicated - but why the hell not? There is an evolution and this is the fact which makes me happy. No stagnation is an important factor in my entire life. Here we go with a little comment on the musical approach - track by track:

Countdown to Insanity

nice introdution like on every PF album, but this time it is played by the band and not by computers. very bombastic, so it's a countdown :-)

Black Sun

the titletrack which was not obvious for the album's opener, but we thought we deliver 100% PF at the beginning to show the fans, if PF is on the outside - it's on the inside - a double bassdrum/riff orientated metalhymn with Ralf's great screaming vocals.

Armageddon

ok again a political statement, but we don't shut up if it comes to these kinda things. Uptempo riffmonster with a very catchy hook and cool leads from Henny - could be the first videoclip we will shoot for the album. So watch out!

Lightyears from Home

if Black Sun is 100% PF, than Lightyears is 150% PF - a song in the tradition of "Silver & Gold" or "Nuclear Fire" on hyperspeed with totally classic Primal Fear melodies. Great grooving breakdown part and killer vocals!

Revolution

a heavy groover with modern sound elements and a great hook with some different parts. I really like the attitude of the song and the riffamania at the end of the track.

Fear

maybe the heaviest song we've ever written. starts with 90 seconds of riffing on various speeds and if you already think you listen to an instrumental song, there comes in the voice of metal and kicks ass - very very heavy. Harford's guitarist Mike plays the first part of the solo, the second solo is played by Stefan.

Mind Control

totally traditional PF attack, with double bassrum, arena chorus for the fans to sing with us and 3 different fantastic guitar solos. One of my personal favourites.

Magic Eye

shows the more melodic side of PF, with a fantastic atmosphere, great arrangements and a different instrumentation as the other tracks on the album - very cool outcome on this track.

Mind Machine

first song we've ever tuned to C and I play a 5 string, what I did for the last time in '95 - anyway, totally riffamania - Ralf and me sharing the leadvocals on this track, which for tough for me, cause its very high to sing, more in Ralf's tune, but anyway it worked out well and I think it's another interesting fact for the fans. Spacy breakdown and overall one of the most brutal songs we've done so far.

Silence

mybe the most melodic song of the album - still a heavy riff, but the melodies are in the vein of "under your spell" or "now or never".

We go down

another song, where we can show some new aspects in arrangements and the approach of PF. Very intersteing breakdown part, great hook, cool guitarwok.

Cold day in hell

shows another side of PF which was on every album so far. Very heavy riff, cool slow groove.

Controlled

closes the journey to the Black Sun, with again very high speed and a brutal riff. Total headbanging metalmania till the end. Great leads by Stefan,

So you know, what I think about the new PF album and from the bottom of my heart I can say, I love this album, even if was the longest time i've ever spend in a recording studio. Hope you enjoy it on April 29th !!!!!

Mat Sinner