“16.6” is Primal Fear’s 8th studio album. Their previous two, 07’s “New Religion” and “Seven Seals” from 05, both incorporated orchestrations into many of the tracks expanding on their established sound.  With “16.6”, much of that ingredient has been stripped away bringing the focus back to the guitars.

“16.6” also sees guitarist Stefan Leibing leaving the Primal Fear family after six albums, replaced by the more than competent Magnus Karlsson, joining alumni Henny Woter (who played on my favorite albums “Nuclear Fire” and “Black Sun”). 

As a result, “16.6” is Primal Fear getting back into their “Nuclear Fire”/”Black Sun” groove (plus offering a few surprises along the way, one of which some may want to beware!) as the aptly titled ‘Riding the Eagle’ kicks things off with double bass, twin guitars and a soaring chorus. First single/video ’16.6’ is a traditional Primal Fear/ Accept style headbanger with thick crunchy guitars and big drums from talent Randy Black.  The use of a Middle Eastern sound/orchestration w/ female vocals works very well sprinkled in ‘Black Rain’.  A little fancy guitar work gets the semi progressive ‘Torn’ going complimented by well placed moody keyboards/orchestrations.

CAUTION…‘Soar’ could potentially be seen as an abomination by long time fans with those harmonics/riffs that are clearly Disturbed in nature and worse yet are is the Korn breakdown w/accenting quirky sounding guitar leads.  Definitely a track that does not fit into the overall vibe of this album.  I warned you! 

“Seven Seals” sounding orchestrations return for balldesque ‘No Smoke Without Fire’.  A galloping Euro Power Metal rhythm returns for ‘Night After Night’, ‘Smith and Wesson’ kicks off with great guitar riffing and ‘The Exorcist’ is delivered with aggressive precision.  As I said early, there are a couple surprises and the best comes in the form of ‘Hands of Time’, an acoustic ballad that features Magnus, Mat, and Henny all singing a verse with Ralf on the chorus.  Excellent!...and very different for Primal Fear. 

Bonus tracks ‘Cry Havoc’, ‘Scream’, and video for ‘Six Times Dead (16.6)’ only included in the first limited edition digipak.