VERY OFTEN, musicians -- especially established ones -- like to remain within their musical comfort zone, preferring to walk the tried an' tested path rather than breaking out in search of pastures new. Primal Rock Rebellion don't fit that bill.
The brainchild of Adrian Smith and Mikee Goodman, UK musicians with different stories to tell, this is a fresh new project that manages to be both reassuring and unexpected at one and the same time...
On the one side, there's Adrian, a key member of the Iron Maiden set-up, a band he first joined back in 1980; and since that time, Maiden has gone on to become one of the biggest hard rock bands the world has seen, playing to vast and staunchly committed crowds all over the world, opening exciting new doors in parts of the globe many people will never even have heard of! Their last studio album, 'The Final Frontier', hit the No 1 slot in over 28 countries!
With Maiden's reputation having been forged through their ability to blend well-crafted vocal & guitar melodies with the sheer brute force of prime heavy metal, it will surely come as no surprise that the debut Primal Rock Rebellion album, 'Awoken Broken', delivers fully on both fronts, but with an extra nod to the underground, the alternative and the downright edgy -- an aspect of the music that is enhanced from start to finish by the presence of one-time SikTh frontman / lyric-writer / spoken word maestro, Mikee Goodman.
With SikTh now universally lauded as one of the major inspirations of the new 'Djent' movement, it's perfect timing for Mikee to return to the music scene in full force, following that band's decision to take a break after their second 'Death Of A Dead Day' album back in 2006; Mikee's unique vocal approach -- an arresting, signature blend of spoken word plus a wide variety of vocal tones (some dark and disturbing, others that owe a debt to the world of animation) was very much a part of what made SikTh stand out from the chasing pack, and fans will be delighted to know that his key vocal mannerisms have been both retained and honed for Primal Rock Rebellion, in a form tightly bound to the structure of the songs themselves.