Week of May 7, 2009, Issue #707
MUSIC
Primordial: Thoroughly modern metal
Primordial eschews dragons and maidens to sing about today
Fawnda Mithrush / fawnda@vueweekly.com
When Euro-metal comes to mind it can often rouse visions of hairy, horn-helmeted growlers howling about faraway lands and legendary times, topped by squealing guitar solos. Of course, this idea just pisses Alan Averill off. When Vue called up the fast-tongued leader of Primordial—the seminal Irish black-metal band—Averill had just returned home from getting soaked in a rainy game of football (but we know he really means soccer), and is eager to distinguish his cohort from the silly mythical bent of the Scandinavian metal movement. Now on his first North American tour in the band's 18-year history, it's important for him to let people know what Primordial is really about.
"I never wanted to be one of those fantastical history-lesson bands. I'm not interested in singing songs about mythical wars that happened 2000 years ago," Averill explains. "I know that the syntax, the language of those stories and the imagery is perfect for heavy metal fans, but I always wanted to say something about the modern world."
Averill, whose stage name Nemtheanga translates to "poisoned tongue," has at the tender age of 34 years old spent over half his life in the band. So it's no surprise that he takes his music very, very seriously.
"Primordial is more about modern politics than it is about brave heroes that did amazing things," he says. "I'm too old to care for that sort of thing. People that just want soundtracks for their gaming, maybe they'll find Primordial boring. Where is the solo, where is the chorus? People want fantasy, they want escapism—it's just never what we wanted, we wanted to actually say something about this world.
"Let me put it this way: I don't have any kids now, but if I'm 50 and I have kids and they pick up my CD and go, 'This is what you wasted your life doing, songs about dragons and musclebound warriors rescuing fair maidens?' I'd be ashamed that we lived in this day and this culture and we didn't try and say anything about it."
And he's not about to sing about Celtic legends or Cúchulainn and his seven fingers either. Averill admits that the band's messages don't have much to do with the strife of his homeland. "Primordial isn't about being Irish—the concepts of alienation or martyrdom or giving your life for higher ideals should resonate whether you're from Peru or Palestine," he says.
Now studying for a degree in political science and communications, Averill plans to base his upcoming thesis on musicians in times of political change. "Protest music doesn't really exist in the west anymore," he says. "You really have to go to Second or Third World countries to find people who are really trying to say something through their music.
"I suppose poverty's eradication in the First World has allowed us to focus on things like Pop Idol and the celebrity culture that we live in."
To celebrate its first journey to the West, the band has recently reissued its debut album, Imrama, first released in 1995.
"People don't realize how long the band has been going, or where we come from," Averill says, noting that they're playing much smaller venues (and for smaller paycheques) than they're used to on this tour. "This is one of the founding albums of the second wave of pagan black metal. It's a bit of history, it's essential that it's still available for people to get."
As for the show, Averill says be prepared. "I think people might be surprised when they come and see the show because it's very aggressive, very serious. Primordial is more brutal than a lot of brutal bands." V
Mon, May 11 (5 pm)
Primordial
With Korpiklaani, Eluveitie, Moonsorrow
Starlite Room, $30
Social Bookmarking
Got something to say? Send a letter to the editor.
letters@vueweekly.com