-Your website reported that you’ve been having great success on the charts here in the US, is this the best Primal Fear has done here in the States, and how important is that to the band?
Well, this is information from the record company and our webmaster published the news. Me personally don’t have a clue, if this is great of not – sorry, but I’m not that used to the US radioland and I don’t have any more information about the progress and the sales.

-Along those lines, can we expect to see Primal Fear in North America any time this tour?
We’re always want to play every concert which make sense and of course, it would be a pleasure to come back to North America, but it’s always a business question and the circumstances. One thing for sure – we are ready!

-It seems like only yesterday when you started Primal Fear, now you are an international powerhouse in Metal, has the success of Primal Fear met or succeeded your expectations?
Succeeded by far. We just started this band with the intention to record a bunch of songs we like personally. There was no strategy or master plan behind Primal Fear. The first reactions by record companies were really unexpected. We played so many foreign places and had a good time, I won’t miss any day in Primal Fear!

-“New Religion” in my opinion is your most diverse and perhaps “accessible” album in some ways. Are you guys trying to reach out to a wider audience with songs like “Everytime It Rains” and “Fighting The Darkness”.
As a very active musician and songwriter, you’re going through little changes during your career. You learn a lot of creative people, you have other targets and you want to try out things. We just wanted to drive our musical borders a little further with these songs. In my view, “Fighting The Darkness” will be one of the highlights in our career forever. I love the song and I really enjoy the vibe. It was a huge job to get all these little things together to create this song and we really enjoy playingthe song on stage too! But you never know – maybe the next Primal Fear album will be a classic and traditional metal album! That’s the nice thing, that we can decide for ourselves, what will be our next step and target!

-When looking at Primal Fear as a business, you guys are a well-oiled machine, you do things the old-school way by putting out an album every year or so and touring like madmen. This takes discipline and some sort of procedure I imagine. What sort of process does the band go through each album?
Every album is very different and even this time we had some bad moments in finding out about Tom’s behavior and nice moments to have a great guy like Henny back in the band. The recordings were very tough this time, but we finally had a very satisfying result. Next time, I hope the recordings can be done without any personal problems ? - of course, the following tour was the best tour we’ve ever done and the band was in a fantastic shape, incl. our show at the PP festival in Atlanta.

-I’m very pleased to see a new Sinner album coming up! Do you specifically write different material for Sinner or how do you decide what works for each band?
Well, SINNER is just my creative vacation. Without any business pressure and discussions. I can do whatever I want here and the next album will be a powerful Rock’n Roll album. In the time, I write for Sinner, I don’t think about Primal Fear. Primal Fear songs are mostly metal riff orientated. With Sinner the trad melody is the key to the song. With Sinner, we record very different. 4 guys in a recording studio – day & night rocking together and very old school like. It’s a kind of different attitude. With Primal Fear everything is bigger, more time, more variations.

-What can we expect from the new Sinner project? Is it similar to past recordings?
We’ve written 9 songs so far and I’m very happy about the vibe & quality of the tracks. I think we will face a very traditional and powerful Sinner album with all the trademarks. This time, no keyboards, just drums, bass, voice & 2 guitars. Very basic, very rough, very rocking!

-Hopefully this makes sense! Does Primal Fear somehow take a little pressure off the Sinner band, meaning, are you able to maybe experiment a bit more or take more chances with Sinner since Primal Fear has been successful?
Sinner is in the business for 25 years now and is a legendary band in Europe and Asia. Sinner has his own status and I won’t miss it to make this kind of music, which I don’t relate to Primal Fear in any case. Primal Fear is a hard working, good selling band and we can play all over the world. Primal Fear is my top priority, but I’m a very happy man, that I can still do an album and some shows with Sinner!

-You’ve been doing this since the early 80’s Mat, most guys start slowing down at this point of their career, you seem to be getting busier! What keep you motivated to keep up at this pace?
Metal is a lifestyle and I really like and live this kind of lifestyle. Even I’m doing the business part of things, it is different to a “normal” job. This one comes from the heart and the fans are the most loyal supporters in the entire music scene. The stage has a very special thrill and every show is very different and a huge job. I think, I really like it and enjoy it!


Mat, THANKS for all your kindness and music over the years. I don’t know if you remember, but we have spoken by phone in the past and when the record label didn’t send me a copy of “There Will Be Execution” to play on the radio show, I emailed you about it and within a few days you sent me an autographed copy. Anyway, I appreciate your dedication to music over the years, hopefully one day we can have a beer together. I plan on making a festival in Europe one day!
 
PRIMAL FEAR - "New Religion"- Locomotive Records - 2008

It doesn't take long to realize that Primal Fear has evloved once again on this recording. There's a deeper more sinister sound to the production. Mat Sinner was producing along with Charlie Bauerfeind and Ron Prent doing the mixing. They created a wall of sound I havn't quite heard before. "Sign Of Fear", the first cut is a dark and sinister cut, but soon you realize this is a ver diverse project with the male/female duet "Everytime It Rains" and the power ballad "Fighting The Darkness". Primal Fear seems "primed" to hit a more mainstream crowd.

Fans of Primal Fear need not worry, they have a plethera of Priest-influeneced gems. The previous mentioned "Sign Of Fear", "Blood On Your Hands", "Psycho", "Too Much Time", World On Fire" and "Face The Emptiness" are all strong Primal Fear tunes. The Metal machine keeps rolling on with "New Religion", and with a couple ventures into the slower tunes, they might pick up some more fans along on the way.
PRIMAL FEAR - Nuclear Fire - Nuclear Blast - 2000

One thing I can say about this band is that they continue to write kick ass Heavy Metal anthems like a well oiled machine. The opener to this disc "Angel In Black" is probably the best song they've ever written but it dosen't stop there. While the previous two releases had their choice cuts, this one held my attention from start to finish with a better sound and more aggressive attitude. Although this band has been tagged a Judas Priest clone, and deservedly so, they are finally shedding that skin and coming into their own. Sure, Ralf Scheepers sounds like Rob Halford. This is NOT a bad thing. What better compliment could a singer recieve.

So what does Nuclear Fire have that a metal fan wants? How about ten ton riffs and pinch harmonics that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. What about that slowed down 'grinder' to just make you close your eyes and bob your head. Are you a guitar solo maniac? There are solos, harmonized solos and then even more solos after that. You WANT to be reminded the glory days of Priest? NO-ONE else even comes close. Time for a power ballad you say...not a problem!!! There are many new tags in music these days but Frimal Fear play old school Heavy Metal that is just straightforward and has what we used to call BALLS. When you see a twelve song disc you immeadiately think "fillers", not so here. This disc is damn near flawless.