Unbreakable is the 9^th studio album from German Power Metal stalwarts Primal Fear; it’s also their second album featuring guitarist and metal songwriter extraordinaire, Magnus Karlsson.

The album starts with the short and forgettable orchestral intro “Unbreakable Part 1” and kicks into the metal with “Strike” a heavy rocker with singer Ralf Sheepers trademark banshee-like screams, which have been compared to the Metal God himself, Rob Halford. The assault continues with “Give Em Hell” a sure fire crowd pleaser and the lead single “Bad Guys Wear Black” a fist pumping metal anthem for new year. Speaking of anthems, “Metal Nation” is another killer track with a sing-a-long chorus. For all of the fans of the trademark Primal Fear double bass drum power metal “And There Was Silence” is for you. There are also a fair share of epic metal songs including “Marching Again”, “Where Angels Die” and the superb “Born Again”, I would guess the latter two were written by Karlsson as they have his style all over them, but without liner notes, I can’t be sure.. Primal Fear has always reminded me of their biggest influence in Judas Priest. Primal Fear are able to blend heavy metal, add some commercial sounding ballads, and power metal anthems and mesh them together into a churning headbanging heavy metal machine. I feel that the new Primal Fear album has far superior material than their previous effort “16:6 Before The Devil Knows Your Dead”. If “Unbreakable” is a sign of what’s to come in 2012, it’s going to be a great year for Metal!!

Rating: 9.0