[Cover photo credit to Fergal Flannery]
Dublin, Ireland-based Metal band Primordial have unveiled their new single, “Pilgrimage To The World’s End,” and its accompanying lyric video. The track hails from the band‘s tenth studio album, How It Ends, set for release on September 29th, 2023 via Metal Blade Records. Its subject matter is wide-ranging, but it encompasses the idea of uncertain journeys and their outcomes for the downtrodden.
Having lasted thirty-two years , the Irish band is following up on 2018‘s Exile Amongst The Ruins. Blending Celtic influences and Black Metal, this time they are confronting the apocalypse.
Says vocalist A. A. Nemtheanga:
It sounds stupid to say, but it‘s not fantasy, not escapism. It‘s not compromised and co-opted, it‘s genuine, in a world where that seems to count for less and less. The title is a question – ’is this how it ends?‘ How it all goes down: culture, language, history, society – humanity – who knows? Regardless of who you are or were, you get one chance at all of this, and it‘s asking is this the end of your town, state, nation? Myths, traditions, relationships, and I suppose it asks the question, who reacts, who rebels – how does it end now for them?
Their latest single, “Pilgrimage To The World‘s End,” was inspired partly by the stories of poor Irish convicts, sent to “the world‘s end”, figures like Ned Kelly who refused to accept the laws oppressing them and “who then rebelled and came to embody, through myth, resistance. This is an album of resistance,” notes Nemtheanga.
He adds:
’Pilgrimage To The World‘s End’ started out being inspired by the travails of Irish people sent as convicts to Australia, but of course I folded that into a post ‘Coffin Ships’ narrative, poor people boarding boats to try and reach a new world to start over anew, how many went down the boats, endured sickness, death, never reached their destination.
Then I began to really consider the plight of all people within that 19th century period who by famine, war, poverty tried to seek a new life; the oppressed and the downtrodden. So as PRIMORDIAL always has a historical echo that should resonate with the modern day, we see the same thing, poor people clinging to boats trying to seek a new life, always at the behest of a small economic elite who profit from their ruin. This is the song of the war and famine torn refugee from all countries and nations…
PRIMORDIAL w/ Paradise Lost, Omnium Gatherum, Harakiri For The Sky:
9/28/2023 Substage – Karlsruhe, DE
9/29/2023 Komplex – Zurich, CZ
9/30/2023 Kaminwerk – Memmingen, DE
10/01/2023 Schlachthof – Wiesbaden, DE
10/02/2023 Löwensaal – Nuremberg,DE
10/04/2023 Trix – Antwerp, BE
10/05/2023 Garage – Saarbrücken, DE
10/06/2023 MeetFactory – Prague, CZ
10/07/2023 Vienna Metal Meeting – Vienna, AT
10/08/2023 Barba Negra – Budapest, HU
10/10/2023 A2 – Wroclaw, PL
10/11/2023 Capitol – Hanover, DE
10/12/2023 Kronensaal – Hamburg, DE
10/13/2023 Hellraiser – Leipzig, DE
10/14/2023 Turbinenhalle 2 – Oberhausen, DE
10/15/2023 Roanda – Utrecht, NL
