Primal: Humachine | Reinitiating The Machine
(Icarus – 2024)
Vitality is one of the characteristics that could best define Alberto Zamarbide’s current project. A more approximate definition could be “ gambled”, since this guy not only remains intact, with desire for more, but he bets on a new formation, a new name, to dare to sing in English and above all to go on different roads than those he already traveled with his former bands. I am referring, of course, to the bronze well earned with both V8 and Logos. Zamarbide, instead of insisting with the past, for a few years now he has been encouraged with Primal, a band with which he already released a first full-length in 2016. Well, the Primal project is still standing, and in the past 2024, was released this “Humachine”, his second album.
First of all, let’s go to some important notes. Changes in the line-up: Sandy K. Vazquez leaves and Cesar Ceregatti enters. Vazquez leaves and Cesar Ceregatti enters on bass, and Wagner Vincenzi leaves, without replacement, leaving Glenn Rogers as the only guitarist of the band. As a quartet, Primal brings us this “Humachine” with 11 songs maintaining the same line as in its predecessor, clinging to traditional Heavy Metal but flirting at times with the Thrash Metal of the bay area, as in “Warrior’s Code” or “Betrayal”. All mediated with the very good melodies achieved by Zamarbide with his already characteristic voice flow. “The Cage” opens the album, resulting in a kind of summary and anticipation of what Primal offers in ‘Humachine’. Precisely, the theme that gives the title to this work could be the connection in the distance with Logos as it happens with “Unleash In Madness”. On the other hand, “End Times”, chosen as the album’s opening track, both in its English and Spanish versions, remains in the line of traditional Metal with its riding march and interesting riffs. “Savior” and the interesting “Ever” (preceded by the intro “Bantu’s Victory”) offer us the most instropective facet of Primal, with rather relaxed climaxes and with some excellent guitar solos, fruit of Glenn Rogers’ guitar. “Fireflight” and ‘Infernal Nightmare’ complete an album that is ‘one more step in the battle’ for Primal. As a distinctive note, it is necessary to recognize that this second work of Primal, improved substantially in the audio and final result, taking into account that according to the technical card, both works were recorded in the same studios (“D-Organization Studios”, Sherman, California). Perhaps the mixing, being in other hands, has improved results in our way of seeing and hearing. The line-up changes have not significantly affected the band; Glenn Rogers holds his now solitary position on guitar very well, achieving moments of splendor. The historic Jorge Iacobellis on drums delivers as always behind the drumheads and the work of the new bassist, Cesar Ceregatti, complements the band’s sound very well. The lyrics, in English of course, show a very current and necessary message for the times we live in.
Excellent the graphic art of “Humachine”, which keeps a lot of similarity with Accept’s “Humanoid” (keep in mind that Accept’s album was after Primal’s. The conclusions are left to your discretion). Beyond that question, personally it’s like seeing the “computerized” child of Logos’ old and beloved “Generacion Mutante Album”, now grown up and in the middle of a nuclear war, with obvious connections to the beloved and never well pondered AI. In a certain way, and drawing a musical parallelism, clearly the Zamarbide of that time is not the same as the current one. He evolved, without losing the essence, that is clear. He decided to bet strong, not to stay with the laurels he knew how to get and go forward. “Humachine” is part of it and deserves the opportunity to be heard.
This work has the particularity of being available both on CD and Vinyl, which in itself is very good news. To get it, you can try https://www.icarusmusicstore.com or https://www.nolifetilmetal.com.
