PRRIMO, THE

Prrimo, the is the debut release by Argentinian progressive/ experimental metal act. Prrimo, the is a 3 track EP with a playing time of 22:26 minutes. The band is a power trio consisting of Raul on guitars and vocals, Pablo on bass and Backing vocals and Marcos on drums and backing vocals. The EP is free for download on the band´s official homepage and on their myspace.

Random mixes alternative rock/ metal with technical modern metal/ thrash metal. Bands like Tool and Meshuggah comes to mind more than one time during the playing time but Random have quite a unique sound that sets them apart from their influences. The vocals by guitarist/ vocalist Raul are really strong and varied too. He is able to deliver both alternative clean rock vocals, rough metal vocals and really raw distorted vocals. He is one of the rare breed of extreme metal vocalists who are able to deliver really raw vocals yet sounding melodic at the same time. The three songs The Most Pleasent Nightmare, Walk The Twisted Line and Expressive Logic are all high quality compositions. Filled with adventurous ideas and playing. One moment we´re treated with some mellow alternative rock and the next we´re smashed in the face with a load of angry sounding heavy thrashing riffing. Add to that some brilliantly played technical sections and you´re just about there. The samples in Expressive Logic work really well too and add great atmosphere to that song.

While the vocals, as mentioned above, are a real treat IMO, I won´t forget to mention the outstanding musicianship. We´re talking some really accomplished musicians here. Not only do they know their chops ( and probably in their sleep too) but they are excellent composers as well. They strike the delicate balance that is so important when you mix alternative rock/ metal and extreme metal. I´ve heard tons of acts that does the same thing but many come off sounding like weak emo thrash/ metal ( and yes that´s a bad thing in my world). Random are very different from that scene and not only do they show lots of muscle but they also show lots of brains too ( Just listen to the opening riff in Walk The Twisted Line for proof). In other and more vulgar terms Random are capable of kicking your ass while challenging your mind at the same time. Just my type of music.

The production by Ramiro Rodriguez is really impressive too. This has got to be one of the best productions I´ve ever heard on an independent release. Fully on par with some of the better studio productions by signed acts.

Prrimo, the is an outstanding first release by Random and I will chose to not just call it promising. This EP is EXTREMELY promising. Such a high quality product commits though and I expect to be greatly impressed by the debut full-length studio album when that is released. For now Prrimo, the has been one of the best surprises I´ve had in a while and it´s hard to imagine that the EP comes as a free download. If there´s any justice in this world Random are bound to be signed very soon and given the opportunity to release their debut album on a label with international distribution. A 4 star rating is well deserved. Now go download and spread the word.

This review is written by a non-metal head. I left this scene a decade ago and have lost touch with the lateste developments there.

Random is a new band from Argentina who combines extreme brutallity with melody and flair. The metal here is very technical. The more melodic melodies has a lot of jazz feeling. In other words; a pretty heady twenty two minutes, divided on three songs. The longest one is over ten minutes long.

The sound and production is excellent. It really throws a punch and is really adding a lot of value to this EP. Also, the vocalist Raul is delivering a top performance. Both on the death grunts and the clear vocals. The same can be said about the other musicians too. Top stuff.

The music is a bit anonymous in my ears. But there is no doubts this EP should be an essential download (get it for free from their homepage) for anyone into brutal metal. Random has arrived and that big time with this EP. I hope the album is as good as this one.

3.5 stars

I got this EP quite a while back but I never really paid much attention to it until after Random released their first full length album, Todo.s los Colores del. After listening to that album and really enjoying it, I decided to come back and give this first EP another try. Coming in at about 22 minutes, "Prrimo, The" is a nice little chunk of progressive extreme metal, and while I think that the songwriting is a little less developed than on Random's later album, it's still an engaging listen and a very impressive display of musicianship.

"The Most Pleasant Nightmare" begins with a fairly minimalistic percussion part before a guitar riff comes in. This riff is elaborated upon with bass and more percussion and before long clean vocals enter the mix. After a while the vocalist belts out a long scream after which the music slows down a little bit and there's a section of growled vocals. The music has a very math-metal feel to it, with a variety of rapidly switching rhythms and motifs that still feel very technically accomplished if not 100% perfectly cohesive. Midway through the track the heaviness pulls back a bit and there's a more delicate guitar solo which is soon joined by more clean vocals. It's a nice contrast with the heavier beginning of the track and the vocals are very good, but it doesn't totally gel with the super-technical sound of the first section. Overall it's very well performed, though, even if the songwriting doesn't seem quite 100% to me yet.

"Walk The Twisted Line" is next, beginning immediately with a pounding, heavy riff that's joined pretty shortly by vocals. The thing that I really enjoy about Random's vocals is that their vocalist doesn't just have a "clean" voice and a "growled" voice; he sings very much on a spectrum, and how distorted the singing in often reflects the emotion of the music. It's a neat technique that I haven't heard too much. Musically the song switches between very heavy, almost mechanical riffing and slower, more emotive sections. I personally find these slower sections much more effective, but I've never been a huge fan of that kind of heavily riff-based tech-metal to begin with. Nonetheless, it is very well done, and I think "Walk The Twisted Line" is probably a little more cohesive than was the first track.

"Expressive Logic" is the last track on this little EP, as well as the longest. Beginning with a spoken word sample, the track starts off on a kind of heavy, jazzy feel, with a groovy bass line and some wild drumming behind the guitar riffs. There's an almost 4 minute instrumental section that begins the track before some very raw sounding vocals enter. The riffs in this section are some of the heaviest on the entire album, and I really can't stress how insane the drumming is in this track. About halfway through the spoken word section returns, seamlessly interwoven with the singing, which is just as brutal as the guitar part. With about three minutes left another instrumental section starts, and the precision of the musicians is really very impressive. The mood changes after about a minute, pulling itself out of the bone- crushing riffing and taking on a much cleaner sound, which the vocals also reflect when they reappear. Intensity builds back up as the song reaches its conclusion, and finally the track ends with a drone of guitar distortion. It seems like a bit of a sudden cutoff, but it's hard to fault such a good song for such a minor flaw.

So in my mind, at least, the last track is really the highlight here, but the first two tracks certainly aren't bad either. Insofar as this is Extreme Prog metal, it probably falls a bit closer to "extreme" than "prog," but I still think most prog fans should find plenty to like, especially in the final ten minute track. A nice little chunk of music and a great demonstration of what Random is capable of.

3/5