In some ways, you almost have to respect Primal Fear— it takes some spirit to work in a Judas Priest cover band, decide that you could write better material, and then stick at it for almost thirty years. In almost every other aspect though, it’s hard to give the German metal crew much credit, as each successive album of theirs has wandered closer and closer to self-parody. Now on their fifteenth release, the group are once again proving that the tank has well-and-truly run dry (if it contained any gas to begin with): ‘Domination’ fits into the modern metal landscape like a parasite infecting its host.

On its face, the album carries with it all the larger-than-life bravado of a fun classic metal romp (and not just because of its unfathomably overblown cover). Primal Fear continue to wear their Judas Priest influences on their sleeve, filling every track with soaring screams, driving riffs and some of the most unintentionally hilarious lyrical content you could hope to discover this year— the group clearly want to sound impressive here, though the end result is far more cartoonish. New drummer André Hilgers is undoubtedly a talented performer, though he winds up playing the most obvious parts imaginable on the vast majority of songs: when combined with the album’s booming drum mix — clearly aiming to harken back to the sound of 80s metal— the percussion manages to become entirely uninteresting, and yet also impossible to ignore. Much the same could be said for guitarists Magnus Karlsson and Thalìa Bellazecca, who exhibit much more technical prowess than they do genuine character: Primal Fear can clearly play their instruments, even when the music they make doing so leaves something to be desired.

If there’s a single element of the new record to be decried, it must surely be the vocal performance of founding member Ralf Scheepers— it’s here, more than anywhere else, that Primal Fear fail to stack up against the competition. Scheepers clearly holds no reservations when writing his melodies— he is attempting to emulate the metal god, after all— yet most of the time, we wish he had. So many songs on ‘Domination’ are brought crashing down by his constant attempts to disguise the age and weakness in his voice, using a sea of backing vocals that come swooping in to smother many a hook across the record. Just take the sheer discomfort of ‘March Boy March’ as a prime example, as the blistering high notes Scheepers piles on throughout the cut collide in only the ugliest of ways: any number of tracks, from the aggressively average ‘Destroyer’ to the otherwise promising ‘Scream,’ are neutered in this manner.

To put our scathing criticism aside for a moment, we must admit that beneath that disagreeable exterior, ‘Domination’ does house some scarce highlights amongst its tracklist— at the end of the day, fans of Judas Priest (or other classic metal groups) may well find some material to enjoy from a band that sounds so much like them. Opener ‘The Hunter’ manages to salvage itself a decently memorable chorus and some impressive lead guitar work, working as hard as it can to earn the album’s overblown marketing— though the band frequently push too hard in that direction, it can pay off on a song like ‘Far Away.’ Single ‘Tears of Fire’ houses a similar number of strong ideas, even if many of them feel quite derivative of previous Primal Fear tracks— in some few instances, the song manages to recapture the spark that worked for 2014’s ‘Delivering the Black.’ At the end of the day, Primal Fear have a lot of records under their belt at this point, and that experience lends itself to some passable material: even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Unfortunately, those choice examples are the exceptions that prove the rule— in this case, the rule being that ‘Domination’ has a tendency to fall flat on its face. The band’s attempts at an anthemic self-titled track (in the comically dramatic ‘I Am The Primal Fear’) are disappointingly lethargic, plodding their way across a six-minute runtime that the song makes no attempts to earn: far too often, the group sound like they’re on musical autopilot, throwing out melodies and riffs like some twisted AI engine. Given that your average Primal Fear track is much too overblown for its own good, it shouldn’t be hard to see how the grandiose power metal of ‘Heroes and Gods’ could be similarly distasteful— the twin guitar leads in the song’s second half are appreciated, but they can only do so much.

Though it feels cruel to do so, we can just keep going. On past records, we could at least count on the German five-piece to bring some energy: in 2025, the sluggish tempo of a cut like ‘Eden’ makes sure to dash those hopes. The aforementioned ‘March Boy March’ deserves another mention as well for just how mishandled the track’s arrangements feels in its worst moments— if only Scheepers and company had heard the conventional wisdom that ‘less is more,’ we might’ve been spared from this inarguable lowlight. Primal Fear appear to do damage control via the title of closer ‘A Tune I Won’t Forget:’ we sure will though, as the track’s insufferably sappy piano scoring and dull vocal performances make for a certifiably underwhelming end to the project.

We feel compelled to let any Primal Fear fans in on a little secret: Judas Priest are not only still playing together, but just released a fantastic album last year. Compared to ‘Invincible Shield,’ ‘Domination’ comes up short in every category: even meeting the album on its own terms, it won’t fare well. Disappointing releases may be the rule of thumb as far as Primal Fear are concerned, but we’re not letting them off the hook on that basis alone— their fifteenth studio album is a pale reflection of much stronger projects, and a markedly uninspiring listen.