Primordial are Ireland's premier metal band - they're one of a select number of Irish underground acts who have made an impact on any sort of international level.
The release of their most recent album, To The Nameless Dead in November 2007 along with many high profile festival appearances have definitley pushed them into the upper echalons of the international metal scene.
Last month they released their a live recording of their massive January 2009 show filmed in Dublin's Button Factory along with some bonus documentary material. The live show is awesome, with the setlist ignoring none of the bands six studio albums and drawing heavily from TTND.
My only minor gripe is that the DVD is actually from this particular show - their previous gig in the same venue, almost one year to the day before, is one of the best shows I've seen from any band, ever.
The below video is actualy from that particular gig in January 2008. Make no mistake though, with all that said, this performace is immaculate and the set is more than comprehensive!
Highlights include, the show opener 'Empire Falls', 'Cast to the Pyre' from 'Storm Before Calm' (one I really wasn't expecting) and particularly 'As Rome Burns'.
Epic is a word that is bandied about almost as much as 'random' is these days, but if there's any song, especially live, that is worthy of this mantle, it's As Rome Burns. It's mid-section is the kind of thing that most bands could only aspire to write.
The documentary is the real gem of this package for, with interviews from the band describing their early origins in the tape trading scene of the late 80s and early 90s around Dublin (and indeed the world), right up to the present day.
For those of us growing up in a more digitalised age, it's a real eye opener to the way that music operated in a pre-MySpace world, with hard graft, word of mouth, a sense of naiveity and above all passion being the driving force of a bands musical arsenal as opposed to how many friends you have on a social networking site.
Anyway, for anyone with half an interest in metal, I advise picking this up, you won't be disappointed!
And by way of introduction if you've not acquainted yourself with Primordial's music:
