Primitiv Head Into a Time Warp on Debut Album ‘Immortal and Vile’

Primitiv – (from left) Pushkar Joshi, Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Nitin Rajan, Kiron Kumar and Riju Dasgupta

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‘Immortal and Vile’ album art by Rahul Chacko

Last week, Mumbai metal band Primitiv launched their debut full-length album Immortal and Vile at Bengaluru gig series Impending Doom. Vocalist Nitin Rajan was stomping around, raising his mighty hands as though he was nearly embodying the same God of War he was growling about on “Taurus” and guitarist Kiron Kumar posing himself in the crowd for those shred solos.

Rajan’s unparalleled deep growl is a return to form [on a recorded album] after many years [he had last shone with his death metal band Morticide] but there’s more that Primitiv impresses with on Immortal and Vile, straight from off the ominous intro “Clash Of The Gods” with help from keyboardist Sushan Shetty [from symphonic black metal band Cosmic Infusion].

Immortal and Vile has a colorfully bleak yet detailed concept storyline about war [“World War Zero”], mythical desert beasts [“Dead Man’s Desert”] and lake mutants [“Lake Rancid”] and pretty much, to quote bassist Riju Dasgupta’s lyrics to “The Demon of Science,” how “Man became primitive, From his glorious past.” To accompany that, there’s this mix of death metal, doom and old-school metal that sounds gigantic enough and drummer Pushkar Joshi goes all sticks blazing on tracks such as “The Demon of Science.”

Their earliest material, however, is the strongest ”“ the pounding 2013 debut single “Taurus” and the riff-worshipping Black Sabbath-style destructive 2014 single “Lords of Primitiv” close Immortal and Vile on a high that will satisfy many a metalhead. There are a few gigs you can catch them wreak havoc at this month, plus their epic signature introduction, “Other bands are old-school, we are Primitiv” that guarantees raised horns.

Listen to “World War Zero.” Buy the album here.

Primitiv performs at Thunderstorm 2.0 at Goa Portuguesa, Thane on January 9th, 2015. Event details here.

Primitiv also performs at Hard Rock Cafe, Hyderabad on January 21st, 2015. Event details here.