About the time Unbreakable came out in 2012, a lot of people had mixed feelings on the album. It did receive more mainstream attention than any other previous release from the band and saw great positions on the music billboard charts. Of course when anything gets more attention or popularity, you will always find people coming up with reasons to hate something, but I quite enjoyed Unbreakable. Earlier albums such as Black Sun resonate an awesome feeling when I look back, but I wasn’t quite expecting this newest release from the band to give me that same emotion. I was damn wrong.

I’ve always liked Primal Fear’s approach to power metal with keeping things heavy and solos at blistering speeds. King for a Day starts the album off heavy, and contains a tough sounding chorus even for a power and heavy metal labeled band. The album’s first song erupts with one beautifully crafted solo towards the song’s end that put me into a great mood right from the start. Guitar work is extremely solid, as with vocals, drums, and just musicianship in general. Rebel Faction is an aggressive track with a bit of a dark essence which includes some choir sounding keyboards that give it a really nice touch.

The album slows down a bit more with When Death Comes Knocking. It wasn’t one of my favorite tracks immediately, but implementation of acoustic guitars that had a hint of an Egyptian sound at times, and the catchy chorus makes this track a fantastic power ballad. The album picks up more intensity again with the self-titled track Delivering the Black, which has a more toughened up sounding chorus like the first track. More pounding heavy riffs continue with the track Road to Asylum that has a more mean sound than other tracks on the album. Even this late into the album, Primal Fear incorporates fantastic soloing that just simply impresses and astounds.

With the abundance of great solos and solid song writing, Primal Fear has done a fantastic job with Delivering the Black. It’s a big year for the band, and the release of this album still shows that they are staying very strong in the power and heavy metal world even since their formation back in 1997.