Wednesday, May 28: Blackwelder, "Freeway of Life"
Ralf Scheepers apparently couldn’t abide by even a brief lull in Primal Fear’s schedule, since Blackwelder’s one album came and went with no context other than Scheepers having a little extra time as Primal Fear was undergoing some lineup shifts around 2015. For that matter, in the moment Blackwelder had two Primal Fear members since Aquiles Priester had signed on to play drums, though he was gone before Rulebreaker got off the ground. The logical conclusion was that Survival of the Fittest was exactly like everything else Scheepers sang on since he left Gamma Ray, and “Freeway of Life” could’ve fit on any Primal Fear record since at least Black Sun: Scheepers wailed confidently over a strident gallop designed for maximum fist pumping. The one wrinkle was Andrew Szucs, whose riffing and especially soloing was noodlier and shreddier than the usual power metal chug and crunch that was PF’s trademark. But the chorus was instantly familiar, and for all of its pleasures (which were not insignificant) there was little discernible need for this.
