Band:	Primal Tyrant
Album:	Saharan Gods
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	September 2023

01. Cenomanian Eclispe
02. Obelisk To The High-Spined God
03. Servants Of Sarcosuchus
04. Ascending The Food Chain
05. Aegyptiacus
06. Clash Of The Saharan Gods
07. Desolate Are These Lands Now
08. Cenomanian Extinction

Remember when dinosaurs ruled ancient Egypt? Yeah, me neither. But that's not stopping newcomers Primal Tyrant from inventing some fun, dino death metal!

Akin to Slugdge's obsession with mollusks, Texan band Primal Tyrant have fashioned the concept of their debut album Saharan Gods around worshipping gods in the form of our beloved Jurassic titans. If you think about it, it's surprising that dinosaur-themed metal isn't a more widespread idea. I don't know about you guys, but, when I was a kid, I was fascinated by three things: outer space, pirates, and dinosaurs. In our diverse metal world, we've got plenty of sci-fi thrash metal, cosmic black metal, loads of pirate speed metal and swashbuckling power metal. But no prehistoric reptile metal?

In fact, after a quick bit of research, I did find another dinosaur-themed metal band: the Finnish band Hevisaurus, which is, funnily enough, a metal band specifically aimed for kids. The more you know!

But don't let that children-oriented precedent fool you. Primal Tyrant are a totally serious, adult-only death metal machine that takes no prisoners. … OK, who am I kidding? Just look at that cover. Spinosaurus vs two other prehistoric predators wearing pharaoh garb, and even their loyal Egyptian subjects are donning dinosaur skulls as helmets! With all the morbid, serious topics circling through the extreme metal scene, it's a refreshing break to be able to chuckle at a ridiculous cover like that.

So, that's enough talk for now about their rather unique tongue-in-cheek concept. What of the actual music? Well, Primal Tyrant's enjoyable, groovy, riff-centered style of death metal is nothing revolutionary. The mid-tempo pace and lumbering guitar-work of tracks like "Servants Of Sarcosuchus" nicely match the lyrical story of soldiers marching to war to fight for their reptile gods. The growling vocals don't display much variation, but they're pretty consistently strong throughout the album. The stand-out instrumental intro and outro tracks feature a vivid atmosphere crafted by oriental melodies that nicely convey the ancient Egyptian vibe, while a prehistoric, tribal element is constructed via the thunderous drum beats of experienced drummer Fabio Alessandrini, who plays for several other bands (most notably Annihilator).

The narrative of the album reaches its climax on "Clash Of The Saharan Gods", in which a final battle ensues between three rival clans led by three dinosaur deities: a Carcharodont, a Sarcosuchus, and a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. You've got to give it to Primal Tyrant — they did their research. Not only are the fighting dinosaurs (depicted on the cover) based on real fossil discoveries, but remains of all three dinosaur species were first discovered in northern Africa. At the end of the song, all the human armies have killed one another, and the Sarcosuchus flees while the Carcharodont defeats the Spinosaurus. The following song, "Desolate Are These Lands Now", plays menacing tremolo-picked riffs as the ruined demise of ancient Egypt is described. The air reeks of blood, the Nile has run dry, and only the great Sphynx remembers what befell here all those ages ago.

Musically, while most of the album is pretty standard, run-of-the-mill death metal, the aforementioned intro and outro instrumentals are truly, magnificently epic as a result of the grand orchestration of Nick Malko. Sadly, these oriental melodies are very sparingly sprinkled across the rest of the tracks, only briefly appearing on tracks 2 and 5, for example. I wish that the death metal and symphonic elements would've worked closer together throughout the album as this would've added a much-needed dynamic to the otherwise straightforward death metal riffing. Perhaps this is something the band can consider improving on for future releases.

In the end, Saharan Gods is a short burst of enjoyable death metal, clocking in at a total runtime of only 25 minutes, bookended by impressive orchestration, and supported by a unique lyrical concept.