In late 2001 Niek de Jongh and Jon Symons founded the Dutch band Primal Rage. Ignoring the established nu-metal scene and taking inspiration from bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Megadeth, Primal Rage is born. For a short time the line-up consists of Jon (vocals, guitars), Niek (drums), Stein Berkhouwer and Vincent van Kampen. Because of musical differences the latter two decided to leave the band and in early 2002 they were replaced by Rob Stegeman (guitars) and Justin van Tuyl (bass). After playing a number of gigs with Primal Rage Justin decides to leave the band in March 2003, six months later Rob makes that same decision. They are quickly replaced by Jon`s brother Tim (bass, backing vocals) and Eric Liang (guitars). Songwriting begins soon after the band is founded and demos are recorded as soon as humanly possible. Their goal is to bring their music to the masses.

The ‘Oblivious EP’ was released a little while ago.

Since it is the first release of these guys, I was a little sceptic. But I am very surprised in a positive way. The music on the ‘Oblivious EP’ sounds very mature and you wouldn’t say that the average age of this band is 21 and a bit. There are a lot of bands that are older and more experienced and sound a lot worse than these youngsters.

The five songs on this well-produced EP are composed in an original way and the songs never bore me. The guitar solos (especially in ‘Oblivious’ and ‘Primal Rage’) remind me of Kirk Hammett and it’s good to hear that there still are fans of razor-sharp guitar solos out there.

So a long story short; this debut EP is definitely worth buying if you’re interested in young talent. You can order the EP on their website for a lousy €7.50. Now it’s waiting what the future holds for these four guys; a record label would be nice!