Primal Fear – Interview met Mat Sinner (bass)
Mat Sinner: “I think the album is a nice balance between power and clearness. If you really listen to everything, you will find out new details with every new listen or spin.”
Toen het voorgaande Primal Fear album ‘Code Red’ in 2023 uitkwam, stond dit in het teken van herstel na de coronaperiode voor de band en vooral herstel van Mat Sinner’s gezondheidsproblemen die een lange revalidatieperiode vergden. Gelukkig staat de sympathieke mentor van de band – hij is songschrijver, producer en bassist – nu toch al terug op het podium en pende hij samen met zanger Ralf Scheepers en Magnus Karlsson het vijftiende studioalbum ‘Domination’. Mat Sinner is bovendien een sappige verteller, met evenveel precisie als Primal Fear’s muziek, zet hij de gebeurtenissen op een rijtje voor ons.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 11 september 2025
When previous album ‘Code Red’ came out, it was kind of a rough time. You had the pandemic and then you went seriously ill for a long time. So how is it going? Is it getting better with your health?
Of course, a lot better and thank God it is getting better. I came to the point where I had to decide if I wanted to come back on the stage. I could pretty easily write songs, sit down and play bass and everything, but to stay on a stage for an hour or 90 minutes, is different for the body and the constitution, so the time has come when I said ‘okay let us try it’ and I played now three shows with the band, three festivals and it was really, really great and I am very happy that I can do this again.
I can imagine. I found recordings of ‘Rock in Rautheim’, that was the first time back on stage I think…
Yes, that was the first time, correct.
In the meantime you have written the new album, together with Ralf (Scheepers – singer – Vera) and Magnus (Karlsson – guitar – Vera). What can you tell about that writing process?
We started working one year ago and first we collected ideas. As always with Primal Fear, we do a really deep preproduction. This is already sounding like an album, but to be 100% satisfied, we need 20% better. Primal Fear is a vision and we always spend a lot of money on the albums. This time it was a very important album, because I am 100% back, line-up changes and I think for all of us it was a very important album. So we took care very carefully. We wrote 25 songs, me and Magnus and Ralf had some ideas, and we have chosen 15 songs out of 25 and when going to the studio… I was going with André (Hilgers, new drummer – Vera) in Dennis Ward’s studio, because the studio is huge. A huge room for a drum is still for me a key to make a great sounding album. The other things could be done in our own studios and we collected then all the files and sent it back and forth and so it got better and better and better. Magnus and Thalia played lead guitars and we collected everything and then we went to Denmark, to our long time mixing partner Jacob Hansen and mixed the album there. Ralf and me were in the studio and it was a super nice experience this time. We were there for several albums before, but this time was a little bit special, so I think the album is a nice balance between power and clearness. If you really listen to everything, you will find out, with every new listen, new details and it is so clear mixed and so powerful. I am very proud at that final result.
As you mentioned before, there were some line-up changes. For instance, I am very surprised that Alex Beyrodt left the band…
He did not leave the band. He was fired, for important reasons. So we have to make this clear that when people say ‘Alex left the band’ that he did not leave the band, he is fired. That is the truth. We don’t want to make a big story out of this or washing dirty clothes. This is not our intention, but the truth is he was fired.
And what happened with Michael Ehré, the drummer?
Michael and also I have to say Tom (Naumann – ex-guitarist), they play together in my former project, called Rock Meet Classic. They see the future there, even if it is now calm. I think they did the last tour and then it is over. They did not know that and they thought it is more important for them to stay together than to stay with Primal Fear. I play with Tom for 30 years, with ups and downs, but we are living in the same city and we are the best friends you could imagine. I didn’t expect that, because I thought that I would be making music with this guy till the end of my days, but it happened and so life goes on. We knew for a very long time that Magnus wants to play live with the band and Magnus is – in my view – one of the top 5 guitarists in Europe. On stage he is also a super performer, but the other guys in the band did not want him to play with us. So, as they were not there anymore, it was clear that Magnus was coming back and he is super happy about that. And the drummer André, he already played the last European tour when Michael was not able to play, so we knew that André is a great drummer, absolutely equal to Michael and that was not a problem to change that. It was the easiest thing. The only thing was to find a second guitarist.
And that happened to be an extravagant woman!
(laughs) In the days of social media – and the other guys were very active in telling people ‘oh we left the band’ and blahblahblah… – which was not true – a lot of guitarists would like to play with Primal Fear. We got offers and talked with a lot of very well-known guitarists from the US and also from Europe. Then Ralf had the idea, he saw Thalia and said ‘how about that?’ In the beginning I couldn’t believe my eyes and said ‘what???!’! She is much younger and playing guitar in Primal Fear is not easy. But I like surprises and nobody could imagine this move. I said ‘let us check if she can play the parts – which is the most important part – and second is ‘does she fit into this band?’ because I don’t want to change any member in the next couple of months again, so this has to be a good foundation for the next couple of years. Thalia was a Primal Fear fan, she loved the music and she came to the rehearsal room and we played together and we talked and I think it was a very nice moment, a special moment and we thought ‘this could work out’. Next we were announcing her and our social media numbers were exploding! Really 99% positive, 1% idiots. You can’t change it, but the number of idiots was very low. That was cool. Everybody was surprised, so we got a lot of attention, because we did something which was not normal, not usual. Then we went to the studio with her, recorded her guitars and rehearsed in our rehearsal studio. Then came the first show we did together and it was not only for me a special show. There was Thalia at my side, which was absolutely a new situation to me. She did great and the vibe in the band was so amazing and enthusiastic. Everybody was totally motivated. It was something new after all these years when everything was getting normal, just usual. Playing huge festivals in the evening as a routine and this was gone! The band was hot and everybody was super positive smiling. It also makes my life easier!
Ready for a new start!
We now played three festivals together, the last one in Italy was the best. So it is a good progress and what can I say? I am happy.
Now we are going to focus on a few of the songs. ‘Hallucinations’ is an instrumental song. Why did you decide to keep it without vocals?
Because we wanted to have progress in everything we do. We don’t want to do the last album again. We want to do something different, still having the roots and the trademarks of Primal Fear, but also some new things. So there was this instrumental and you know that Ralf is a very important member of the band and you have to convince the singer not to sing, which is not easy. We said: ‘Ralf, we don’t need vocals on this song’, the first question was ‘Why?’ Because it is a showcase for the guitarists and it is short, it is sweet, it has great melodies, we don’t need vocals here. Let us finish it and then decide if we put it on the album or not. And then in the end everybody was super happy with the outcome and the song. So we put it on the album…
Another remarkable track is the ballad ‘Eden’ and you invited Melissa Bonny for a duet. What can you tell about this song?
Well, the basic idea is that there are these epic songs on every Primal Fear album. Once it was ‘We Walk Without Fear’ and ‘One Day In December’ or something like this. These ten minutes songs, there is always one on every album. This one was ‘Eden’ and it already starts with something unusual. It starts with the chorus. We finished the song and I thought: ‘it would be cool to have a very clean female voice above Ralf’ and I know Melissa, I did a tour with her in Rock Meet Classic and since then we have a friendship. Ralf knows her too. So we asked her and she also uses the studio of Jacob Hansen where we mixed. She lives in Denmark and I think she did a fabulous job. It is really what we were looking out for she delivered. I can only say that she is a great talent and it is always nice to see her and we wish her all the best.
‘March Boy March’ turned into a very furious moment!
Yeah, the basic idea is from Ralf. I would not beat him to sing that high again. It has to come from himself (chuckles) and he had the idea. It is a very brutal song, but I think, if you have an album with 13 songs, one song on the album could have that brutality and it is also nice to have the different type of songs on an album which makes it more interesting than ten songs three minutes in the same beat.
That is the art, making a diverse album yet within your style…
Absolutely and also for us as a musician it is a good challenge, because we have to be like a chameleon, sometimes like this, sometimes like that. I think it is great that we have three guys that are writing songs. It was great that Ralf came up with this, it was one of the more difficult songs to record, but in the end it worked out fabulous.
The last track and a reflective one ‘A Tune I Won’t Forget’ is also favourite of mine…
I think this was – or will be – also a very big surprise for everybody, because the atmosphere is like a soundtrack for a movie and not just a metal song. It is different, it is special and in the beginning, also with that track, we were not sure what would be the result. So let’s go and produce it and finish it and then we will decide if we put it on the album. I think, for the album, it is a perfect last song that shows a different side of Primal Fear, a different atmosphere and also built up in a perfect way. It is the total opposite of ‘March Boy March’.
Another aggressive element are the birds on the cover…
The eagle follows us since the first album and this time we have found that artist in Seattle in the US. He does crazy things and I asked him if he could come up with an idea of the situation with the eagle and the title of the album ‘Domination’. He came up with that idea and we just did a little modification and we are very happy with this cover artwork. It shows some power and I think it also reflects very good the title of ‘Domination’. (shows the vinyl)
What is for you a tune you won’t forget?
Oh there are a lot of tunes of a lot of artists I won’t forget. I grew up with punk rock. I was a big fan as a boy of The Sex Pistols. I am coming from a different kind of music and then later I found Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy. Then Judas Priest and so on. It brought me to a point where I learned to play guitar and was interested in becoming a musician.
Now it is almost time for touring and in September comes the longest headline tour since 2018…
Indeed and it is just the first half. The second half is coming in 2026 and also other territories. We will go to South America, we will go to Japan, we will play a lot more festivals than this year and so our gigs are booked until October 2026. On the first run we will play in Belgium and the Netherlands. I am looking forward to it, I think it will be great! We will show the new line-up and the new songs, which is very important for us.
If there are other musical projects you want to mention…
For me I learned, after my health problems I learned to take it more easy and even if I see the schedule of Primal Fear, it is not easy. I will focus on that. For me it is important that I am surrounded by great people and I love that, so I don’t have the need to do something else at the moment. For me it is really satisfying, I like it and I think it is the best situation you can have, if you do something you can really enjoy and when you meet the next time everybody is smiling and likes each other. I think it is a great moment for Primal Fear and I think you will hear it also during the concert, that we are very good with each other and this gives the whole thing a different dimension.
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