“”Is this how it ends?” “We are devoured by time.” The latter phrase is the first lyric on Primordial’s How It Ends; the former is one of the last. The champs of epic metal return with their first album since 2018’s Exile Amongst the Ruins and tenth overall. The new batch of material obsesses over endings and the concept of finality, filtering this preoccupation through Primordial’s long-established formula of galloping rippers and stately marches. The slab’s title and its themes reflect both the state of the world and, inevitably, the state of Primordial.” Glory fades.
