As Judas Priest announce their farewell world tour, so we in the UK – where metal truly began – are looking around for young bands who can hold high the metallic flag in the coming years. And among all the pretenders, could South of England band Primitai be the real deal?

Words: Malcolm Dome

Although they’ve now been around for about seven years, it’s only in the last two that the line-up has stabilised, featuring Guy (vocals), Nick (lead guitar/backing vocals), Srdjan (lead guitar), Jamie (bass) and Chris (drums).

Their influences, says Nick, “Come from 80s metal. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica and Slayer. We’ve also got a little bit of prog in there as well. I’m a big Marillion fan”.

In 2008, the band self-released debut album Through The Gates Of Hell, establishing a style that owes something to the NWOBHM era, but filtered through a distinct thrash perspective. And this is even more obvious on current record The Line Of Fire (again, self-released), wherein the band have added a touch of confident class.

“The problems we have, though, are the same as so many other bands these days. We have to work so hard to get even a sniff of an opportunity and it’s virtually impossible for a band like us to make any money at all.”

Primitai did get the chance to open for White Wizzard on the latter’s recent UK tour, doing well enough to impress everyone who turned up early to see them. At The Underworld in London, the place was packed for the five-piece, who delivered a thunderous and sweaty set of twin guitar-based, maximum throttle. In fact, they probably went down slightly better than the headliners.

Another plus that night was that they appeared to attract a lot of very attractive young ladies. Is this the norm for them?

“I wish it were,” laughs Nick. “That was just a case of friends of friends of friends coming down. We usually get mostly males at our gigs. Not that I’m complaining!”

The plan for 2011 is to get on the road as much as possible…well, as much as day jobs will allow.

“We did 10 dates with White Wizzard, and we’d like to do two or three more support runs like that. In an ideal world we’d tour for a month, but none of us can take off so much time from work. So, we have to do it in smaller bursts.”

Primitai also hope to get a new record ready for a summer release. And if it’s as good as The Line Of Fire, then expect big things for this lot within the next 12 months. They are definitely one of the elite who can carry on Priest’s crucial legacy.

Don’t believe it? You can download the song The Craft now at http://www.primitai.com/