Tallah Primeval Obsession Detachment Album Review

Review By Glen Parkes

When Tallah first emerged, they were pegged as torchbearers of nu-metal revivalism. With their third studio album, Primeval: Obsession // Detachment (out September 5 via Earache Records), they’ve transcended that label entirely. This is no mere throwback—it’s a fully unhinged, experimental plunge into chaos, theatre, and sheer extremity. Tallah are no longer knocking at the door of heavy music’s upper echelon; they’re breaking it down with jagged riffs and a feral grin.

At its core, Primeval is a concept record—dense, layered, and intentionally unstable. It tells the story of Ana, a nurse, and Sheelah, an assassin, both forced into morally dubious acts on an alien planet under the command of a mysterious entity. The album mirrors this fractured narrative in its structure: warped song forms, mirrored track titles, riffs that turn back on themselves. It’s disorienting by design, and that disorientation becomes part of the listening experience.

The way the album was tracked amplifies its manic energy. Recorded completely live—no click tracks, no safety nets—it’s a snapshot of a band performing on instinct. Frontman Justin Bonitz laid down his vocals in a single take while still recovering from pneumonia, giving his performance a raw, unpolished intensity. Add to that founding member Max Portnoy’s surprising move from drums to bass, and the whole record feels like Tallah tearing down their own foundations in order to build something heavier, stranger, and bolder.

Musically, Tallah have crafted something feral. Their foundation is nu-metal, but the band lace it with glitchy trap beats, electronic noise, strings, 808s, and even slide guitar. It’s jarring, abrasive, and at times overwhelming—but that’s the point. This isn’t designed for easy listening; it’s designed to pull you into its world and refuse to let you out until it’s finished with you.

The lead single “What We Know” encapsulates the approach—a lurching, groove-laden monster of a track that feels both familiar and alien. “Augmented” and “As Fate Undoes” push the experimental edges further, twisting riffs into reversed patterns that mimic the story’s mirrored morality. “My Primeval Obsession” and its counterpart “A Primeval Detachment” are standout moments, bridging ferocious heaviness with unsettling melody. By the time you reach the closing track “What We Want,” the record has folded in on itself, leaving you uncertain whether you’ve just survived a fever dream or an exorcism.

Bonitz’s vocals remain the centerpiece—shifting from guttural growls to unhinged screams to eerie whispers, often in the space of a few seconds. There’s a desperation in his delivery that reflects both his physical state during recording and the story’s emotional turmoil. Around him, the band churn and twist with controlled chaos: riffs snapping and reforming, drums pushing against the grain, textures cutting in and out like corrupted signals.

With over 29 million Spotify streams and 66 million YouTube views already under their belt, Tallah have proved there’s a hungry audience for this brand of immersive chaos. But Primeval feels like more than just a step forward; it feels like a gauntlet thrown. By pushing their sound into unpredictable territory while still embracing their nu-metal roots, they’re carving out a lane entirely their own.

Primeval: Obsession // Detachment isn’t an easy record—it’s demanding, volatile, and, at times, abrasive. But it’s also one of the most ambitious and uncompromising metal releases of the year. Tallah have crafted an album that refuses to be background noise. You don’t just listen to Primeval; you survive it.