You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
Although they’ll forever be associated with the hedonism of Screamadelica, the so-called Bunker Trilogy – named after their then recording studio in London – was where Primal Scream flexed their muscles and hung red meat on their musical bones.
Derided as ‘dance traitors’ in the wake of the Stones-cribbing Give Out But Don’t Give Up, 1997's Vanishing Point (9/10) is less a recalibration and more a reaffirmation of where the band’s core values lay. Born of punk, liberated by dance and in thrall to the bottom end, their fifth album convincingly embraces funk and dub dynamics as well as the obligatory nod to rock’n’roll. And it’s with the addition of former Stone Roses bassist Mani to their line-up that Primal Scream move on up, with the dense and driving Kowalski becoming one of the most uncompromising singles to have gate-crashed the Top 10
Augmented by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, 2000’s XTRMTR (9/10) is the most politically charged and sonically aggressive of the three, its juddering electronics and industrial abrasion anticipating the fractured century to come. The relentless Swastika Eyes remains its calling card, while the driving white noise of Shoot Speed Kill Light sounds like a machine at breaking point.
Yet for all its confrontational intent, the album occasionally comes unstuck when Bobby Gillespie’s weedy vocals are exposed, nowhere more so than on the laughable rapping on Pills. Even so, its combination of righteous fury and aural extremism makes up for its shortcomings.
![Primal Scream - Swastika Eyes (No Strobe Version) [Official Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AbUSeZwGvgg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Evil Heat (2002, 9/10) suffers by comparison simply because it doesn’t have the first mover advantage of its predecessor, yet in many ways it’s every bit its equal. With righteous anger and deeper electronic grooves, any fat is trimmed for a more streamlined experience. The pounding Miss Lucifer is short and sharp, while the krautrock-referencing Autobahn 66 remains one of their most beautiful moments. Elsewhere, the reworking of rocker City from David Holmes’s Bow Down To The Exit Sign tightens the original, and Robert Plant adds spirited harmonica to The Lord Is My Shotgun.
Together these three albums reveal a band unwilling to stand still, frequently mutating without ever abandoning their instinct for confrontation. Although more records followed, few captured the same sense of danger, invention and possibility.
The Bunker Trilogy bundle is available from the Primal Scream webstore.
