rock

Primer 55

1 upcoming festival →

Downtuned riffs and half-rapped menace from nu-metal's major-label boom years, running in fits and starts until the band finally called it quits in 2015.

Primer 55 came together in Memphis, Tennessee in 1997, formed by guitarist Bobby Burns and vocalist J-Sin, who met when J-Sin's previous band opened for Burns's own band. The name pairs "primer," meaning something unfinished, with "55," a reference to Interstate 55, the route drugs travelled from Memphis toward Chicago. Bassist Mike Christopher and drummer Josh McLane completed the original lineup.

The band worked in the nu-metal idiom that dominated hard rock radio at the turn of the millennium: heavily downtuned guitars, groove-based riffing, and vocals that shift between rapped verses and shouted choruses. Burns's metal background and J-Sin's hip-hop grounding shaped that combination from the start.

Primer 55 signed to Island Records and released its debut, Introduction to Mayhem, in 2000, featuring guest spots from Incubus turntablist Chris Kilmore, Hed PE's Jared Gomes and Relative Ash's Mark Harrington. The band toured with Biohazard, Slipknot, Machine Head and Dope, took a support slot on one of the period's major touring hard-rock packages, and later ran a bill alongside Soulfly, downset. and Slaves on Dope.

A second album, (the) New Release, followed in 2001, reaching number one on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and number 102 on the Billboard 200, with the single "This Life" charting on Mainstream Rock Tracks. Island shelved the album within two months, its momentum lost amid the disruption following the September 11 attacks.

The band split in 2003; Burns spent the next several years playing bass in Soulfly while J-Sin dealt with addiction. Primer 55 reformed in 2007, issuing an EP of previously unreleased material, and continued on and off from there, with further breakups and regroupings before finally ending for good in 2015.

Read more

rock