Reunions are the move right now—especially if you’ve got a history of internal chaos, a nu-metal legacy, and unfinished business. So yeah, Primer 55 are back.
The band’s latest resurrection (their third, for those keeping count) was made official via Facebook, where bassist Joshua Toomey posted a new band photo and declared: “Nu Metal is back and so is Primer 55!!” Subtlety has never really been their thing.
This time around, the line-up leans heavy on familiar faces from the band’s rotating-door past: Donny “The DRP” Polinske is back on vocals, Bobby Burns (the one consistent thread through it all) holds down guitar duties, Toomey returns on bass, and Preston Nash is back behind the kit. It’s less a clean slate and more a Frankenstein’s monster of previous versions—and honestly, that’s kind of perfect for a band like this.
For context: Primer 55 originally split in the early 2000s amid label drama and personal clashes. Founding guitarist Jason “J-Sin” Luttrell’s well-documented struggles with addiction played a big part in the band’s unraveling. They gave it another go years later, but things fell apart again, and the record they were working on got shelved. Luttrell sadly passed away in 2018, leaving behind a complicated legacy and some unshakable riffs.
This new iteration feels a bit more self-aware. There’s no major label pressure, no glossy PR campaign—just a bunch of seasoned players who’ve been in the trenches before and clearly still have something to say. Whether that something sounds like Introduction to Mayhem or pushes into new territory remains to be seen. But either way, it’s loud, it’s grimy, and it’s unapologetically back-from-the-dead.
Is nu-metal having a full-blown moment again? That’s debatable. But Primer 55 getting the band back together—again—is a reminder that some sounds, and some scars, never really go away.
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