Biography:

Artist bio:

The debut album of RIK PRIEM’S PRIME will be released through Avenue Of Allies on May 23rd
2014. Several familiar names of the international Hard and Heavy scene were involved in the
recording and the production process of guitar player Rik Priem’s band project. The German
musicians Carsten ‘Lizard’ Schulz (Dead End Heroes, Frozen Rain, Lavalle, Evidence One, Midnite
Club) on lead vocals and Rami Ali (Freedom Call, Iron Mask, Lavalle, Frontline, Evidence One) on
drums are well known faces in the recording studio and on stages around the world. Rik first met
Carsten during the making of the second Frozen Rain album “Ahead Of Time”. The band is completed
by bass player Vincent De Laat, who also participated in the Frozen Rain sessions and Rik’s long time
friend Geert Margodt on keyboards.

Producer Steffen Seeger (Iain Ashley Hersey, Midnite Club) oversaw the recordings, before the
finishing touches to the album were put on the recordings in the German Empire Studios by Rolf
Munkes (Dead End Heroes, Empire, Razorback, Tony Martin), who handled the mix and the mastering
of the tracks.

Reading the names of everyone involved in RIK PRIEM’S PRIME it becomes obvious what to expect
from the record, a hard rockin’ slice of energetic Heavy Rock. The breath taking musical performances
of each musician combined with Carsten’s vocals on each song of the album, except for the
instrumental “Chameleon”, will attract any fan and follower of the previous and current bands and
projects of the participating musicians to RIK PRIEM’S PRIME.

Rik Priem’s musical history started with a bass guitar when he was 14, among the bands he
discovered during his teen years were Rock and Punk icons like Deep Purple, Kiss, AC / DC, Dead
Kennedys and the Sex Pistols. At the dawn of the 80s Judas Priest’s “British Steel” album left a lasting
impression on young Rik and when he heard the music of Def Leppard, Ozzy Osbourne, Dokken and
Iron Maiden, he knew that he wanted an electric guitar and an amplifier. His parents granted him the
wish and Rik’s Hard Rock infection made him practice on the guitar for hours almost every day.

Over the years Rik’s curiosity to explore music led him to listen to a variety of styles ranging from his
Hard Rock roots to Blues and from Fusion to classical pieces. His passion for the guitar grew even
stronger with the years and he developed his own technique to play the instrument. Joining a band
and composing original music seemed like a natural move for Rik, so he began writing instrumental
songs and playing with various local bands.

In 2000, after years of working on his skills in playing, tuning and repairing guitars, Rik finally decided
to make a living out of his love for the guitar and became a professional guitar teacher and guitar
technician.

The band experiences however didn’t meet Rik’s expectations on many levels and besides a few
instrumentals on compilation albums his playing wasn’t heard on a CD until he joined Kurt Vereecke’s
Melodic Rock project Frozen Rain in 2008 . The album “Ahead Of Time”, on which Rik also co-wrote
five songs, eventually came out in the spring of 2012.

Being a member of Frozen Rain was not only the starting point for a further co-operation with Carsten,
who was the vital spark for RIK PRIEM’S PRIME as a band project, but it also opened the door to
work on the debut of the Swedish AOR band Sapphire Eyes as a guest musician.

In support of the release of RIK PRIEM’S PRIME the band members are now gearing up to shoot a
video for the stomping Heavy Rocker “Babylon Rising” and to bring the songs to the live stage.