People give us a lot of shit for overusing the word 'buzz', but when you're describing black metal, very few words truly represent just exactly what it is about black metal that MAKES black metal what it is, yeah, it's riffs and blast beats and voKILLS, sure, but c'mon, without the buzz it would be, well, something else entirely. Plus you try and write almost 3000 reviews every year and see how many other words for buzz you can come up with.
Anyway, this is the first proper full length from this already legendary third wave black metal super group, now a duo featuring the mighty Dirge Rep on drums (he of Gehenna, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Aura Noir among others) and Taipan (from Norwegian thrashers Amok), but having previously included members of Gaahlskagg, Borknagar, Carpathian Forest, Krypt, Deep-pression, Desekrator, 1349 and others.
This current duo offer up some seriously TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL, if those words get you going, then stop right there and add this to your cart, love Gorgoroth and old Emperor and Darkthrone and that sort of thing, not blasting or furiously fast, nothing especially fucked up or far out, more just pounding and thrashing and buzzing, black black black metal. Some killer riffing, awesome epic melodies and creeped out ambient bits, frantic chaotic drumming, classic sounding old school black metal vox, harsh and raspy, all wound around total vintage sounding classic Scandinavian blackness. Lots of hooks buried beneath the layers of buzz, and as mentioned some CLASSIC black riffs, every listen we dig this more and more, But then it's a sound that we, and we're pretty sure lots of you, are total suckers for. So if you're in the mood for some pure grim frosty kvlt old school black metal, this is definitely it.
Incredible cover art, haunting and artful and a bit garish, with a thick booklet, mysterious artwork and lyrics. Cool.
Orodruin's debut album Epicurean Mass might be the best release yet from the up-n-coming doom metal label psycheDOOMelic, run by Hungary's Hegedus Mark, who's also responsible for the underground doom/stoner bible Psychedelic Fanzine. With a name taken from Tolkien -- referring to Sauron's Mount Doom, natch -- Orodruin are an American band, from New York state, and play a doom fan's style of doom metal. That is, it's obvious that the Orodruin guys are doom fans with musical talent making good on their obsessions, doing justice to such influences as Black Sabbath (of course), early Cathedral, Saint Vitus, and... Bo Hansson? Yep, they've got a thing for the Swedish '70s prog-organist, an AQ-fave as well, which may have something to do with the Tolkien connection. But that's why guitarist John Gallo dabbles in some organ solos on here. Aside from those, don't come looking for anything super new and original on the doom front from Orodruin -- which is not to say this isn't great, actually this is. Solid doom metal played right, with melodic but morose vocals. And we can report that they're good live too, as they just played an impressive show here in San Francisco (on the "Doomination of America" tour with an international array of doomsters) on their way to last weekend's Stoner Hands of Doom festival in Portland, OR. Doom on guys!
Just by listing the members of this 'super group', I know some of you are gonna buy this before we even get to the part about how crappy this record is. Oops. I think I just blew it. Anyway. In case you're just scanning these long ass reviews let's try to get you to stop here a second: KYUSS QUEENS OF THE STONEAGE GOATSNAKE FATSO JETSON.....okay. Gotcha. Orchesta Del Desierto is made up of Alfredo Hernandez from Kyuss and QOTSA, Pete Stahl from Goatsnake and the Earthlings?, Mario Lalli from Fatso Jetson and the Desert Sessions, and Steve Brown from Hermano. So what does it sound like you ask? Well, it's sort of like stoner desert rock, but imagine if someone took away all of their effects pedals (especially the distortion pedals), took away their Marshall stacks and replaced them with Fender twins, and laced their pot with horse tranquilizers. So yeah, mellow and sleepy and uninspired. And add in Mr Pete 'My vocals can ruin any band' Stahl and you've got yourself a big ol' PASS ON THIS ONE. And for those of you who think I'm full of shit, here's the quote from the obi: "Soulful, spacious and mellow, but no less powerful than the heaviest riff-rock records Meteor City has released. Discard all your expectations of desert music and you'll be ready to take this journey."
We're probably not the first to say it, but doom metal band Orthodox are *anything but* orthodox on their second offering for the Southern Lord label. Spanish sludge lords with a psychedelic bent, Orthodox's 2006 debut album Gran Poder was a major sensation among connoisseurs of the heavy, being selected as an Album Of The Month on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website, in part for its pagan-Catholic imagery, in part for its monolithic heaviness. What about eagerly anticipated album number two? Though we think it's great, and most likely Mr. Cope does too, this new one will no doubt cause some consternation among the less open minded of doom fanatics, as it's got a lot more going on that sheer sludge-ry. Not that Gran Poder wasn't an eccentric effort either, but this one's extremely so. Extremely eccentric, and eclectic, indeed.
The first track, "Con Sangre De Quien Te Ofenda" could easily be mistaken for a moody piece of instrumental avant-jazz, with that wide-open-desert-spaces feel of Hex-era Earth, baroquely adorned with a shuffling, dramatic drum solo and an almost-joyous improv-blowing session for trumpet and other horns. It actually brings back fond memories of the late great metallic math-rockers Engine Kid, the band that SUNNO))) member and Southern Lord label boss Greg Anderson used to play in back in the day, like when they would get jazzy like Iceburn and cover Coltrane... Minus the horns, that disjointed, free-jazz vibe continues on the second track, the nine-minute "Mesto, Rigido E Ceremoniale", though they heavy it up quite a bit. Imagine a slowed-down, fractured Black Flag instrumental, like something from The Process Of Weeding Out made more abstract, slower and heavier. Entering into the territory of defunct Dutch instro-metallers Gore here! With the third song, though, vocals finally enter the mix, weirdly distressed and wailing chant-like, and the riffing gets more intensely metallic, rigidly clawing through a miasma of chaotic, psychedelic, paranoid jamming. That one, "Solemne Triduo", makes us think of Om mixed with Los Natas at their strangest. And then, just when things are getting loudest and most insane, the album takes an abrupt shift into the quietly windswept, acoustically strummed "Amancer En Puerta Oscura" which flows immediately into the ominous "Puerta Osario", with stark repeated chords, and cruelly plinking piano keys. Though just two minutes minutes long, this is no brief detour like the piano interlude heard in the middle of Gran Poder, as it seamlessly segues into the sedated, suspenseful "Templos" that pulsates for 15 minutes in an darkened dreamworld of eerie clarinet, shimmering cymbals, slow-paced percussion, sparsely echoing bass, sheer moody atmosphere... It's a kind of creeping chamber music, that could be the score from some Italian horror soundtrack, or the sinister cousin to the epic tracks on Circle's mellow and mesmeric Miljard, mixed maybe with the 20th Century style stuff Ghost was experimenting with on their last album, In Stormy Nights.
The seventh and final track, "Parte II. Apogeum", then hits like a ton of bricks, massive doom-riff guitars smashing all before it, as if to say, you want ye olde DOOOOOOM? You got it! This song should shut up any complainers who didn't entirely get what was going on before, it's a doozy of a doom number all right, complete with even frenzied, metallic, acid-fried guitar soloing, and insanely effected alien Ozzy vocals. Closest comparisons would be to Thrones, and Yob and/or Middian, at their most claustrophobically crushing. It's like Orthodox wanted to wrap the album up with one song that in 7 minutes, 54 seconds would utterly satisfy anyone wanting Gran Poder Part II, for whom some of the more mystifying, weirdly proggy stuff elsewhere on this album could just be a bonus. Of course for us it's all good.
Recommended to all unorthodox doom lovers! Art and design by Seldon Hunt, by the way, and as long as we're dropping his name, here's some other names that we should have worked into the review somehow, as we think fans of the following might quite like this: Boris, Comets On Fire, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Ennio Morricone, Dragonauta...
At last!! It's been a while since we last caught up with entirely UN-orthodox Spanish dooooooooooom mongers Orthodox. Yeah, doom with so many o's that we're surprised they had any left for the 3 in their name. But also doom that takes a lot of strange twists and turns into the furthest far out zones of the genre.
This band's first two outstanding albums, Gran Poder and Amanecer En Puerta Oscura, were issued stateside by Southern Lord back in 2007. Now, six years later, we have the Spanish release of the their fourth opus, Baal. (Their third album, 2009's Sentencia was MIA at aQ, but maybe we'll be able to get some now that we tracked down an import supplier for this new one.) Billed as a return to their heavy doom Gran Poder roots, after the psychedelic, almost jazz-like experimentation of the last couple, this IS hellishly heavy, though still quite avant-garde, as well.
Lead off instrumental track "Alto Padre", despite its deep distorted low-end, is definitely more psych than doom, in fact... skittering percussive pitter-patter and chiming guitars conjure a hazy, mellow mood. It's a woozy ritual that could easily appeal to Six Organs Of Admittance fans, for instance. But then the band brings the doom hammer down, big time, on the next song, "Taurus", quite a surprise for some of us here who didn't know what we were listening to... Crushing, crashing chords and peals of feedback begin the jagged death march that continues over Baal's remaining four tracks. You don't listen to this for conventional "songishness", nor really even for riffs (though there are RIFFS), more for the totality of the experience of Orthodox's tectonic rumble and psychedelic sickness... It's a combo of lumbering sludge bulldozing, twisted gnarled leads, and alien, underwatery atmospheres. And vocals - with a weird, wavering effect on 'em, very much like OM meets YOB, intoning grim and desperate chant. With those vocals, one starts to think about the band inhaling from a balloon filled with, not helium, but some other, psychotropic gas... actually maybe not sucking on the balloon, but being sucked INTO it, the entire band inhabiting some impossible, drug-filled inner space. Which also sounds like it could be deep under the earth. Soon you'll be trapped there too, possessed by the churning metallic attacks, spacious drones, and proggy freakouts found throughout the demonic Baal...
The grande finale, 14 minute "Abrase Le Tierra" sums it up, explosions of distortion detonating over drum clatter and organ drone, then the guitarist goes offffff and it's a doomed out Earthless... before a wild, heavily effected finish. Imagine a mix of Yob, Gallhammer, Earth, and even Comets On Fire, here!
If the well-used terms psychedelic and heavy, which have been cited umpteen thousand times on this list alone, have any relevance to your listening habits, especially at their extremes, then we suggest you get this Orthodox album (and The Wounded Kings also this list, and the Elder reviewed last time, too, for that matter, if you haven't already), you'll be happy you did!
All the doom (and ultra doooooooOOOOOoooooom) lovers here at aQ agree, idiosyncratic Spanish outfit Orthodox is one of our faves, and have been pretty much ever since their 2006 debut, Gran Poder. Over their several albums since, they've pushed the doom envelope in various extreme and extremely strange directions, indulging all sorts of influences, but even when their predilection for sometimes avant-garde, proggy, jazzy, acoustic weirdness takes over, and they start sounding like a cross between Yob and Six Organs Of Admittance playing free jazz, they still ruled - and ultimately remained rooted in old school doom metal too, with a powerful, crushing, heavier-than-thou RIFF always lurking around even the most confusional of corners of their freaky ceremonial sounding compositions.
We hope you're as big of fans of Orthodox as we are, 'cause we're excited to have this new, double cd rare tracks collection from 'em. Of course it's all over the place, from covers of Venom and Sabbath to full on improv sessions, and it's all pretty killer. There's cuts from 7"s and compilations and early cassette demos, plus the bonus tracks from the Southern Lord vinyl edition of Gran Poder (those covers), and several previously unreleased songs as well, all remastered. Obviously for fans first and foremost, but heck if you started your Orthodox experience here you'd be well equipped (and we expect, eager) to delve into the rest of their catalog.
Things start off with mantric, OM-ish "Matse Avatar", the A side of a 7" originally released on the Doomentia label. Great lyrics, you can read 'em in the booklet - one line mentions an "old lady mermaid" who "sings like Geddy Lee". The B side comes next, then their version of Venom's "Genocide", an appropriately aggro and off the rails, bass heavy black metal blast. That's followed by the other cover, wherein Orthodox take one of the first, if not thee first, doom songs ever, "Black Sabbath", and come close to making it their own, being ultra fuzzed out & fucked with, and also seriously psychotic in the vocal dep't.; we'd thought we'd heard that song, and covers of that song, way too many times, but we're willing to spin this Orthodox version again and again. Weirdly, it somehow reminds us of Japanese underground '80s prog act YBO2, if that means anything to you or yours. Then there's the 18+ minute "Heritage", taken from the Four Burials 4-way split, a beautiful and haunting example of psychedelic slowcore "headphone doom", as we described it in our review of that disc. The three previously unreleased tracks are particularly interesting as well, one's from a collaboration with a flamenco dancer - but for sure isn't flamenco music, with its explosive distortion detonations and skittery soundscapes. The other two are intense noisy improvs, and the rather enlightening track-by-track commentary in the cd booklet from the band members reveals that they were inspired by Black Flag and Japanese psych like Mainliner and Keiji Haino, yup, we might have guessed. John Coltrane and, uh-huh, Rush are other influences mentioned here and there. In fact, one of the improvs is titled "Japan Rush", ok!!
Disc two is all lengthy tracks from live rehearsals, originally released on demo tapes, definitely raw but with tons of atmosphere, two of 'em being the first Orthodox recordings ever from back in 2005, demonstrating that they dwelled in "the void" from the very beginning, cult stuff for sure, and HEAVY - listen to these early versions of songs from their debut studio album and get even deeper into their eccentric, unhinged doooooom vibe. The demo track from Sentencia, "Ascension", shows how much changed in a couple years, the band even more eccentric, their doom harder to define.
All in all, essential to anyone who really appreciates Orthodox, and well worth checking out if you're into adventurous doom in general, from Cathedral to SUNNO))), Khanate to Boris, OM to Los Natas... (We're not sure if Rush fans will dig, but they could give it a try too.)
DOOM. As per AQ tradition, we should throw some extra 'O's in there just to indicate just how doomy this is -- DOOOOOOooooooooOOOM! Not to get sidetracked, but Doom might be the only musical genre that you can deliberately misspell to indicate extra enthusiasm for whatever example of said genre you're describing. RRRRap doesn't work. Nor would you say Woooorld Music. And adding extra 'o's to Pop is a just bad idea, unless you're talking about pop you don't like. But doom, being all about being slow and low, just gets doomier when you exaggerate the spelling into doooooooooooom. The point of all this? That the debut disc from Spanish doom band Orthodox, needs, like, exponential 'o's to really get at its doominess.
Recently and rightly hailed as an Album Of The Month on Julian Cope's psychedelic drone/doom/druid rock lovin' website Head Heritage, Orthodox's Gran Poder ("Great Power") consists of three looong tracks of gloomy, glacial heaviness mixed with more chaotically rockin' parts, with one brief piano-laced interlude seperating tracks two and three. These crushing compositions are almost symphonically grand, an often exceedingly slow grind of eternally doomed drone like Earth or SUNNO))), sometimes speeding up to rock out psychedelically in the style of Argentina's Los Natas, graced with heavily tremelo-laden vocals or utterly spaced out ambience that make us think of Thrones and Yob.
Throughout this sludgey stoner soundscape, you'll hear feedback wailing like lamenting lost souls, the rumbling drum battery either nervously dodging the lugubrous riffs as they fall from the sky, or pounding in unison with the guitar and bass, sounding like the gates of an abandoned ancient cavernous cathedral slamming shut... over and over again.
We imported a whole bunch of these direct from the label in Spain because we're pretty sure that fans of the likes of Corrupted (who also sing in Spanish, after all) and Yob and Sleep and UFOmammut and all the other extra-o's deservin' dooooooOOOOoom bands that we love would want this! And if for some reason you need further convincing, please look up Julian Cope's review on his site, where he references Flower Travellin' Band's Satori and the Mediterranean paganistic roots of Catholic ritual and "Rumble" by Link Wray and much much more, his incredibly enthusiastic review almost a call to arms for doom fanatics... and he also includes cool pictures of the black-robed band members he took on a trip to their land!
Final recordings from these East Coast, ultra doom sludgelords, and holy shit do these two tracks utterly destroy. We never managed to review their only full length, from back in 2004, but we raved about their more recent splits, one with Japanese heavies Coffins, and more recently, the Four Burials comp with fellow doom brethren Loss, Orthodox and Mournful Congregation. In fact, these two tracks here are from the same sessions that produced their Four Burials track. And like was said, these songs are massive, epic, sprawling, intense, and so so heavy.
It kills us these guys are no more. The first side/song is ultra heavy, sloooooooow, crushing heaviness, with some insanely gurgly vokills, somehow it manages to be surprisingly melodic at the same time, the guitars ringing out, spacious and measured, eventually slipping into something more slowcore, sounding a bit like Khanate covering Codeine, but infused with plenty of classic doom melodies and grooves, a strange combo, but it works so well.
The second side/track begins with a wall of feedback and then a wild tangle of gnarled psychedelic guitars and spazzed out drum-age, before smoothing out into a doomy crawl. But throughout the next few minutes, the track continually erupts into super dense bursts of chug and churn, every time sounding like the start of a more frenzied jam, but always settling back into that slow motion lumber. The second half of the track gets super minimal, almost mellow, the guitars warm and low, laced with strange clicks and distant tones, all spaced out and spare, eventually building back up to a caustic corrosive crawl, the vocals even more sick and inhuman sounding. So goddamn good.
One of these cats is now in Serpent Throne, but here's hoping the rest of Otesanek start up something this heavy and intense. Too bad this is the end. But what a way to go.
The packaging is amazing as well. Super thick cardstock sleeves, screenprinted with super intense woodcut, fold out the lp to see the whole image of an impaled woman, her hair a tangle of foliage, the hilts of the swords super dense and intricate, inside liner notes and lyrics, also woodcut style. And included are a couple printed inserts. SUPER LIMITED of course, not sure we can get more when we run out.
This is just what you might expect (and certainly hope for) from a band made up of five, that's right, FIVE members of sorely missed Southern doom sludge legends Eyehategod. The only difference this time around is the occasional burst of speed, like EHG, if they were chasing their cough syrup/heroin with a case of Red Bull. Crushing, pummelling, shrieking, howling, grinding metallic sludge. So good.
The cult metal label Stormspell (who brought us all those obscure Jewels Of Gwahlur discs listed last time) has just released the cd version of this Oakland-based outfit's full-length debut, previously issued on vinyl via the band's own Magic Hermit imprint. Ovvl (or Owl - the band's name is obviously Owl but it says Ovvl here, perhaps for legal reasons 'cause there's probably a dozen other bands called Owl, or just to be weird) is a four-piece, featuring three brothers on guitars and drums, plus an unrelated female bass player. We'd seen 'em in person before, opening some local metal shows, playing heavy duty sludged-out stoner rockin' stuff, but they hadn't made much of an impression - until we heard this disc. Sometimes (as it was with Saviours) that's what it takes, a chance to listen to 'em at home, undistracted, not at the bar getting beers and talking to friends. And turns out, for this sort of thing, they're pretty dang good!
What sort of thing? Well, Stormspell aren't just about '80s styled true metal and thrash, they're also into heavy retro '70s psych sounds (they did the debut Noctum disc after all). And that's what Ovvl delivers, clearly influenced by the likes of Sabbath and Budgie, and at times reminding us a lot of early Monster Magnet. Fuzzed out, bell bottomed badassery!
The album opens with the energetic "Gypsy River", a concise biker boogie rocker with cleverly cliche hippie blues lyrics we can't help but dig (mostly about how the titular Gypsy River is driving the singer insane). The second track, "Medicine Mirror", mixes together Sabbathy riffs, Thin Lizzy-ish guitar harmonies, and UFO vocal melodies (we're hearing a little "Doctor Doctor" in the refrain). Yeah, it's easy to play a game of spot the influences from Ovvl's dad's '70s classic rock record collection, but they do it in a way that's not at all unacceptable, mashing all that good stuff up and making it heavier - and at least there's more than one influence at work, unlike with, um, those other local heavies, Orchid.
Then on track three, "Glaurung", Ovvl stretch out for a 10+ plus prog suite fixated on Middle Earth fantasy, that begins in an acoustic Led Zeppelin mode before turning into more of a lumbering Pentagram-style riffer, with vocals that totally remind us of Bobby Liebling. And there's a drum solo! Other tracks on the album adopt a rougher vocal style, and crank up the punk energy, sounding more like contemporaries The Shrine or Hot Lunch.
And so it goes, these presumably pot-puffing throwbacks telling tales of demon rides and snake-eyed goblin women. Music for mystic partiers, basically. And who wouldn't want to be a mystic partier? We'll be spinning this a lot. GYPSY RIVER YOU ARE DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!
For those of you unfamiliar with OX, a quick look at the cover should tell you all you need to know. The image on the front it a towering Orange amplifier, the back cover, a close up of some amplifier vacuum tubes. Two songs to a side, with titles like "Seismic", "Mass", "The Horror" and "Abyss". And hell, the record's called Aftermath. Plus, it's on Finnish label Kult Of Nihilow, who in the past have brought us records from Boris, , Dot [.], Church Of Misery, Fleshpress and Stumm. So if you guessed massive, pummeling, sloooooow, doooooom, dirge heaviness, you've definitely come to the right place.
We listed a 10" from OX years ago, and sadly we were only ever able to get about a dozen. We got a whole lot more this time, but these will probably still be gone before you know it. OX is the one man guitar doom project of Ken Baluke, who spends most of his time wielding his axe in Canadian doom groove outfit Sons Of Otis, but in OX, it's just him, and his guitar, and what sounds like lots and lots of really big amps. OX is definitely a practitioner of that sort of slow motion sludge guitar ambience, but definitely has his own unique angle. The core of OX's sound is a thick slithery Earth 2 style glacial riffing, a black liquid doom that sort of seeps out of your speakers, but above this dense low end is a gloriously fuzzed out effulgence, all glistening fuzz and radiant sparkle. Those two extremes all tangled up and constantly bleeding into one another. Haunting and heavy and so beautiful. Not sure whether it's supposed to play at 33 or 45, but sounds great either way. On 33 it's a sloooooooooooow crawl, at 45, it's still slow, but a little less murky and more luminous. Sort of like having two different, but equally heavy and kick ass records in one!
LIMITED TO 255 COPIES!! We got about 40 of those, and once they are gone we most likely won't be able to get more.
Another amazing release from Finland's Kult Of Nihilow label (who brought us the Dot [.] 10" elsewhere on this list), this time from Ox, otherwise known as Ken from Canada's Sons Of Otis. Movements finds Ken, the axeman responsible for some of the heaviest stoner doom we've ever heard, taking his guitar playing to the farthest reaches of metal, ending up in some seriously grim and glacial territory, alongside minimal doom brethren Earth and Sunn 0))), In fact, if one didn't know better, on first listen, one could certainly be forgiven for thinking this was indeed a record by one of those slow motion doom legends. But that would be selling Ox a little short. Imagine Earth at their most ambient, then smooth off all the rough edges, until distorted guitars become slowly shifting tectonic plates, a glacial drone, dense with lumbering, rumbling tones. Doomy and dark, beautiful and serene.
Seriously limited to only 320 copies, of which we have 12, and we will NOT be able to get more. Beautifully packaged in thick black sleeve printed with metalllic silver ink.
We know you folks love limited edition vinyl releases, as Record Store Day just proved yet again. Well, here's something we just got a handful of copies of, and might not be able to get again - it's on the same label that did the Saint Vitus Die Healing vinyl that sold out so fast. And it's another one for vintage doom fanatics, a vinyl version of the debut album, aka Vol.1, from NWOBHM (aka New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, in this case, make that very very British) cult Pagan Altar! Songs written circa 1978-'81, recorded 1982, not released for the first time officially until 1998, and now available again in a deluxe gatefold vinyl edition. Obscure as it is, this is really a classic, '70s Sabbath/Priest styled (proto) metal, with an authentic occult vibe, powerful and melodic, up there with Angel Witch and, especially Witchfinder General - if you like them, you need to hear Pagan Altar as well!
Amazingly, the band is still around, still quite active, having released a couple other excellent albums, with work proceeding on a new one. They also did a split 7" with Jex Thoth not too long ago. As a matter of fact, Allan had the pleasure of seeing Pagan Altar play live just last week, at the Roadburn Festival in Holland! As far as he was concerned, one of the highlights of the fest (along with one of the only bands there to have been around longer, Comus!!!). When they came out on stage, the silver-haired singer (Terry Jones, brother to lead guitarist Alan Jones) was wearing a feathered top hat, that he gracefully doffed towards the audience, greeting us in a mellifluous Yorkshire accent. He possessed a theatrical, charismatic presence that made him seem not unlike one of the earlier incarnations of Dr. Who! They then proceeded to kick out an utterly classic sounding set of twin guitar NWOBHM, including of course many songs from this album, folkloric metal of witchery and doom, sung in a reedy voice that sounds a lot like a British version of Roky Erickson. They were really, really good.
So, if you're lucky enough to get a chance to see 'em, do so! And, at the very least, if doom and NWOBHM is your thing, check out their recordings, this being a great one to start with, except that we probably won't have it for very long (we only got, like, 8, and already have sold a few)...
Mythical and magical, indeed! Pagan Altar, hopefully you know by now, are an '80s metal band from the UK, who never released anything back in the day, but here in the 21st century have been putting out records, dusting off their old, unrecorded songs to much underground acclaim and amazement. Their style is one that works as well, or even better, when played by gents of advanced age - part epic NWOBHM thespianism, part Black Sabbathy doominess, part hoary Brit-folk tradition. It's misty, mystic full moon music that the ancient headbanging druids of Stonehenge would probably find even more appropriate for their esoteric purposes than house band Hawkwind.
So, here's the final (for now) entry in the Pagan Altar discography for us to list. This 2006 release, originally on the band's own Oracle Records label, has been newly reissued by cult metal label Shadow Kingdom (for whom Pagan Altar are THEE best band ever). This joins Judgement Of The Dead, The Time Lord, and The Lords Of Hypocrisy in the Shadow Kingdom's Pagan Altar catalog, and it's right up there with any and all of 'em, full of emotive, incredible soloing, catchy, doomy riffs, wonderful vocals (again reminding us of a creaky combo of both Ozzy Osbourne and Roky Erickson), and an overall pagan atmosphere delivered with classic rock perfection that's not much known this side of the the '80s. What else can we say, besides, recommended!
Red letter day here for old school doom fanatics... Shadow Kingdom brings us not one but two cd reissues from those mystic, misty masters of British metal majesty, Pagan Altar. A truly "cult" doom act from the NWOBHM era, somehow still kicking in the here-and-now. Their debut was recorded in 1982, but kept secret and unreleased until almost the year 2000AD. They followed that with this album, Lords Of Hypocrisy, in 2004, originally released on their own Oracle Records label. It features songs which were originally written back in the late '70s, early '80s by the brothers Terry Jones (vocals) and Alan Jones (guitar). While all Pagan Altar rules, this just might be our fave. Terry Jones' nasal voice is a dramatic, wizened croak and caw, that can soar with ravens in the night sky... evoking both both Roky Erickson and Ozzy Osbourne (which means, Witchcraft fans should hear Pagan Altar). His brother brings the Sabbathy riffs and lead guitar rippage, also playin' some banjo on twangin' folk instrumental interlude "The Devil Came Down To Brockley".
Throughout the album there's drifting soft folky parts and epick metal stormers, Pagan Altar combining a pastoral prog vibe with a Satanic metal one... sad and melancholic, with intelligent lyrics, and it doesn't get more DOOM than songs about nuclear armageddon! Somehow the overall sound reminds us of Ozzy (early solo, circa Randy Rhodes Blizzard Of Ozz era), but gone way underground and druidical. A classic that stands with the best of the NWOBHM even though it was released so many years later... like a time capsule from the '80s. Brilliant stuff any NWOBHM and/or doom lover who's got a pagan bone in their body ought to own.
The original cd release of this we never were able to get enough of to list. And then the swank limited vinyl edition Buried By Time And Dust came and went (as did an earlier Miskatonic vinyl version). So nice to have it back as an affordable cd release thanks to the doom fiends at Shadow Kingdom. (Wish they'd have included the two bonus tracks found on the vinyl, but oh well...)
In the past, we've listed a couple, now out of print limited vinyl reissues of stuff by this lost-in-time, doom-laden New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band, so we know some of you are already fans. And anyone into either Witchcraft or Witchfinder General, who hasn't yet heard Pagan Altar, should really check them out! They could be considered one of the NWOBHM's best kept secrets, seeing as how the songs they recorded back in the '80s weren't even released until many, many years later. Nowadays they're finally getting some attention, playing festivals like Roadburn, where Allan was lucky enough to see 'em, in 2010, and having more of their music finally see the light of day (or the full moon, as might be more appropriate).
While many of the releases in this band's somewhat curious discography, like 2004's Lords Of Hypocrisy and 2006's Mythical & Magical, consist of songs written (but not recorded) over 20 years earlier, what we have here REALLY goes back, way back, to the band's beginnings - these five songs are the earliest known Pagan Altar recordings to exist, actual demo tracks dating from 1978: "Highway Cavalier", "The Time Lord", "Judgement Of The Dead", "The Black Mass", and "Reincarnation". Some of course were redone on later releases. But they sound pretty darn good in their original demo form, tape hiss included. Total heavy riffing, epick rocking, infused with pagan Britfolk vibes� kinda like Sabbath meets Roky Erickson (on account of frontman Terry Jones's reedy Roky-like voice) meets the NWOBHM, all under the influence of Dr. Who; in other words, the Pagan Altar we know and love. Classic mystic misty majestic metal.
Pagan Altar, next to Manilla Road, are probably the top favorite band of the cult metal fetishists who run the Shadow Kingdom label, so we know they were thrilled to put this out on remastered cd (I Hate Records did a 12" vinyl version back in '04). We're stoked about it as well. AND they're gonna be doing domestic cd reissues of Pagan Altar's Judgement Of The Dead and Lords Of Hypocrisy albums soon, too!
Crimson Tears? Lord Of Sorrow? Ever After? Solitude? Hmm...from song titles like those, it would seem we've got a doom metal band on our hands here, eh? Well, of course we knew that already since this is the second album from Pennsylvania power trio Pale Divine, whose first album Thunder Perfect Mind we gave a couple doomed digits up to three years ago. Now they're back, just as morose and metal as before, and still riff-rockin' hard for the air guitarists among you out there. Pale Divine's singer/guitarist belts out the lyrics to their hymns of doom with what some friends of mind would term "chain wallet" vocals, that put us in mind of Metallica's James Hetfield and, in combo with the music, Blind-era Corrosion of Conformity. Overall, the band's influences are solidly in the realm of Sabbath (natch), Pentagram, Trouble, and Candlemass (that's their "Solitude" covered here, a massive version that closes out this album with supreme downer majesty). That is, as doom bands goes, Pale Divine are definitely in the rock n' roll tradition, one foot in the '70s, akin to acts like Place Of Skulls or Abdullah, as opposed to the ugly, feedback-filled, drone-dirge style of doom of we also love as practiced by the likes of Khanate and Cavity. Heavy but relentlessly rockin', Eternity Revealed breaks no new ground in a well-trodden genre but skillfully executes their specific style with aplomb, which we would imagine was precisely their aim. If you're looking for the innovative new doom, check out Yob (for instance) but for something accessible to crank in your Camaro, Pale Divine ought to do the trick. Includes re-recordings of some of their early demo tracks, including "Serpent's Path", their contribution to the first At The Mountains of Madness compilation some years ago.
Not to be confused with the albums from Nurse With Wound and Current 93, *this* "Thunder Perfect Mind" is the full length debut from a Pennsylvanian power trio known as Pale Divine, and it's something we've been waiting for ever since we heard their cut on
Yet another entry in the so slow, so low, ultra doom, down tuned, skin flaying musical brutality sweepstakes. And we might just have a new contender for the crown. In the past we have knelt before the corrosive kings Khanate, as well as doom ladies in waiting Bunkur, Moss, Monarch, Whithorse, Planet Aids, Marzuraan, Roanoke, and on and on and on. But where can you go when you can't get any slower, any heavier, any more distorted, any sludgier, any meaner, any more harsh? The answer to that is obviously WEIRDER. So that brings us to Pale Horse, on the same label as the first Jesu ep, but miles away sonically. As you may have gleaned from the above, Pale Horse are sloooooooow, and dooooooooomy and ultra sick and brutal. Imagine a stripped down Khanate, drums to the fore, WAY up in the mix and pretty much defining the sound. Make the bass more slithery and sludgy, and then just do whatever the fuck strikes your fancy. A whole track of just guitars leaning agains the amps, letting the madly vibrating strings do all the work? Sure. How about some Khante-y sludge and pummel, but instead of harsh shrieks, add some strange sing songy vocals that sound quite a bit like the vocals in This Heat or Camberwell Now? Okay! Let's take the slowest harshest slab of slow motion acid doom, and halfway through switch gears and finish the song off with some moody slow buliding post rock, epic and lovely and sweetly lilting with clean guitars and dreamy sad boy vocals. The whole record is like that, which is what keeps it from being JUST another sludge record. You'll be nodding off to some bulldozing riff, sliding glacially over a pounding caveman beat, when suddenly the vocals will kick in with some impossibly sweet melody (a bit like Harvey Milk at times). Or a full on rock song will peter out into a lengthy exercise in tension and release, more some sort of abstract 'piece' than a metal song. An entire track with sweetly strummed steel string guitar and slightly distorted sung/spoken vocals (a bit like Arab Strap)? It's in there, neatly squeezed between two Teutonic slabs of black hole heaviness. There's some sludgy groove that sounds a bit like the Jesus Lizard or The Cows, some stretched out ambient murmur, and even some epic Godspeed meets Isis majestic post metal. And somehow it all makes perfect (non)sense. Fans of ANY of the above mentioned should definitely check this out!
Pale Sketcher finds Justin Broadrick taking his post Godflesh project Jesu in an entirely new direction. Named for Pale Sketches, a collection of early Jesu demos and song fragments, unused parts and unfinished songs, which were presented on Pale Sketches as a collection of odds and ends, but here are reworked into a mysteriously minimal electronica. And to be totally fair, the sound, while on the surface seems radically different, really doesn't sound all that far removed from the sound of Jesu proper, sure the thick metalgaze guitars are stripped away, and the beats are a bit more skeletal and overtly electronic, but the lush shoegazey drift is still what it's all about. Thick swells of melancholy minor key shimmer, spidery melodies, hushed gauzey production haze, everything sun dappled and washed out and prismatic, it's not that hard to imagine that instead of this being a one time excursion, that this is in fact the direction Jesu was, or is, headed. Every record since the debut, Heartache, has consistently gotten less heavy, more and more mellow and dreamy, drifting ever closer to a sort of M83 style retro eighties shoegaze doom pop, so it would make perfect sense for Jesu to gradually be transformed into something warm and dark and electronic.
The sound here suits the songs perfectly, dreamy and minimal, moody and hushed, a little bit dubby, the heaviest parts are the swaths of buzzing dubsteppy bass that surface here and there, but otherwise this is like some spaced out soundtrack composed by Jesu, very cinematic, haunting and lovely, stripped down and abstract, the vocals ghostly and ethereal, in fact most all of the sounds here are ghostly and ethereal, allowed to drift and shimmer, held in place by muted pulses, and streaks of soft skitter, the whole thing ends up sounding so dreamlike, so otherworldly, the perfect next step in Jesu's constant evolution.
Before the Pitchfork hype and before the Billboard Top 100 inclusions, there was this lone 2010 epicus doomicus demo-cus from Arkansas' lords of heartwrenching true melo-doom. Originally released as a limited cd-r and a few months later on cassette, this mournful slab is finally getting the luscious vinyl treatment it so desperately deserves. As a band, Pallbearer came out of the gate pretty fully formed, so anyone familiar with their two full lengths will know what to expect here: three tracks of monolithic doom metal, equal parts pummeling & soaring, equal parts Electric Wizard & Warning. The vocals a ghostly lament, the guitars is a perpetual state of crunchy decay, the drums a funereal plod. Of the three tracks included, two were actually re-recorded for their debut Sorrow & Extinction, and the third is a totally doomed out, ultra melancholic rendition of Billie Holiday's "Gloomy Sunday". Cool! The sound quality is perhaps a little more raw than the enveloping warmth of their more recent recordings, but is still plenty listenable, and certainly sounds more heavy & full than your average metal demo. Definitely an essential insight into the origins of this band, if only to see how confident and assured they were in their sound right from the get go!
Soaring, heartbreaking, really heavy and *gasp* REALLY CATCHY. The treacherous "difficult second album" from Arkansas' epic doom dealers Pallbearer is one of those records that you kind of wish every doom album sounded like, yet so few seem to pull it off. A heavy metal record absolutely unashamed to wear its heart on its sleeve and to embrace shimmering melodic bliss, Foundations Of Burden joins such classics as Solstice's New Dark Age, While Heaven Wept's Of Empires Forlorn and Warning's Watching From A Distance as a towering testament to how beautiful, cathartic, honest and human doom metal can really be. (Although we're guessing this is the only one on that list that debuted in the Billboard Top 100 - Wha???). All pretenses are stripped away. There's no concern here with sounding evil, occult or clinically suicidal. Instead this is gut wrenching, soul baring stuff. As a band Pallbearer have improved immensely since their already highly acclaimed debut Sorrow And Extinction, and no element more so than Brett Campbell's vocals. While before they took a bit of a backseat to the immense riffery, here the vocals are much more in focus, no longer buried in the sludge, sounding like some shadow cast hybrid of Ozzy, Trouble's Eric Wagner and Patrick Walker from the aforementioned, much missed and deeply mourned Warning/40 Watt Sun. The balance of weariness and drama he's able to convey really elevates Pallbearer's songs, imbuing them with a sort of classic theatrical tragedy. The production on the record (courtesy of Billy Anderson) is also perfectly enormous. There seems to be space everywhere, but also a real warmth and cohesion between the instruments - overwhelming, crushing, but strangely comforting. And as for that catchiness we mentioned earlier� These songs have some serious hooks, and for 10+ minute songs that move approximately apace of a huge and heavily sedated prehistoric snail, that's no small feat. But there's a real ear for songwriting and harmony here, that manages never to sacrifice the heaviness or punishing plod of the music. And while heaviness, heartbreak and humongous riffs are all well and good, the album's true highlight might come in the form of the penultimate "Ashes" - clocking in at only three minutes and consisting mostly of electric piano and vocals, it sounds like it would be more at home on a Mogwai record. It's easily the album's least heavy and most sparse moment, but it's also the most devastating and beautiful, and a perfect offset to the slow motion crushing gravity of the rest of the album. Doom album of the year contender. Metal album of the year contender. Let's just say album of the year contender and leave it at that.
FYI, the vinyl double lp version pretty much sold out already, but is being repressed...
With a name like Pallbearer, and a record cover that looks like an illustration from some obscure Dungeons and Dragons monster manual, you might be expecting some grim, oozing blackened slo-mo tarpit creep, or heck maybe even some full on over the top swords and sorcery power metal epic-ry, but what you might not expect, is precisely what this Arkansas doom crew conjures up, a surprisingly melodic, and downright dreamy chunk of true epic, super melodic, classic sounding doom, complete with acoustic guitars and soaring clean vocals, all wound around a sound that's more warm and fuzzy and washed out oftentimes than downtuned and sludgey. Reminding us a bit of aQ faves Megaton Leviathan, the same sort of shoegazey sound and dreamily psychedelic vibe, but Pallbearer sound much more beholden to classic metal, with some of these songs sounding like some lost eighties metal jam, slowed down and blissed out, often slipping into almost slowcore dirgery, that sort of haunting druggy mesmer, still epic and melodic, but more bleary and gauze-y, with the guitars not crunchy and buzzy, so much as thick and dense and lushly layered, the songs slow building and hauntingly brooding. Not that Pallbearer, aren't heavy, they most definitely are, like on "Devoid Of Redemption", a re-recorded track from their demo, the sound is massive, the guitars thick and churning, the drums a muted massive pound, but even then, those clean vocals change the whole vibe, and within the music itself, the melodies almost sound like horns, mournful and funereal, and the sound, even at its heaviest, seems to ooze into something much more dreary and dreamy and druggy. The recording and production too, perfectly suits the sound, vintage and classic, the sound Sabbathy, and Candlemass-y and St. Vitus-y, heavy but spacious, plenty of reverb, and deftly applied effects, but smeared and subtly stretched into something even more crushingly heavy, spaced out and psychedelic, and weirdly hauntingly lovely, a sound that's both murky and mesmerizing, magical and mysterious, which is making this a new favorite with the metalheads around here and a definite contender for doom record of the year...
Wow, we really do never know what to expect from the Ormolycka label, except the unexpected. This latest batch of limited edition tapes is maybe even more diverse, and downright WTF!? than usual. We wouldn't have been surprised by electro rap weirdness, or exotic booty bass, or synthesizer soundscapery, but instead, in this particular case, we get vintage South American rock n' roll!
Pappo's Blues were a heavy, bluesy (no duh) psych rock band from Argentina helmed by guitarist/vocalist Norberto "Pappo" Napolitano. They put out their debut, Pappo's Blues Vol.1, in 1971, and six more albums/volumes followed, through 'til 1978. (There are another two also, from when the band reunited in the '90s.) So, we suppose this Ormolycka cassette is some sort of selected 'best of' mix from various Volumes, probably the very earliest ones, though we don't know for sure as no info or track titles are given. Whatever the case, these are assuredly some badass, wailing proto-metal blues jams all right, riffy and distorted, with some fairly rough and ragged vocals in Spanish.
Some tracks are in the more traditional, 12-bar, bar-room blues vein, but mostly this is way heavier sounding than that - the very first track on side A ("Sucio Y Desprolijo" from Vol. 3, we managed to figure out), is obviously majorly influenced by early Black Sabbath, as is a lot of the rest. Good times! A tape for anyone into the raw bluesy proto-metal action like Blue Cheer, Juan De La Cruz, Speed Glue & Shinki, Red Dirt, et. al.
The guys (and gal) in San Francisco's Parchman Farm are doing their dangest to rekindle the spirit of the city's sixties ballroom era, when righteous psychedelic rock ruled the scene. This five song, 23 minute ep is their recorded debut, and right away you'll realize that there's some serious Blue Cheer worship going on here (which you might guess from the band name and cover graphics). It's like they brought Dickie Peterson into the studio to play the bass line on their song "Say Yeah" -- and that stuff rocks. But Blue Cheer aren't their only influence and they get all melodic as well, not always trying to turn the air into cottage cheese with sheer amped-up umph. Over the course of these five tracks, they go from all heavy to trippy and hippy and always come through with full-on rawk vox and even (of course) cowbell... Ironic and retro it might be, but I think that they're legitmately into this sort of '60s/'70s thing and trying real hard. They definitely have the sound. But do they have the songs? Almost. I mean, nothing here would/should really fool you into thinking it was a lost out-take from Vincebus Eruptum or Tyranny And Mutation or Closer To Home. But they're getting there. A decent debut for sure.
By the way, we think that someone at Parchman Farm's label Jackpine Social Club might need to check into rehab, for writing in the band's press one-sheet such god-awful lines as "their jean-clad legs wrapped around a fleshy column of stoner rock sludge and humpin' it all night long...like a shark riding on top of an elephant, just stomping and chomping everything in sight". What? Ugh. I mean, we've written some clunkers too, but...
Stoner/cock rock from Norway's Pawnshop whose religious icons are located under the hood of a '66 Ford 289 Mustang as well as in their pants. Required listening alongside Kyuss, Hellacopters, and Monster Magnet.
Those of you who dig the '70s heavy rock proto-metal stuff like we do, need to check out this rad Peruvian band. This new cd reissue is better'n previous editions we've seen in terms of track inclusion, featuring as it does all of the eponymous 1970 Pax album plus, like it says, seven bonus tracks, including their cover of "Radar Love"! They also do "Smoke Of The Water" (sic), but hey back then that wasn't quite so tired.
Pax, featuring former members of Peruvian '60s beat combo Los Shains, were definitely one of the heaviest South American rock acts of their day (that we've heard, that is), easily competitive with American and British bands like Bang, Leafhound, and Sir Lord Baltimore. And they even have a bit of a groovy, Hendrix/Funkadelic (early Funkadelic) vibe as well. Yes indeed, Pax provide plenty of cowbell, wah-wah guitar, drug references, and all-right-now! rock n' roll attitude -- enough to make any fan of the aforementioned bands (not to mention the likes of Juan de la Cruz, Los Dug Dugs, and Modulo 1000) happy. They're not 100 percent heavy all the time -- few bands back then were -- but the lighter stuff is quite nice too and when they're heavy they're HEAVY, riffy with raw, in-your-face production and nicely rough-edged vocals, that you'll hear on such tracks as "A Storyless Junkie", "Deep Death", "Pig Pen Boogie", and "Firefly". Serious subjects, some of it (junkies, death) but they can be playful too, silly even, as on "Shake Your Ass". A '60 flowers and beads vibe comes through on the gentle, melodic likes of "Green Paper (Toilet)" and "For Cecilia" as well.
Pearls and Brass are a Nazareth, PA power trio, old schoolin' it for the rockers amongst ya. Apparently they've been doing this for, like, ten years now (this is their 2nd full-length) so it's not like they're jumping on some sort of stoner/garage bandwagon. Indeed, it sounds like they've been at it since 1969! This is definitely inspired by the likes of Cream, Mountain, GFR, um, maybe the original (Gary Moore) Skid Row, classic power trios like that from way back when. Which means if you dig current retro-rock combos like Dead Meadow or SF locals Parchman Farm and Genghis Khan, you need to add Pearls and Brass to that list.
Their songs are bouncy, riff happy numbers, stuffed with Iommi-ish solos, the guitar/bass/drums interplay rolling along a bumpy road, hinting also at the influence of more modern hyperkinetic postpunk/prog constructs like Hella. Mainly 'cause there's a lot of well practiced playing goin' on. But they keep a relaxed, stoner vibe happenin' in part 'cause of the lazy, laidback vocals that, well, sound to us a lot like Michael McDonald. Huh? It all works though. Truly, this rocks, choogles, boogies... all that good stuff... never letting up... well except that they also pull a page from Zep and get all folky and acoustic too on two cuts, though they end up sounding more like Devendra on those, really, also no bad thing. So we've gotta give this the thumbs up, we'd invite these dudes to play our backyard BBQ beerbash anytime (that is, if we had such events).
Also, a note for the irony-wary: at this point, is it even worth trying to parse the possibilities of ironic (or not) intent? I mean, this was recorded here in SF at Tim Green from The Fucking Champs Louder Studios, it's on hipster indie label Drag City, and the band presents themselves as backwoods, beer swilling burnouts. So you might wonder, are they? Whatever the case is, they're doing something right, the love of classic rock on all fronts here really can't be denied.
This one's for those of you who really dug The Indian Tower release by this Pennsylvanian power trio, reviewed here last list. That record was in fact their second album, after this self-titled debut from 2003, which was never widely distributed... it took the powerful indie rock hype machine called Drag City (just kidding) to clue us in to Pearls and Brass' existence. Digging the blend of '60s psychedelic blues rock worship and nimble mathiness that these guys dished out on their Drag City release (sometimes it's like a strange but unforced meeting of Cream or Cactus with Hella or The Fucking Champs, maybe) we went to see 'em play the other night, opening for The Champs as a matter of fact. Definitely impressive live, they ripped through a bunch of The Indian Tower and also did a song or two from this album, which they had with them for sale, so naturally we asked 'em to stop by the store on their way out of town the next day and sell us a few copies. The three guys pictured on the cover all have much longer hair now (and a bigger beard in the case of the drummer) and likewise The Indian Tower was definitely built on this album's foundation -- there's melodic acoustic moves, stoner blues, and plenty of kick ass hard rockin'. So if you enjoyed The Indian Tower you may well want one of these too! (Unless you're looking for the garagey Tim Green production job, as this one's a bit more conventionally polished, to match what's perhaps a slightly more typical "stoner rock" sound here, not quite as lost in time as The Indian Tower.)
Attention, all worshippers of WITCHCRAFT!! What we have here is the next best thing to new music from that more '70s than thou band of Swedish heavy prog downer doomsters, and huge AQ faves. It's the debut solo recording from Witchcraft frontman Magnus Pelander, a four song, 21 minute ep. If you're a real Witchcraft fan, you'll want this. Since Magnus is the prime mover in Witchcraft, and this highlights his distinctive, mellifluous voice as well as guitar playing and songwriting talents, it's one of those "solo" projects that doesn't sound too different from the main band.... except it's mostly acoustic! A few years back, one time when Witchcraft were playing in San Francisco, Magnus told us he had plans to team up with a friend of his back home, who's also his guitar teacher, to do an acoustic album. We'd been eagerly waiting ever since, and it seems that their project has finally borne fruit. Magnus plays 6 string acoustic guitar, electric as well, plus drums and percussion. And of course sings. Meanwhile, his friend Mike (first name only given here, he's shy or something) plays 6 and 12 steel string acoustic guitars, plus piano, bass, percussion, and handles the string arrangements.
AQ's Allan, actually, was lucky enough to get to see the duo's first ever performance, this year at the Roadburn festival in Holland. For him, it was definitely a highlight of the fest, though Magnus and Mike were frustrated by some technical difficulties during their set. Still, they rose to the occasion and delivered some of the most "musical" moments of the whole Roadburn experience. Let's put it this way: Magnus is no slouch on guitar, but this guy Mike was really phenomenal!
The glorious, intricate interplay of guitars Allan heard there is fully on display here, as is the manner in which Magnus bears his heart vocally and lyrically, these songs so personal and emotive, like a lot of the most moving Witchcraft tunes. Some of this has got that sad Sabbath "Solitude" vibe, though the ep starts out on the brighter side with "A Sinner's Child", featuring melodious whistling, and lovely female backing ah-ah-ah's, but also lyrics like "I am a sinner's child / you better wait a while / before you take my hand / can you see Satan smile?" keeping it well within the realm of something dark and occultic that Witchcraft themselves might do. "Hope", which begins just with voice and piano, getting even more intimate in feel than the first track, soon turns into even more of a showcase for this duo's impressive 6 and 12 string chops. They rip... acoustically. Track 3, "You Have Got No Friends To Turn To" is by far the heaviest offering here, Magnus busting out the electric guitar for some plodding riff stomp and amped-up psychedelic soloing, though the track is still adorned with plenty of acoustic filigree and hand percussion. Certainly another one that wouldn't be out of place on a Witchcraft album.
The last, and longest, track, "Stardust", is an achingly beautiful and melancholic ballad, Magus's singing starting off hushed, the strumming almost sacred, a string section gradually building up in the background, piano notes intertwined with the guitar lines, it gets pretty progged out and epic! Allan definitely remembers this one from Roadburn, even in the stripped down way they played it there.
This record recalls at moments the likes of Comus and Six Organs and Aztec Two-Step and even, unintentionally but awesomely, Tenacious D, just a teeny bit. Fellow Swedes Dungen and Bjorn Olsson would be other references. And while in our experience, most people into the whole current indie acid folk scene already do dig Witchcraft, those who haven't heard 'em might find this to be a particularly lush, gorgeous, somewhat mellowed out entree.
LIMITED IMPORT RELEASE, cd version limited to 500 copies. We have black vinyl, with nice thick sleeves.
It's been a while (three years!) since we've heard from these instru-metallers, this being their first record since their Southern Lord debut What We All Come To Need, from back in 2009, a record which find them sounding less heavy, and more melodic, which seemed like a strange twist considering they were now on what many consider to be a proper metal label. But that shift continues here, with the opening track, which immediately moves even further from the Neur-Isis crush of old Pelican, and drapes vibe like melodies over shimmering low end buzz, peppering the proceedings with bits of static and a strange pulsing synth like rumble, it's pretty awesome actually, very cinematic and hauntingly melodic. But this is Pelican after all, who can, rock with the best of them, and do so on the second track, which explodes out of the gate with a seriously killer riff, that sounds somewhere between old school noise rock and super melodic classic rock, like Thin Lizzy via the Hellacopters with hints of some old Touch And Go band, the song sounding like it could burst into a proper full on rock song at any second, like the vocalist is gonna come bounding in, but instead, they draw it out, the guitars adding melody, the drums uncharacteristically flashy in places, but it works, might just be our favorite Pelican jam yet, capturing the mesmer of their old sound but sort of cranking it up. There's plenty of variation too, the middle section gets all darkly psychedelic and a little dubby, but before long they return to that riffy crunch and it kills. "Parasite Colony" is a bit more brooding and loping, a low slung bass driving a slithery main riff, building to some seriously muscly crunch, before the final track, "Taraxis", which seems to bookend the ep, similar in style to the opener, tangled almost Appalachian guitar, over thick swells of distorted buzz, squiggly feedbacky melodies, urgent strum, all over a simple stripped down looped rhythm, before blissing out into some moody deserty smolder, only to get seriously metal for the last few minutes, a churning sludgey pound, all super dirty sounding crumblingly distorted guitars, all wreathed in feedback, those acoustic guitars still strumming away beneath the din. Killer stuff, the band definitely pushing their sound in new and exciting directions, and making us hope we don't have to wait another 3 years for more!
Chicago instru-metallers Pelican are back, with the full-length follow up to their brilliant "Untitled" debut ep. Like that disc, this is almost the perfect blend of heaviness (METAL heaviness, to be precise) and post-rock. There's prettiness and precision, darkness and dynamics. From slow and powerful downer grooves to mellow melodic interludes to rapidly riffing, sheer super heavy metal, could Pelican do it any better? There's even one track where they've got a guy playing the singing saw. It's freakin' beautiful. Influenced by epic black metal, academic minimalist throb, psychedelic Floydian rock, and the post-rock of their hometown (among much else) these guys have shaped their band into contenders for the avant-stoner throne, positioning themselves somewhere between Mogwai and Melvins, with some flashes of Morbid Angel. Or, imagine the Growing's The Sky's Run Into the Sea album (AQ Record of the Week back in September you'll recall) as performed by The Fucking Champs! It has the oceanic warmth of Growing's droning heaviness lashed to some more mathy, metallic constructions. Our customers who love all things heavy (Isis, Boris, Gore, 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Dead Meadow, etc.) and who have a soft spot for spacier, sleepier stuff too should dig these six tracks for sure!
Ephemeral is the first new music from instrumental post rockers Pelican since they switched from Hydrahead to Southern Lord. Definitely an interesting development, as Pelican was definitely one of the bands that defined the Hydra Head sound. But heck, listening to these three tracks it's obvious they sound right at home on SL.
The side long first track is immediately recognizably Pelican, if anything the sound is a bit heavier, a little meaner sounding, there's definitely a Champs vibe, with lots of guitar trills and plenty of low slung chug, the weird thing is that unlike past Pelican efforts, this one in particular really does seem to scream out for some vocals. Any minute we expect some voice to just start howling or bellowing. We're imagining Wino, but there is that feel, a weird bit of tension, which works instrumentally for sure, but still had us hankering. But it's a killer jam, the drums especially, dense and wild, some intricate of kilter double kick action, plenty of mathy pound, and when the band lock into that main groove, it's like a massive black bulldozer made out of drums and amps and guitars.
The title track on the flipside is anything BUT ephemeral, sounding like an extension of the A side, but with even MORE chug, and a distinctly doomy vibe, even a bit of grunge. We could totally picture Mark Arm swooping in to sing a verse. And the record finishes off with a bad ass Earth cover, the band joined by Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, and while not too far removed from the original, it's definitely heavier, and darker, a little noisier, with seriously beefed up guitars, and a much more muscled rhythm, but retaining the same gorgeous, and ominous windswept vibe conjured up by Earth on the original.
Super thick sleeves, fancy Stephen O'Malley cover art. And probably wicked limited.
SUPER LIMITED!!! Pelican fans snap to attention! Fans of sludgy downtuned dirge do not dawdle. We got a small batch of these limited edition Pelican live DVD's and we will most likely not be able to get more ever again. Four epic tracks of Pelican's gorgeously massive instrumental pummel, videotaped live in 2003 in Chicago, shot from the crowd, a bit dark (dark enough that you barely see the drummer) but it sounds soooo good and if you've never seen Pelican before, it's cool to watch four regular looking dudes conjure up a seriously massive slab of metallic post-rock brutality. It's almost like being right there in the sweaty crowd, ears ringing, head banging! Packaged in a slimline jewelcase with new artwork from Seldon Hunt.
Oh man, if this record was only a full length, and not an EP, it would have been record of the week for sure! Even so, it's a pretty hefty EP clocking in at 33 minutes, especially when you consider it's only two songs! And not only is it quite possibly the best Pelican song so far, with a completely unforgettable, loping seasick main riff, relentless double kick drumming, totally heavy and MASSIVE, occasionally slipping into indie rock, with deliriously jangle-and-chime drenched melodies that eventually becomes a dreamy acoustic coda complete with flute, but the second track is a JK Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) remix that ends up sounding like the best Jesu track yet, all My Bloody Valentine blissed out with fuzzy backward melodies, industrial machinellike rhythms and epic alien arrangements.
This album prompted a discussion here about how there's the post rock bands that throw in some heavy, riffy metal bits to make things weirder and more interesting (and maybe so they don't seem quite so wimpy). And there's also the metal bands that write some pretty, quiet post rock parts also to be weird and interesting (and so as not to seem like total Neanderthals). In both cases, when things work out well, the results are a band that sounds not like, uh, wimpy Neanderthals but rather like intelligent and sensitive types who also possess crushing might. Pretty much every boy's ideal, eh? And Chicago instrumental heavies (and big AQ faves) Pelican are a great example of this, even though -- especially with this new album -- we can't quite decide if they're a metal band first post rock band second or the other way around. The very first track on The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, "Last Day Of Winter", is seemingly more on the post rock side, all simmering moodiness and storm-yet-to-be-unleashed power. It IS big and loud but not really metal. Eventually the album offers up some truly uber metal moments, though, yes. Pelican's vaunted heaviness remains. But things are overall at least equally dreamy...dreamy and layered and melodically mathy, with post rock dynamics that dip into quiet, relaxed territory as much as they charge into heavy rock battle. Track four, for instance, is ALL gentle acoustic string-strum, with hints also of glitchy electronic crackle. We were prepared for this by their warm-up ep March Into The Sea (the title track of which is reprised here in edited form) wherein those acoustic guitars were added to Pelican's sonic palette. Pelican's vast, riff-ravaged landscape now has little lovely flowers growing, and expands to even further horizons. Funnily enough, "March Into The Sea" itself also offers some of the most metal (fast, furious) passages on here. Whatever you call it, the music of Pelican is (and always has been) totally mesmerizing and epic. Even if this album makes us think that it's almost like Pelican are turning into Kinski. Who aren't metal even though they are sometimes quite heavy. And who we also like a lot after all.
Ok, enough about all this post rock vs. metal stuff (though we will say that the presence of an extensive "thanks" list argues for Pelican indeed being a metal band at heart). What's important is that anyone into massive sonics of riff-shifting symphonic complexity OR blissful simplicity, should bow down to the juggernaut genius of Pelican's lastest opus...now that sounds fairly metal, don't it? Mention should also be made of the really quite lovely cd packaging here -- the cd booklet's got a translucent vellum cover and some cool interior artwork. Recommended!
Four massive tracks of instrumental heaviness here, folks. Chicago's Pelican debut with this untitled document of dirge (actually this Hydra Head version is a reissue of their self-released debut from last year). Teetering on the cusp betwixt being a melodically melancholic and rhythmically clever post-rock band and being a punishing doom metal behemoth, Pelican don't let down either side. This is HEAVY. Epic, intense, and always interesting. Slow, trancey sludge riffs and chugging rhythms are interlaced with kinda pretty melodies and sudden tempo shifts. The result is a LOUD, almost psychedelic listen that should be very satisfying to fans of similarly droney and heavy outfits like 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Boris, Pharoah Overlord... Gore and the Melvins and Harvey Milk too.
Pelican are the kind of band that plays shows with Isis and High On Fire, and reference La Monte Young and Ash Ra Temple in interviews...i.e. our kinda band! Kudos to Hydra Head for picking 'em up, and we look forward to their upcoming full-length on that label.
MPEG Download: "Pulse" [/audio/pelicanpulse.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Pulse" [/audio/pelicanpulse.m3u]
Legendary doomsters Pentagram have followed a bizarre and convoluted "career-path" to say the least. Though they've been around for at least 30 years (!) they've put out more stuff in the last four years than they did in their first decade, we're pretty sure, including both new albums and archival releases. The Pentagram cult grows. So here's another entry in their catalog, something from the vaults that's really for the true fans, being a 1978 live show from a club called The Keg in DC. So don't expect perfect sound -- yet it's not as bad as you might think either. The vocals are mixed a little low, but that's better than the opposite extreme that you often get from soundboard recordings. What's particularily interesting is that this comes from a period of Pentagram's history when they had boasted two guitarists, long since gone from the band, though you will hear the drumming of a young (18 year old) Joe Hasselvander, who probably never thought that he and singer Bobby Liebling would still be Pentagram in 2003! Tracks include Penta-classics like "20 Buck Spin" and "Review Your Choices". Diehard Pentagram heads will be familar with all these songs, but these versions are definitely different in parts. Plus, the live energy is quite exciting (making up for whatever this lacks in sonic fidelity). Tacked on at the end are the singles tracks recorded by this lineup, studio cuts of "When The Screams Come" and "Living In A Rams Head" different from the ones found on either First Days Here (their 1972-76 collection) or their later albums. All in all, nicely done: hardcore 'ram fans won't be disappointed.
Your Pentagram collection ain't complete if you don't have this! Here's the recent digipack reissue of the legendary DC-area doomsters' third album, originally released on Peaceville in 1994.
It's kind of the "forgotten" Pentagram disc, coming a few years after their two '80s classics, but also quite a while before what might be termed the 21st century Pentagram renaissance, that's seen several new albums on Black Widow, a couple amazing archival releases on Relapse (First Daze Here and First Daze Here Too!!) and even a Pentagram cover band popping up here in San Francisco (the cleverly-named Parallelogram, featuring John Cobbett of Hammers of Misfortune).
Yet, Be Forwarned is actually one of our favorite Pentagram albums, still featuring as it does the classic '80s line-up: Bobby Liebling (vocals), Victor Griffin (guitar) and Joe Hasselvander (drums), and Marty Swaney (bass). More importantly, it's got some great songs! Of course, there's a few Liebling compositions from way back in the '70s that those possessed of the First Daze Here comps might recognize (including the title track, a great version here of a track that Pentagram first put out on a single back in 1972), but also a bunch of tracks penned for this recording by Griffin and Hasselvander that surely are Pentagram classics by now too. Also, Bobby's at his Ozziest here, so if Sabbathy doom is your thing you can't miss this.
And now that Peaceville's gone and done nice reissues of these Pentagram albums, we're wondering when the heck Metal Blade's gonna do the same with the Trouble catalog?!
These two crucial Pentagram discs were reissued earlier this year and we figured we'd better (at long last) get 'em reviewed for our site, what with the immense popularity of Swedish retro-doomsters Witchcraft (seriously, we sell a TON of Witchcraft records and that's how it should be) and also their friends/countrymen/doppelgangers Burning Saviours, both of whom utterly absolutely obviously *worship* Pentagram. Black Sabbath too of course, but it's Pentagram who provide them with more of a "cult" thrill and inspiration -- Witchcraft has recorded several Pentagram covers, and Burning Saviors are even named after a Pentagram song.
Now, Pentagram's been around for a long time (almost as long as Sabbath) in various incarnations, and we've previously reviewed both collections of '70s era Pentagam material as well as their several recent albums. But the two records that really put 'em on the metal map were these, which date from the mid 1980s. Originally self-titled, Relentless was the band's debut full-length from 1985 (yep, about a full 15 years after they first formed!!) and 1987's Day Of Reckoning was their second. Both are classics of doom metal, up there with the other great '80s post-Sabbath doom LPs by Trouble, Candlemass, and Saint Vitus.
On these albums vocalist Bobby Liebling is at the height of his powers (he sounds kinda like Ozzy, but something about his voice and delivery indicates that maybe he's got even more first-hand knowledge of the dark side, like he's one of the evil creatures that Ozzy would just warn you about!) and current Place Of Skulls guitarist Victor Griffin riffs with the best of 'em. Drummer Joe Hasselvander and bassist Martin Swaney round out this era's Pentagram line-up. Penta-classic tracks found here include "Death Row", "Sign Of The Wolf (Pentagram)" and "20 Buck Spin" (on Relentless) and "When The Screams Come", "Burning Savior" and "Madman" (on Day Of Reckoning), among others. Both discs are great, buy the pair!
Reissued in digipacks, cd booklets replete with lyrics, photos, and brand new jive-talkin' liner notes by the still-kickin' Bobby L.
Maryland-based doom metallers Pentagram are on some kinda roll, following up their recently released and quite awesome album "Sub-Basement" (see the review on AQ-list 128) with this collection of stuff they recorded almost 30 years ago! Yep, they've been
"Starlady" ('76) -- why they didn't get signed on the strength of this potential single (a hit if I've ever heard one) I don't know. Or why KISS didn't buy the tune for their own use, that's perhaps even more of a mystery! (KISS's management was checking Pentagram out at the time, but no record deal resulted...)
"Forever My Queen" ('73) -- powerful doom metal that shows them at their Sabbath-like best (although, hearing this collection, you'll realize that Pentagram were equally into, and the equals of, other heavy contemporaries like Captain Beyond, Dust, and Blue Cheer).
"Last Days Here" ('74) -- it's like some Stones or "Raw Power"-era Stooges ballad, with Bobby doing his best Iggy impression.
"Be Forwarned" ('72) -- Pentagram re-recorded this epic, the A-side of first ever 7", on their 1994 "Be Forwarned" album, and when I first heard that version I knew it had to be an old song, 'cause it had such an authentic heavy psych vibe to it. So it's great to finally hear the original (more or less, see below).
"20 Buck Spin" ('73) -- again, the original version of a classic rockin' Pentagram track, covered recently by Pennsylvania doomsters Pale Divine.
All the tracks sound pretty great production-wise (except for the relatively lo-fi live rehearsal recording of "Last Days Here"), putting the previous Pentagram '70s rarities collection "Human Hurricane" to shame. Of course, Bobby did re-master and clean up these tracks in 2001. He also took the opportunity to add some vocals and guitar to "Be Forwarned", for reasons probably known only to him. There's also a few other questionable edits or fades only a Pentagram collector would notice. But such modern-day meddling doesn't detract in any way from the might of the music on offer. It's great stuff, and simply amazing to hear it sounding so good. Pentagram fans have a high tolerance for poor sound (witness the pretty much unlistenable live bootleg LPs that have been released) but this time, you get to *hear* the music as well as own the disc! Recommended to Pentagram fans (obviously) and ANYONE who likes good heavy '70s rock and roll!
It's a time of joy, and a time of doom. That's because in the space of just the past month or two we've gotten not one but now two awesome, unearthed releases of previously lost early '70s underground heaviness from a bunch of longhaired DC-area Blue Cheer fans who, if they'd only managed to get a record deal back then, might have gotten huge and now be known as the American Black Sabbath. Well they really are the American Black Sabbath anyway, but not as many people know it. We're talking about the legendary original lineup of Pentagram, and their even more obscure evil twin Bedemon.
Two lists back, we were freaking out over the long awaited release of that Bedemon album, upon which sometime Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer's home recorded hymns of doom finally saw the light of day. We're still freaking out about it (just got more in, it's relisted this list), but now our frenzy is doubled. Yes, that amazing release wasn't enough, now here's First Daze Here Too, the follow-up to First Daze Here (natch) the AQ fave 2002 release that compiled a bunch of rare '70s era Pentagram recordings that were otherwise unavailable except perhaps with sub-par sound to rabid tape-traders. First Daze Here astounded us, being one of the best '70s heavy rock albums that never was we'd ever heard. Great songs, restored to sound better than fans has ever heard 'em. Incredibly, Relapse has now put together a solid -second- collection of unreleased vintage Penta-tracks from '72-'76. So many classics in their original form: "When The Screams Come", "Wheel Of Fortune", "Virgin Death", "Target", "Nightmare Gown", "Much Too Young To Know", an alternate version of "Be Forwarned", and more -- even their heavy take on the Stones' "Under My Thumb"! Sound quality varies, from tracks recorded for professional demo purposes to lower-fi rehearsal tapes, but fans will dig it all... though at 22 tracks total we'll admit that it's not all entirely the equal of the 100 percent killer first First Daze Here. This is more like 90 percent, yet it's not like we'd have wanted them to leave anything off. And in fact, we know that there's still more in the Pentagram vaults, so maybe we can look foward to a third volume someday...
Relapse have pulled out all the stops with this one, which after all these years Pentagram definitely deserve. It's a double disc (though actually we think all of it could have fit on one stuffed to the gills 80 minute cd) handsomely packaged with a huge thick booklet full of prevously unseen, sepia-toned band photos and text by original Pentagram drummer and keeper of the flame Geof O'Keefe, including track-by-track commentary... there's also notes from other former members as well. Doom on!
Now on vinyl, with a bonus 7" (a replication of their debut single from 1972, under the moniker Macabre) of tracks that appear on the vinyl/cd as well, though. This double LP is super limited and we have just one copy!! So, we can't imagine that it won't have already been bought by some major fan of the band by the time you're done reading this description, but here goes anyway:
Maryland-based doom metallers Pentagram are on some kinda roll, following up their awesome album "Sub-Basement" (see the review on AQ-list 128) with this collection of stuff they recorded almost 30 years ago! Yep, they've been around that long, although only vocalist/mastermind Bobby Liebling still remains from the lineup documented here, the *original* '70s Pentagram. Thus the subtitle: The Vintage Collection. Twelve tracks circa 1972-1976, mostly rare singles and unreleased demo tracks. Some of these songs were re-recorded for later Pentagram albums, but many haven't been (yet). Some of my favorite tracks from this album include:
"Starlady" ('76) -- why they didn't get signed on the strength of this potential single (a hit if I've ever heard one) I don't know. Or why KISS didn't buy the tune for their own use, that's perhaps even more of a mystery! (KISS's management was checking Pentagram out at the time, but no record deal resulted...)
"Forever My Queen" ('73) -- powerful doom metal that shows them at their Sabbath-like best (although, hearing this collection, you'll realize that Pentagram were equally into, and the equals of, other heavy contemporaries like Captain Beyond, Dust, and Blue Cheer).
"Last Days Here" ('74) -- it's like some Stones or "Raw Power"-era Stooges ballad, with Bobby doing his best Iggy impression.
"Be Forwarned" ('72) -- Pentagram re-recorded this epic, the A-side of first ever 7", on their 1994 "Be Forwarned" album, and when I first heard that version I knew it had to be an old song, 'cause it had such an authentic heavy psych vibe to it. So it's great to finally hear the original (more or less, see below).
"20 Buck Spin" ('73) -- again, the original version of a classic rockin' Pentagram track, covered recently by Pennsylvania doomsters Pale Divine.
All the tracks sound pretty great production-wise (except for the relatively lo-fi live rehearsal recording of "Last Days Here"), putting the previous Pentagram '70s rarities collection "Human Hurricane" to shame. Of course, Bobby did re-master and clean up these tracks in 2001. He also took the opportunity to add some vocals and guitar to "Be Forwarned", for reasons probably known only to him. There's also a few other questionable edits or fades only a Pentagram collector would notice. But such modern-day meddling doesn't detract in any way from the might of the music on offer. It's great stuff, and simply amazing to hear it sounding so good. Pentagram fans have a high tolerance for poor sound (witness the pretty much unlistenable live bootleg LPs that have been released) but this time, you get to *hear* the music as well as own it! Recommended to Pentagram fans (obviously) and ANYONE who likes good heavy '70s rock and roll! One of Relapse's best releases, ever.
Last Rites? Well yeah, most folks, if they had to bet, probably woulda predicted that wizened Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling would have been dead by now, of drug abuse if not old age. Certainly not living out a long overdue rock star dream of critical adulation, sold out shows, flashy clothes, and marriage to a shockingly young, stylish wife (with whom he just had a baby)! So the title is ironic, since the dude seems to have an unexpected new lease on life. Seriously, who woulda thunk it, that in the year 2011 (which still sounds like a futuristic date to us in it now, right?), ol' Bobby Liebling and his band Pentagram, who began way back in 1971, would still be going strong, stronger than ever in some ways? Bobby's even become a hipster fashion icon of sorts, too, thanks to his wife's blogging...
Not only is there a new Pentagram album (this one) but Bobby's also been touring, something some of us never thought we'd see happen (and now that we have, will never forget). Pentagram made two appearances in SF in the past year or two, the first what we thought was once-in-a-lifetime chance to see this seminal doom metal band, which surpassed all expectations and RULED, and the second a bit of trainwreck, featuring a woefully unprepared lead guitarist and some godawful blues jams. Both times, though, Bobby was all showman, surprising everybody with his Mick Jagger moves, strutting his stuff in expensive boots and skinny designer jeans. The crotch-grabbing and pelvic thrusting was a bit disconcerting, though, considering that from the neck up, the man looks to be about 90 years old, an ancient, frizzy haired, goggle-eyed Muppet. But considering that so much of Pentagram's lyrics/imagery is horror-related, that kinda works for him (and for the groupies??). We don't even think he acted like that back in the day, we've seen live Pentagram footage from the '80s where he's just hanging on the microphone stand, not shimmying across the stage like it's the T.A.M.I. show, or rolling around on the ground a la Iggy Pop.
So, what about this new album? Does it fulfill the promise of the first "comeback" show we saw, or fall down like the second? Well, glad to report it's indeed a worthy addition to the Pentagram discography! Bobby sounds pretty darn good here, belting it out with ghoulish gusto. And he's teamed up for the first time in years with guitarist Victor Griffin, who was Pentagram's riff master general on such classic albums as Relentless (1985), Day Of Reckoning (1987), and Be Forewarned (1994). Griffin wasn't yet back on board for the shows we saw here in SF, so that makes Last Rites even more of an exciting event.
As usual with Pentagram's albums, this one's a mix of new material and old songs from the '70s that they never recorded for a proper album before. Thus true Penta-fans will, for instance, recognize "Walk In The Blue Light" from the First Daze Here demos compilation, and they even do a couple songs by Stone Bunny (Bobby's pre-Pentagram band circa 1970). All very cool to hear in these new versions. But newly written tracks form the bulk of the album, and (also as usual) they perfectly continue the vintage Pentagram sound, heavy, Sabbathy, psychedelic... how could they not with Liebling singing and Griffin on guitar? They also mix in some slightly more modern sounding dirgery on tracks like "8". The only song that we really feel a bit 'meh' about is "American Dream", on which, for some reason, Liebling relinquishes the mic to Griffin, who sorta sounds like his ex-Palace Of Skulls bandmate Wino. So it sticks out as a Place Of Skulls-ish number, especially considering that the rhythm section here is also from Place Of Skulls. And that song's overtly political lyrics are not very Pentagram-y as far as we're concerned. But otherwise, this is all pure Pentagram magic, better than 2004's Show 'Em How and almost up there with the last two Liebling did with ex-bandmate Joe Hasselvander, 1999's Review Your Choices and 2001's Sub-Basement. Penta-fans, and all classic doom lovers, rejoice!
These two crucial Pentagram discs were reissued earlier this year and we figured we'd better (at long last) get 'em reviewed for our site, what with the immense popularity of Swedish retro-doomsters Witchcraft (seriously, we sell a TON of Witchcraft records and that's how it should be) and also their friends/countrymen/doppelgangers Burning Saviours, both of whom utterly absolutely obviously *worship* Pentagram. Black Sabbath too of course, but it's Pentagram who provide them with more of a "cult" thrill and inspiration -- Witchcraft has recorded several Pentagram covers, and Burning Saviors are even named after a Pentagram song.
Now, Pentagram's been around for a long time (almost as long as Sabbath) in various incarnations, and we've previously reviewed both collections of '70s era Pentagam material as well as their several recent albums. But the two records that really put 'em on the metal map were these, which date from the mid 1980s. Originally self-titled, Relentless was the band's debut full-length from 1985 (yep, about a full 15 years after they first formed!!) and 1987's Day Of Reckoning was their second. Both are classics of doom metal, up there with the other great '80s post-Sabbath doom LPs by Trouble, Candlemass, and Saint Vitus.
On these albums vocalist Bobby Liebling is at the height of his powers (he sounds kinda like Ozzy, but something about his voice and delivery indicates that maybe he's got even more first-hand knowledge of the dark side, like he's one of the evil creatures that Ozzy would just warn you about!) and current Place Of Skulls guitarist Victor Griffin riffs with the best of 'em. Drummer Joe Hasselvander and bassist Martin Swaney round out this era's Pentagram line-up. Penta-classic tracks found here include "Death Row", "Sign Of The Wolf (Pentagram)" and "20 Buck Spin" (on Relentless) and "When The Screams Come", "Burning Savior" and "Madman" (on Day Of Reckoning), among others. Both discs are great, buy the pair!
Reissued in digipacks, cd booklets replete with lyrics, photos, and brand new jive-talkin' liner notes by the still-kickin' Bobby L.
'70s semi-survivors Pentagram, one of the only truly O.G. doom metal outfits still somewhat extant, their legend only growing in recent years, more people getting into them, hordes of Witchcraft fans prominent among 'em. When Review Your Choices first came out in 1999, Pentagram were not quite as "hip" a band as they are now. So lots of folks who missed out before should be happy it's been reissued, along with its 2001 follow-up Sub-Basement, together the one-two-punch of a (temporarily) revitalized, turn-of-the-century Pentagram. Both albums now come in styley digipacks, with 2 bonus tracks each.
Here's our original review of Review Your Choices: The long-awaited new album from doom metal legend Bobby Liebling and his cult band Pentagram, one of the most ancient bands in the genre (not much younger than their lords Black Sabbath themselves). Indeed, about half of the tunes on this album were originally recorded as demo tracks back in the mid-'70s when Gene Simmons and KISS took an interest in the Pentagram boys and were trying, unsuccessfully, to get them signed to their Casablanca label. Both the old stuff (recently rerecorded of course) and the newly-written stuff on here resound with an authentic '70s/Sabbath vibe (right down to Bobby's vocals, which sound like Ozzy at his most demented and troglodytic!). Imagine taking records by the heavy likes of Saint Vitus, Trouble, and Blue Cheer and mixing them in a bowl with several boxes of Count Chocula (the cereal paid homage to in the booklet photo spread!) and a quart of way-past-its-expiration-date milk. That's the curdled, dark and soggy breakfast of champions served up by Pentagram on Review Your Choices. What a way to start your day, or perhaps to end it all.
Not much more to say other than, a classic, full of Pentagram necessities old and new. The killer, slide-y main riff on "Megalania". The cheerful insanity of "Gilla?". The old, old utter classic "Forever My Queen".... all of it, really! The bonus tracks are alternative takes of album tracks, and their production or lack thereof is pretty raw, but then again the album proper has its own "gluey" production eccentricities... either way these tracks sound plenty doomy!
Now, since the release of these two albums, Pentagram fans have been exposed to more of the band's original '70s recordings via the two First Daze Here comps that Relapse put out. If you have those, you'll certainly recognize many of the songs on Review Your Choices and Sub-Basement. But not only are these recordings of 'em quite worthy in their own right (some of these versions being our preferred ones for sure), these albums also contain plenty of circa-Y2K penned Pentagram material that's equally worthy.
If any band is a survival story, this one is. Each new Pentagram release is a minor miracle, if only because the reports we hear about the health of Pentagram mainmain/vocalist Bobby Liebling are always rather dire, to say the least. Yet Bobby has managed to get it together again to do another album, once more plumbing the depths of Pentagram's back catalog to properly record a bunch of unreleased '70s era Penta-classics (a couple of which fans will know from the First Daze Here demos collection). He's also penned a few new ones, in collaboration with members of his new band. Yes, Show 'Em How marks a significant line-up change in the 'ram squad. Now composed of members of doom stalwarts Internal Void and Penance, Pentagram is a full band again!
Both the old and the new material is heavy as heck, living up to the Pentagram name for sure. It's always great to hear Bobby sing, even at his most bizarre sounding (especially at his most bizarre sounding!). You get a dose of both Bobby-as-Ozzy, and Bobby as-nasally-gurgling-guy...as well as Bobby-as-Bobby. Despite how decrepit he looks in the booklet photos, on a good day he can still belt it out. If there's such a thing as survival of the doomiest then maybe we can count on more Pentagram records to come...
