Review: It's been four long years since the release of 2020's hypnotic Forgotten Days, with Little Rock, Arkansas doom purveyors Pallbearer hindered immensely by the encroaching pandemic putting a stop to essentially any and all band-centric plans. This forced upon lengthy gestation period culminated in a more tempered and analytical compositional approach entering into Mind Burns Alive; a work the members are confident will truly surprise listeners, remarking that while its predecessor offered a noxious potion of almost every sonic guise the band have adorned until now, from hefty sludge to saccharine post-doom, their upcoming fifth full-length promises to challenge both themselves and avid fans in equal measure.
Review: History of Hostility is an album that amalgamates tracks from, at the time, American rock gods Pantera's previous five studio albums. It originally landed back in 2015 and to this day is a superb a nine-track collection that really does offer the best possible overview, or primer, of the band's sound. All points of their career are well covered in the selections with and well balanced choice of tracks from Cowboys From Hell, Vulgar Display Of Power, Far Beyond Driven, The Great Southern Trendkill, and Reinventing the Steel. A real metal essential for fans old and new.
Review: Parkway Drive are huge metal stars from Aus and this is the band's 20th anniversary. Winston McCall (vocals), Luke Kilpatrick (guitar), Jeff Ling(guitar), Jia O'Connor (bass), and Ben Gordon (drums) are marking the occasion by making their Don't Close Your Eyes album available for the first time ever on vinyl. The eight original tunes re included as well as some bonus cuts from their split record with I Killed The Prom Queen and compilation albums What We've Built and True Til Death, Volume 1. Several versions of this one are out there and this is a limited edition gatefold with translucent gold vinyl so is not to be sniffed at for fans old or new.
Review: Patriarkh (formerly Batushka) can most succinctly be described as "Orthodox black metal", with their haunting fusion of blackened doom metal married to neo-folk elements including use of a vast array of instruments such as tagelharpa, mandolin, mandocello, hurdy gurdy and stringed dulcimer, as well as the inclusion of a symphony orchestra and choir. Returning over half a decade since 2019's Hospodi, their third full-length Prophet Ilja tells the true story that happened in the band's home area of Podlasie, in the village of Grzybowszczyzna, in the 1930s and 40s, detailing the world of Eliasz Klimowicz, the titular Prophet Ilja, an illiterate peasant who was the leader of the Orthodox Grzybowska Sect, active until the 1960s, cultivating and transmitting the history of the self-proclaimed prophet. Drawing on the myriad forms of Orthodox music, pulling from Byzantine monody, liturgical chant and Russian polyphony, whilst neatly adapting folk and liturgical melodies into their blackened sonic maelstrom, while lyrically delving into texts from the theatre play "Prorok Ilja" and drawing from the messages contained in the works of Wlodzimierz Pawluczuk, the heightened sense of theatrical pastoralism, period accurate aesthetic, and head-melting sonics provide a uniquely religious black metal experience unlike anything else the scene has ever heard, past or present. No corpse paint here, we're afraid.
Might Just Wanna Be Your Fool (bonus track) (2:27)
Lady Heroin (Pre edit Rough mix - bonus track) (4:27)
Review: Having recently struck internet-age meme-gold thanks to iconic frontman (and sole original member) Bobby Liebling's iconic, seemingly "drugged out" gaze whilst performing live on stage, there really could be no more ample time for doom metal pioneers Pentagram to be releasing a new album. Returning a full decade on from 2015's Curious Volume, the band's ninth full-length Lightning In A Bottle offers up yet another entirely new revitalised lineup featuring guitarist/producer Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere), drummer Henry Vasquez (Legions of Doom, Saint Vitus, Blood of the Sun) and bassist Scooter Haslip (Mos Generator, Saltine), while the decades of performing, touring and admitted drug addiction have done little to dilute Liebling's looming presence and powerful vocal cadence. Unmistakeably still Pentagram, complete with heaving grooves and occult charisma, the material doesn't simply rethread past glories, but makes a vital case for the band's inarguable place in the doom metal cosmos, with Liebling balancing his aura with sobering introspection of his own years of opioid abuse on standout cuts such as 'Dull Pain' or the haunting 'Lady Heroin', where he ponders - "Lady Heroin, have I seen the last of you?" We hope so, Bobby, but we hope to see plenty more of you eyeballing fans in the front row whilst getting your macabre groove on.
Review: Considered to be one of "the big four of doom metal" along with Candlemass, Saint Vitus, and Trouble; Alexandria, Virginia's Pentagram are metallic royalty who helped to pioneer the sound laid out in a blueprint by Black Sabbath across the 70s. While active in the underground scene during this decade and taking influences and turning them into experiments in real time, when their first official albums would eventually release in the 80s, the band had already become the project of sole original member Bobby Liebling, who has since been accompanied by a varying array of musicians throughout their decades-spanning tenure. 2004's Show 'Em How is a late-stage example of this formula with Liebling backed by members of Maryland stoner-doom outfit Eternal Void who helped to re-instil some of the menacing malevolence somewhat absent from their 21st century output up to this point. As usual with Pentagram releases, there's a unique spine description, which reads "Further infections to feed your disease." Nice.
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