R.I.P. Vance Bockis (1962-2012)

About a week late on this, but now that I had a proper update I felt I could get away with a quick blurb here. From Blabbermouth:

According to WTOP, D.C. punk rocker Vance Bockis, member of local punk and metal bands THE OBSESSED, THE FACTORY, 9353, and PENTAGRAM, died Saturday at age 50.

Bockis, a popular fixture in the scene, had rotator cuff surgery Thursday and died at the Fairfax County home he shared with his wife Linda Leisz Bockis, apparently of a blood clot.

"Vance was clean and sober for almost six and a half years," Leisz Bockis told WTOP. "He was so thrilled with his life being sober," she added.

As mentioned above, Vance was an early vocalist for our legendary favorites The Obsessed from 1980-1982/83 (if it was until '83 it was evidently before the Metal Massacre Compilation track). He was also very briefly in Pentragram in 1977; this would put him at the tail-end of the Geof O'Keefe/Vincent McCalister era.

I am in possession of a handful of very early Obsessed demos. I was going to hold-off until the rest of the articles were done before adding "extras" to stuff, but in honor of Vance's passing, I'll go ahead and post this demo now. I can't tell you who's on drums, as I lack the tape themselves. Wino is still on guitar. You can really hear the punk influence on this batch with Vance at the helm.

 The Obsessed - 1980 Demo (Vance on Vocals):
http://www.mediafire.com/?11xru8q9evdx4ve 


Enjoy.

\m/

Penance

Yeah, sorry, that wasn't "midweek." But looking at the length of this article, I think the time it took was understandable.

Been chugging along on this one for awhile. These kind of write-ups are usually a pleasure for me. I'm excited to research and review every release by one of these legendary bands. Usually. The following band posed a somewhat less-enjoyable write-up, probably because I'd tried several times over the last year to get one going again, only to discover that the music just wasn't doing anything for me. In retrospect it was probably a mistake to listen to what was clearly their weakest release seven or eight times in the hopes that something would "click," but I was trying to avoid another Count Raven or Solitude Aeternus article, lest this thing appear lazy. That's not to say these guys are bad, just difficult to get into. Even once I finally had enough material to start writing it still took about two three three-and-a-half weeks to pound this thing out.

In any case...

Penance was a doom metal band from Pittsburgh, PA active in the early 90's.  Formed from the remnants of their previous band, Dream Death, Penance primarily played on the slower end of traditional doom. Though distinct from Dream Death, some of Dream Death's last recorded songs eventually became Penance songs, and the hint of Death metal in their style never left completely, particularly with regard to vocal delivery. From Allmusic's Bio:

Doom metal rockers Penance got their start in 1990, when the freshly formed group released their first underground demo. It floated around tape-trading circles until the members of Cathedral finally heard it. They were so impressed that they asked Mike Smail, the only permanent member of the group, to play the drums on their first album. Penance stayed together and put together their debut, The Road Less Traveled, on Cathedral frontman Lee Dorrian's Rise Above Records in 1992. They created a buzz in the metal underworld, leading to a contract with Century Media in 1994. Parallel Corners was released the same year, but the band was plagued by lineup changes and were eventually dropped from the label. Frontman Briant Balich joined in 1997, and the group continued to play live and release demos until signing with Martyr Music Group in 2001. The resulting album, Alpha and Omega, was released in the spring of the following year.

1992 - The Road Less Travelled

Perhaps spoiled by so many other Doom bands in which their debut arguably remains their best (see: Candlemass, Pentagram, Trouble, Pagan Altar, etc.), I was less than impressed with Penance's first release. Rather than emerging with a roar, it meekly crawled out with something like a whimper. Shoddy production and lack of creativity could be overlooked if not for a terribly bland overall tracklist and a vocal delivery I simply can't stand. I hate railing against the vocals when they're "part of the genre" (Death Doom, presumably) or what have you, but even once you manage to settle into that rut of somehow letting the vocals carry themselves through pure testosterone, they never surpass "tolerable."

The diabolic tritone that begins "Eulogy" is itself almost something of a doom cliche at this point, eliminating all doubt from the moment the album begins that these guys cut their teeth on Black Sabbath. Regrettably, it merely serves as an intro for the following track, which does little to meet the expectations set by the intro or raise the tempo. The funeral dirge tempo remains throughout the entire album, combining with a lack of memorable riffs to create what sounds simultaneously tired and tiring. It sounds like a band unsure where they're going, what they want to do, or how they wish to distinguish themselves from Dream Death (the current band's members having all been former members of Dream Death at one time or another). Even the solos, which could have lifted these unimaginative numbers out of monotony, fail to evoke much. Meanwhile, tracks like "A Wayfarer's Tale" simply scream amateur on the lyrical front:  "Ahead lies the monstrosity / Unveiled in glory for me to see / So sad a fate so many should die / But no more deserved for one such as I" --if nothing else about the album, I am willing to grant that it maintains a gloomy atmosphere, be it through the tempo or the vocals; composing verses in elementary rhyming couplets severely undermines that.

A single instrumental gives us a temporary reprieve from Brian Lawrence Goodbread's vocals (aptly titled "If They Would Cut My Throat Out"...if only), while "Misgivings" brings them into as enjoyable a form as I can find, double-tracking and applying a sort of haze around them not unlike Electric Wizard. "Soul Rot" trudges out for way too long, and further makes itself feel longer with a false ending, not unlike Kyuss' Supa Scoopa. Except whereas Scoopa's false ending felt organic as it continued the main riff ad infinitum  while the rest of the instruments slowly dropped out, Soul Rot ends somewhat naturally, only to have the track awkwardly come back after having faded out, then fade out again. I don't get it. After one cringe-worthy vocal performance on "Not What It Seems" we get the final, title track; it's decent enough, although again I don't think we really needed it to be ten minutes.

A bland, forgettable album overall. Hard to recommend to anyone other than that guy who always likes a band's first release the most because it's the most "raw." Their next release was a much more solid traditional doom outing, while later albums cultivate a decent stoner vibe to them. This remains the awkward transition album from their death-doom origins.

http://www.mediafire.com/?747x0avr32ee904

1994 - Parallel Corners

To their credit, Penance came back from a weak first release with a confident-sounding second release that's still not my cup of tea, but getting there. Opener "Words Not Deeds" knows it has to make a good impression and wastes no time pounding out a solid riff and some genuinely energetic solos. The vocals are still not doing the music any favors, but Goodbread's sparse wailing has been mixed behind the guitars such that he can be almost ignored. Album then begins to stumble (often the case when a band throws its best track first), as I found "Born to Suffer" and "Words to Live By" fairly forgettable. The latter turns up the tempo ever-so-slightly to something closer to a stoner groove, and I can certainly appreciate the Jimi Hendrix-esque solo midway through, but the riff failed to grab me. We'll be seeing this sort of track quite a bit on their later outings, so think of it as a taste of things to come.

"Destroyed By One" is an odd one. The opening's whispered vocals, string backings and percussion (triangle? xylophone? I can't tell) give it a nightmarish lullaby quality. If you were expecting an ominous intro to a hard thrasher, however, you'll be either befuddled or disappointed, as the track gives way to more subdued singing and acoustic guitar for the next six minutes. Not a terribly "doomy" track, although I do like Goodbread's attempt at actually singing, however melodramatically. Follow-up "Crosses" yields a pretty good riff and, again, at least tries to keep Goodbread's god-awful singing from creeping too far into the mix.

On the whole we're seeing their gradual shift towards stoner doom and away from the traditional doom. Unfortunately, Penance by this point still haven't quite learned how to abbreviate the experience to better fit in with the stylistic change. The average tracklength here remains 6-7 minutes where it could've been easily cut down to 3-4 and kept most of the punch: "Visions" clocks in at 7:49 without feeling like the extra length really added something. There's a momentary highlight with a pretty nice solo starting around the five minute mark, but the payoff hardly justifies the drag, particularly when even the "solo" starts to drag on past the two minute mark. I'm not saying they should be radio-friendly length--on the contrary, a hallmark of Doom Metal is its relaxed track length. But don't be long merely for the sake of being long; do something with it. "Reflections" is even longer, but once the damn thing gets going around the two-and-a-half minute mark it's quite enjoyable. The trade-off is well worth it because the build-up did not exceed the payload, and once they got their momentum going with an awesome riff, they don't squander it.

For some reason this album often gets picked as their magnum opus. I've never quite understood why, as it didn't completely resolve all of my qualms with the first album, and while the first felt like a transition album from Death/Doom to Traditional Doom, this one feels itself like a transition from Trad. Doom to Stoner Doom. It never seemed to me that they completely found their niche. Unless the experimental edge is what people liked, I found this one inconsistent. Better, certainly, than their first, but still inconsistent.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1y542yl1o4h1lhg

1999 - Proving Ground

Between '94 and '99, Penance went through some lineup changes. Most notably, original vocalist Brian Goodbread left and was replaced by Butch Balich. Balich's voice is a little less abrasive, although he unfortunately sings in largely the same barking style, and I'm still not terribly fond of it. As the album's title indicates, they clearly felt they needed to reassure us that they weren't done yet after several years in the dark. Nonetheless, the band has clearly grown more comfortable with their sound since the last album, even if it's increasingly stoner-based at this point. The opening title track and follow-ups "Cloudless" and "Transcending" have some excellent riffs packed in, and there's less of the self-indulgent meanderings of earlier albums. The next few tracks hit a bit of a dead zone: "Dead Already" and "Better" still grates on me with cringe-worthy vocals. At best they sound like James Hetfield's crooning without his melodic sensibility; at worst they just sound constipated.

If there was any doubt they had drifted from their original death-doom origins, the opening of "Never Lost," sounding like it could have been lifted straight out of ...And the Circus Leaves Town or The Kings of Frog Island. After a laid-back opening, the song resumes their typical doom romp. I almost wish the opening had kept going. Oh well. I had some hope that the lyrics would be getting better as well, because I really did enjoy "Cast in Grey," but then Penance drops something like "Bleed You" on us and I have to read stuff like this. Oh dear:

Sometimes I wanna cut myself
So you'll flow out of my veins
The kiss that tainted my blood
Is beating down my heart again

I want to bleed you from my heart
I want to bleed you from my veins
I want to kill you... in my mind
I want to bleed away the pain

It's like they wanted to write something to placate the tender-and-vulnerable Grunge crowd while still maintaining that Phil Anselmo "I piss nails" masculinity. Usually when I berate Metal singers for lyrics "bordering on self-parody" it's along the lines of King Diamond or Dio's self-absorption into their respective realms of macabre and fantasy. But this one is new for me. I can write it off as a new lyricist still fitting into the band and continue to focus on what they do well, which is the riffs, but come on guys...you're three albums in by this point. Final track "Slipping" is as good a vintage doom track as they ever wrote, keeping the tempo squarely locked in an imperial march with a dark, downtuned riff to boot.

They're definitely getting there. I still have some problems with them, and I'm not sure if they're ever going to fix those vocals or figure out whether they're traditional doom or stoner-doom, but I'm starting to enjoy myself.

http://www.mediafire.com/?d87y4q3jfeuvnln

2001 - Alpha and Omega

Continuing in the same direction as the previous album, Alpha and Omega continues in the same direction as its immediate predecessor, dropping more of the murky "doom" sound for something spacier. Between the last album Penance picked up another guitarist and recruited Mary Bielich on bass. The addition of a second guitar, though moving away from that sacred Sabbath template, frees the band to try a little more interplay between the guitars without the need for excessive overdubs. Further, it gives way to a much more textured sound than anything we've seen before; for the most part I actually really like it. A number like "Love Dies" starts off in typical Penance form, but by the three minute mark we get a brief transition into something quite subdued and, as I said earlier, textured. It's a pity the psychedelic soundscapes don't last, however, as it returns to normal doom shortly thereafter.

That's probably my biggest disappointment with this album:  I'm seeing flashes of brilliance, but fear of committal. After two competent but unremarkable tracks we get "See the Light," which starts to do something interesting around the four-and-a-half mark, but after a fuzzed-out distortion solo and a few more cyclings through the coda riff, it evidently runs out of steam and reverts to the forgettable opening riff. "Reaching" gives their space sound another try, burying the guitars in the mix while bringing the bass to the front and supplementing with periodically tribal drumming. But then they go and screw it up by having a drums-and-vocals-only chorus that seems more suited to a thrasher. Nowhere is this more evident than in "Drowning Me," where an otherwise excellent, contemplative song (Butch actually tries singing!) that resists the urge to break into a power riff nonetheless derails itself by trying to be too emotional, and gives Butch a thirty second window to finish off one verse without any kind of musical accompaniment. I can understand the intent, but their choice of placement smack in the middle of the song really breaks the momentum. Understand that it takes a full 45 seconds for him to get it out; by that point you assume the song must be over, only to have the band then re-emerge for another two minutes.

The only song here I could really find no fault with was "Eden Fall," which just gives us a good riff and sticks to it. No desert space vibes, no feigned profundity, no a capella solo. Just riff, riff, and all the necessary rhythm sections so that you can enjoy the riff. That's doom. That's stoner metal. Whatever arbitrary label you want to slap on it, it's good.  I have incredibly discriminating tastes, but I'm also easily pleased, and sometimes bringing a simple, driving riff to the forefront for five minutes is enough.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hocmxtehiirccml

2003 - Spiritualnatural

Penance's last proper album fully embraces that psychedelic vibe they had been toying with for the last few albums and by and large ceases to be "doom" of any real flavor. We don't get rid of the doom altogether, but now we're primarily just rockin. And that's okay, provided we at least get some consistency.

Opening track 'Gemini' starts us off with a nice Acrimony-style riff-cum-tom-heavy-drum pattern before unleashing double-tracked vocals. Penance usually knows how to break out guns-blazing, and they don't disappoint here. A solid riff at the forefront and vocals that complement it rather than detracting from it make this one a keeper. While a little laid back, it is no less compelling; the guitar tone during the song's solo seems lifted straight out of Black Sabbath's "Snowblind". As much as I've tried to argue they're now "Stoner" at this point, we do see the hints of their old traditional doom sound bleeding through; "Lost my Way" and "All is Vanity" testify to this. Tracks like "The Innocent" are an interesting study in what often feels like an arbitrary distinction between the two genres, as it is a "doom" riff by all accounts, chugging ever-so-forcefully. And yet the rhythm section, particular the upbeat tempo of the drumming, bring the whole vibe of the song up into something we would more readily classify as "stoner". The distinction seems so minor, and yet it's hard to argue against it creating an end-product much closer to Sleep and Kyuss than Candlemass.

Penance always liked to throw the occasional odd-track in there, perhaps satisfying some kind of internal "experimentation" quota. This time we got three, each stranger than the last. Our first taste comes with the acoustic bagpipe accompaniment of "The River Ara", cropping up again with "Iron Curtain Blues" (sounding somewhere between an old Italian folk song and Riverdance) and coming once more as a hidden track at the tail-end of the album, whereupon the band saw fit to record a German-language version of "La Bomba". On their own, they are mere curiosities; but by their powers combined, they are Captain Planet evidence of a band either ever-ambitious or still not entirely comfortable with their sound.

The last batch of tracks continue to try to revive past glory with some old-school doom atmosphere. "Long Suffering" hovers somewhere between Doom and Thrash, with some success, "Lost My Way" keeps it strictly in Pentagram territory (and all the better for it, to be honest), and "All is Vanity" stays much on the same vibe while incorporating a spoken-word interlude while some guy who sounds like Nicholas Cage recites the Lord's Prayer. What either of those have to do with the phrase "All is Vanity," I couldn't tell you (other than that Nicholas Cage is an asshole; but this is neither here nor there). On the particular pressing I have, the title track, Spiritualnatural, is given its own intro track. Given the foreboding build-up of the intro, I was a little disappointed by the song itself, given that it did little to resolve the paranoid or foreboding tensions hinted at by the intro track. Instead, we get a rote traversal through Penance stoner-doom territory. They always say to go into a song "without expectations" if you want to enjoy, but dammit, don't spoil us with an awesome intro if you don't want us to have expectations; you'll only wind up like "Crazy Train" and leave us disappointed.

Complaints aside, this is a pretty solid album. If nothing else, I find it their most consistent, at least as far as "consistent" goes. Judging from the album cover I would have expected full-fledged stoner with a healthy helping of psychedelia, but there's enough Doom proper in here to keep longtime fans engaged, if not happy. This goes back to my earlier critique of the band as a whole, which is that they can never seem to fully commit to one sound or the other, as if afraid of alienating fans, with the result that they instead alienate everyone to some extent. It is a pity, as it prevents them from ever achieving a "classic" album on the level of "Relentless" in their heyday or "Blues for the Red Sun" in their last days. There are good tracks to be had, just not as bountiful or as concentrated as what is necessary to make a certifiable classic.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zrou9gashwqnhxe

Note: the album art above is higher-res than the one packed with the album.

2005 - The Road Revisited

When their first album, "The Road" was originally recorded, it was recorded twice. According to drummer Mike Smail:

We started this at a studio where they guy was a big pothead and sat upstairs smoking pot and left us running the board .........it came out like a good sounding demo, but certainly not an lp............so we went to another studio, (more professional) and tried it again.

The first version of the album was shelved, while the second, better-produced version was on Rise Above Records (owned by Lee Dorian, founder of Cathedral, with whom Mike Smail played on Cathedral's first album). In 2005 the "glorified demo" version of the album was picked up and released as-is by Psychedoomelic Records. I'm guessing it was cleaned up and remastered at some point before release, too, as I refuse to believe a demo from circa 1990 could be this loud.

In essence, we get a "rawer" sounding version of the first album with slightly more enthusiastic performances from the band. The performance contrasts are distinct, but I'll be damned if I'm going to listen to this album again just so I can point out the obvious changes. If you are the sort who really liked the death/hardcore/lo-fi sound of the original album, you may end up liking this version more. Otherwise, all of my complaints about the original still apply here--unless you're a die-hard fan you can probably skip this one.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5rc8p6afgcnd5hl

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BONUS:
1989 - Living Truth (Demo)

The original demo tape recorded by Penance that impressed Lee Dorian enough to sign them. I don't usually put demos on here, but apparently I already uploaded it, so, why not.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ut43r6qunbu0wgl

-----------------------

That about wraps that up. Thank God. Despite being a band I am not terribly enthralled with, this article is closing in around 3500 words. Let it not be said I half-ass my write-ups!

Don't expect the next one anytime soon. I have six albums to get through and I've heard approximately none of them yet.
----

Link Recap:
1989 - Living Truth (Demo)
1992 - The Road Less Traveled
1994 - Parallel Corners
1999 - Proving Ground
2001 - Alpha and Omega
2003 - Spiritualnatural
2005 - The Road Revisited


Next-up: Revelation

Wait, people are still here?

My blog had a sudden spike in traffic this week. I'm not sure why. How people managed to suddenly stumble across a measly blog that hasn't been updated like a year I don't know (most of my traffic up until this week looked to be people in Belgium googling for Pentagram cover art), but as long as people are showing up at my door, I guess I should clean up around the house.

Will be reviewing some of the articles already written for grammar and trying to get things up-to-date. Both Candlemass and Saint Vitus had album releases since those entries were written, so they'll need to be updated at some point. Will also see about trying to back up any Youtube vids I have linked to, lest they go down.

Finally, will be trying to get some retailers included so you guys can easily purchase the music after listening to it. Support the artists!

About half way through a Penance write-up now that I hope to have finished mid-week. I'm sure both of my followers will be thrilled.

Candlemass

If you're wondering why it's been almost a month (again) since the last update, even though I did the cop-out entry on Solitude Aeturnus to avoid that, it's because it took me the better part of a month to write this damn thing. Seriously. Doing a quick wordcount on this write-up yields excess of 5k words. I have officially written research papers shorter than this. Jesus. The write-ups also start to get shorter around the Robert Lowe era because I was getting tired.
---

For some, Candlemass is the epitome of all that the Doom Metal genre encompasses. The plodding, downtuned riffs that sacrifice technicality and melody in favor of being bloody heavy above all else succeed in doing just that. In the early days there was not a major chord to be found amongst these guys:  they took downtrodden to a plane far beyond that of their American contemporaries. But while it's one thing to simply take what others had done before and turn it to 11, Candlemass brought something else to the table, namely the introduction of a baritone, operatic vocalist. So unusual and influential was this for the time that Candlemass is credited with spawning its own sub-genre, Epic Doom Metal, named after its first album (mostly just Doom Metal with a vocalist who can actually sing). While giving them their own genre simply for the vocalist might be a bit much, their contribution has unarguably created the template for most European doom metal, which stripped the blues elements out of the likes of their American peers Saint Vitus and Pentagram, much as NWOBHM and Thrash stripped the blues elements from early traditional metal before it.

Taken from Allmusic's biography page:

Sweden's Candlemass helped reintroduce the lumbering power chords of Black Sabbath to an entire generation of post-New Wave of British Heavy Metal and post-thrash metalheads, almost single-handedly writing the handbook for the modern doom metal movement in the process. After the breakup of his first band, Nemesis, in 1985, bassist Leif Edling founded Candlemass with vocalist Johan Lanquist, guitarist Mats Bjorkman, and drummer Matz Ekstroem. Their watershed debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, was released the following year, and though it immediately secured their standing within metal circles, it was only with the arrival of new vocalist Messiah Marcolin for 1987's Nightfall that the band found its true voice -- quite literally -- as the singer's vibrato-laden operatic tone remains completely original to this day. The album, which also saw the arrival of lead guitarist Lars Johansson and new drummer Jan Lindh, combined massive riffs and dark melodies into songs of epic proportions, which were made even more dramatic by Marcolin's religious lyrics and monk's habit stage costume. Candlemass repeated this formula with less inspired results on the ensuing albums Ancient Dreams (1988) and Tales of Creation (1989), each of which also saw a noticeable improvement in the production department. The appropriately titled Live closed the golden era of their career with Marcolin departing to form his own band, Memento Mori.

1986 - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

Candlemass's first album is unquestionably one of the best debut metal albums ever released, demonstrating a compositional maturity that most other bands would not see until their junior or even senior effort. The album's quality is even more jarring, given that it was an album crafted almost entirely with session musicians:  lead guitarist Klas Bergwall and female guest vocalist Cille Svenson were entirely session, while vocalist Johan Längqvist and drummer Matz Ekstroem, despite being founding members, left soon after recording. This left bassist Leif Edling (primary songwriter and brainchild of the entire band) and rhythm guitarist Mats Björkman as the only constant members throughout the band's career. If anything, it is a testament to the sheer force of Edling's riffs to sustain the music through a band otherwise lacking chemistry.

The album opens with "Solitude," a track that, once heard, will not soon be forgotten. The lyrics combined with Johan's incredibly soulful, baritone delivery create an atmosphere that has gained the song particular notoriety, if not infamy. Indeed they are a tad melodramatic, and had it been a decade-and-a-half later we might accuse them of being Emo. But since they largely abandon suicidal thoughts for traditional witches and goblins elsewhere, we'll forgive it just this once. Melodrama aside, it remains a fantastic opener and still one of the best songs in Candlemass's library. Johan's performance in particular shines here in a way that his replacement, Messiah Marcolin, never could. Candlemass enjoyed much greater success during Messiah's tenure, and his vibrato-laced tenor gave the band a popular operatic quality that most fans and critics characterize as the Bruce Dickinson arrival. While I'm not going to knock Messiah (at least not for his singing ability; as a person he's somewhat of a douche), but I happen to be in the Johan camp, for no other reason than that for all of Messiah's technical prowess, he could never infuse his delivery with the same level of emotion that Johan did. The distinction is all the more apparent when comparing Messiah's re-recording of Solitude against Johan's original. Vibrato can only take one so far; Johan's voice had a density to it where every syllable undulates in pitch and urgency.

Six tracks would be a brief outing for your average band, but when your average track is around six minutes in length, it works just fine for Candlemass. There is not a weak track on here (although Demon's Gate falls a little short of its peers). Whether it's the horror-music chorus of Crystal Ball or the interweaving riffs of Black Stone Wielder, each one building in intensity until an epic climax at the six-minute mark, there's no shortage of classic songs on this album. The album closes with perhaps the strongest track of the bunch, A Sorcerer's Pledge, showcasing just how high Johan can go when he really wants to, and fades out with a haunting female vocal.

A masterpiece from beginning to end, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus still stands (depending on whom you ask) as Candlemass's most consistent effort, challenged only by its immediate successor. Nightfall will surely have its defenders, and certainly critics will push for it in the same way they would Master of Puppets or British Steel, but ask dedicated doom metalheads their favorite Candlemass album, and they're likely to put EDM at the top. Classic songs, amazing riffs, and a vocal performance that is completely without equal. Given that Johan's own singing these days lacks the range and emotion that it once had, the peerless performance documented here is likely to stay that way.

EDM was remastered/reissued in 2003 with a bonus disc of live cuts (although these were performed by the Nightfall lineup, not the original).

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?68l3twdct6c9xgs

http://www.mediafire.com/?sbd7lx1bb42b6cc

1986 - Nightfall
After Edling was unable to convince Johan to stay (he departed to pursue a career in pop music, from which his voice never recovered), the band's original lineup, left without a singer, essentially broke-up. Enter Eddie "Messiah" Marcolin, a wild-haired, portly, eccentric Swede with the lungs of an opera singer and the stage-presence of a chimera, who was known to don a monk's robe when performing--fittingly, he announced his arrival into the band where most singers would be auditioning by phoning Edling in the middle of the night to tell him that Candlemass's new singer had arrived. A new drummer and guitarist soon followed. The resulting album, Nightfall, remains their most popular and critically-acclaimed work.

Instrumental opener "Gothic Stone" sets the stage with ambient, dissonant soundscapes resembling something like the intro to A Clockwork Orange. This portends the bleak nature of the songs to come, as well as an unfortunate decision to pad out the album with various filler/interlude tracks. More often than not, they don't work; it's one of the many reasons EDM's compact six tracks ages slightly better. But trimming away the fat, there are solid tracks to be found here. Our first taste of Candlemass's new vocalist in "The Well of Souls" immediately showcases his powerful vibrato with an equally muscular riff backing him up; an impressive feat indeed in a genre where the riff usually takes center stage. Another mediocre filler segues into what is easily the best track on the album, if not the band's entire Messiah-fronted catalog. "At the Gallows End" features a simplistic but positively infectious pentatonic riff, juxtaposed next to Messiah cramming every corner and nuance of his vocal range into a singular performance. Messiah's voice is something of a love-it-or-hate-it affair:  his technical ability is unarguably impressive, yet his vocal theatrics, so over-the-top that they would make King Diamond blush, can occasionally be a turn-off, even to fans. It can also be disappointing when someone clearly possessing so much talent seems content to simply mime the main riff as his vocal line. But here Messiah delivers. As always, the lyrics are a little hokey, and the song's contemplation-before-execution premise feels a little too close to Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name," but the damn song works.

The disappointingly-sentimental "Samarithan" and another filler follow (the latter, "March Funebre," being a rendering of Chopin's famous funeral march), finally redeemed by "Dark are the Veils of Death". Mourners Lament is another miss track, while Bewitched remains somewhat difficult to classify. The song remains one of the few to receive a music video treatment, for which Candlemass wisely took the tongue-in-cheek route:

The low-budget video's cadre of headbanging zombies provided an underground counterpoint to some more popular videos of the day in MTV's rotation. Fun Fact: the Bewitched video also featured a teenaged Per "Dead" Ohlin of Mayhem fame as one of the random background headbangers (yes, that one, the one whose suicide was photographed and used as an album cover). As stated, not taking itself too seriously saves an otherwise ridiculous video and, by extension, the song. Closing out the album is yet another instrumental, "Black Candles"; as much as I hate filler, this one is actually pretty good. Despite Doom Metal being the antithesis of Thrash, the song wouldn't sound out-of-place next to Metallica's "Call of Ktulu" or "Orion".

If I sound like I'm being overly-critical, it is really quite a good album, and the fact that it elicits such quibbles at all is to its credit, particularly against some other albums whose sheer mediocrity makes it nearly impossible to muster anything at all to say. It's clear that the line-up established here had some great chemistry going for it, and they continued to ride that for another two albums.

Nightfall was originally released in 1987, but was remastered/rereleased in 2001 with a bonus disc of demos and live performances.

The cover is taken from Thomas Cole's "The Voyage of Life" series

http://www.mediafire.com/?rjarindr6jd2vn9

http://www.mediafire.com/?bbflfx9ugbqy5w9

1988 - Ancient Dreams
Ancient Dreams is one of those albums that every band releases at some point--you know the one. The band's lineup is finally stable, so they basically release the exact same album they had released prior, but they're forgiven for sounding less-inspired because the band as a whole sounds tighter? That's the one. And like those, the general consensus will be "This album as a whole is not as good as Landmark Album X or Y, but it's got some of their best individual songs on it." This holds true as well, for tracks like opener "Mirror Mirror" and "Bells of Acheron" remain concert staples and fan-favorites. Messiah's operatic bellowing is, as always, best enjoyed with a grain of salt; "Mirror Mirror" is a solid song and an even better vocal performance, but, taken seriously, there is little salvaging a song title lifted from a fairy-tale mantra. Messiah's vocals carry the next track, "A Cry from the Crypt", whose main riff sounds suspiciously like At the Gallows End's at a slightly slower tempo. The title track attempts an epic fantasy narrative with some success, while tracks like "Incarnation of Evil" and "Bearer of Pain" tend to drag on slightly longer than they should. "Bells of Acheron" is a curious beast, with a furious riff sounding at one moment like "Mob Rules" only to evolve an Iron Maiden-like gallop the next. Neither of these scream "Doom" in the conventional sense but, against all odds, the song still works. A solid album that's not likely to win any newcomers over, but keep fans happy.

Ancient Dreams was originally released in 1988. The CD rerelease in 2001 included a live bonus disc and a Black Sabbath Medley at the end of the first disc that was commonly performed at their earlier concerts. Curiously, some of Sabbath's doomiest numbers, such as Children of the Grave or War Pigs, are absent, while Sweat Leaf and Supernaut are present. Go figure.

Another cover lifted from Cole's "Voyage of Life" series. I have yet to figure out how it relates to the album.

http://www.mediafire.com/?xx5my596xkw599a

http://www.mediafire.com/?0eyr8z1ip5vw00h

 1989 - Tales of Creation

 The last album from Candlemass's golden years is a competent, if predictable affair. The band is in top form and the album itself sounds great, properly owing to a bigger budget or simply better mastering. The song selection itself regrettably doesn't hold up as well, as they once again opted for pointless spoken interludes in an attempt to create some kind of quasi concept album, but we get a few prime cuts out of it anyway. The first real track, speeds things up to a gallop from their normal dirge speed, but largely maintains the same level of intensity. Messiah still takes center stage, but his voice seems to have been pushed back slightly in the mix compared to earlier albums, where his bellowing sounded as though you were inside a ringing church-bell. After another interlude, we run into a re-recorded "Under the Oak" from their first album. Which version sounds better will depend largely upon which singer you preferred; vocals aside, I will say that I preferred the EDM's guitar solos quite a bit to the ones present here. 

"Tears" is a pleasant surprise, alternating between a somber, slow-plucked riff not unlike the beginning of "Solitude" with sudden changes to a faster, power-chord chorus riff. Messiah still can't resist showing off his vibrato, even for what is clearly an emotional-contemplative number, but his theatrics are largely toned down and it comes out well in the end. Probably one of my favorite cuts from the album. The lyrics could use a little bit of work, though, as the chorus, "Step into the dreams of wonder / Open up the gates of wonder / Stare into the face of wonder / Free yourself from the spell you're under" just sounds lazy. If you can't be bothered to find three other words that rhyme with "wonder", don't try to make it rhyme. The track is followed by the inexplicable instrumental, "Into the Unfathomed Tower". While the question as to the songs quality is debatable, the more pressing question on everyone's mind after hearing the thing is usually, "What the hell is a generic speed metal outtake doing on a Candlemass album?" There are no answers, only more questions.

 The second half of the album is largely forgettable. A brief moment of inspiration returns at the end with the title-track, which can at least boast a decent riff. Most of the song follows true doom templates, but the heavy use of synth choir gives it something of a Power Metal edge at certain points. Nice, I suppose, if you're into that; my understanding is most aren't. It's worth noting that a good deal of the material on Tales of Creation, including the title track, were demo'd long before the album's recording, and even predate EDM, as evidenced by the demos included on the bonus disc (and confirmed by Leif in the bonus interview).  It might help explain the less-focused musical style of these songs, as opposed to the straight gloom-and-doom of EDM. Still a pretty good album, overall. Also the last studio album that would feature Messiah until the self-titled reunion album some years later.

Tales of Creation was re-released in 2001 with a bonus disc of demos and an interview.

The cover borrows a Doré painting. I love me some Dore, but it's not one of his better works.

http://www.mediafire.com/?beh7p1lla83rnha

1992 - Chapter VI
Messiah departed the band on less-than-amicable terms in 1991, not long after the release of their Live album (this is presumably the "fifth" chapter in their release timeline if we assume Chapter VI is the sixth; but who the hell includes a live album in their official chronology?). The band eventually learned to soldier on without him, but their first attempt was something of a stumble.

From the opening track, you'll immediately notice the presence of keyboards, a famously unwelcome instrument in the music of true doomheads. I am not so quick to dismiss them altogether, provided they're used properly (purists are quick to forget that even Dio-era Sabbath indulged in keyboards on occasion). Improperly, however, they give the music a Power Metal slant, and my feeling is that if you're gonna start incorporating power-metal synth, your only hope is to go for all-out cheese. New vocalist Thomas Vikström does little to alleviate this:  his post-Candlemass career includes Power Metal band Stormwind and Symphonic Metal progenitors Therion (although I wouldn't necessarily hold the latter against him). His voice has neither the bold baritone of Johan nor the operatic grandeur of Messiah, sounding instead like something closer to Tony Martin. Indeed, the album as a whole draws a great of similarities towards Black Sabbath's Tony Martin era. While there's something quaint, even admirable about Candlemass's decision to follow Sabbath's even through the drunken stupor of their late-80's/early-90's days, the vibe is ultimately the same:  a band grasping for direction.

Tracks like "Julia Laughs No More" demonstrate Leif's ability to still write a decent riff, but the iffy vocal-performance and not-sure-if-serious fairy-tale lyrics aren't doing it any favors. Elsewhere, the keyboards really do hurt otherwise competent numbers. Attempted epic "Where the Runes Still Speak" contains a Dream Theater-esque keyboard solo midway through, while the opening to "The Ebony Throne" includes horror-movie sound-effects and repeated pinch harmonics. Metal Songwriting 101:  never go for horror-movie vibes unless that's your schtick, and never have a sustained pinch-harmonic as part of your main riff. "Aftermath" is probably the only track I can't find fault with, putting an excellent, if simple riff at the forefront and a generally competent vocal performance, to boot.

Ultimately, the album received poor sales and luke-warm critical praise, no doubt influencing Candlemass's decision to disband for the first time in in 1994. I can't say I blame them. Mostly skippable.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3fmy1n2zoxl6q2h

1998 - Dactylis Glomerata
Leif started another band shortly after Candlemass's breakup dubbed Abstrakt Algebra, indicative perhaps of its more experimental nature. Their album furthered the power metal influences present on Chapter VI, with some more unorthodox influences thrown in for good measure. A second album was planned and recorded, but apparently the record label wasn't interested in publishing anything that didn't bear the Candlemass name (not unheard-of in the music biz, unfortunately). Leif presumably figured, "Well fuck, if that's what it's going to take..." and promptly reformed Candlemass, taking with him Abstrakt Algebra's drummer and keyboardist as well as a number of songs from the planned second album. Rounding the lineup off was Mike Amott of Arch Enemy fame and vocalist unknown Björn Flodkvist.

From the outset, the name and cover don't inspire confidence. The minimalist cover seems to recycle the skull image from EDM and shove it to the bottom-right corner of an otherwise-empty picture, while the name is evidently the scientific name for Cocksfoot grass. Unless this grass has drug paraphernalia connotations I'm not aware of, the significance of the title completely eludes me. Did the album title come to Leif while he was buying some for his cat?

Given the Candlemass-cum-Algebra makeup, I was expecting even more intrusive keyboards from Chapter VI to resurface. I was hence pleasantly surprised to find that, for the most part, the keyboards used here are tasteful. The light organ in "I Still See the Black" works, and contributes greatly to the subdued nature of the following track. "Dustflow" itself works pretty well until a poor, overly-distorted guitar solo invades the latter half of the song, while opener "Wiz" goes for a speeder doom-rock sound, with "Nostrakt Sun" arguably entering straight rock territory. While the old-timey gimmick of interlude "Cylinder" might not click with some, I found it effective in being ever-so-slightly unsettling. Unfortunately, while amusing in isolation it doesn't segue particularly well into either of the tracks that bookend it, rendering it merely a curiosity.

While tracks have their interesting moments, none of the tracks on the whole are particularly noteworthy, and this is perhaps the album's biggest problem. I could harp on the lackluster vocals or muddled production, but ultimately they're not even worth complaining about because the album is so bloody forgettable that I can't imagine fixing them would have produced a markedly-improved album. Even the quasi-punk tempo of "Lidocain God" does little to elicit a reaction.

In the end, it's a thoroughly mediocre album. Not terrible, as the hardcore fans would have you believe, but then, few albums are ever actually the trainwrecks the community makes them out to be. Entirely skippable.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jy1c99t7svvta41

1999 - From the 13th Sun
Space rock? In my Doom? That seems to have been the impetus behind this obscure Candlemass album from the late 90's. Pushing even more on their "experimental" edge, the lineup from the forgettable previous album returns here for another try, minus Amott. Some of the same problems of this lineup return as well. The vocalist's performance is still forgettable, the production still muddled (especially confusing at times when an aerial keyboard space synth sails over a lo-fi guitar tone), and despite Mats Ståhl being listed as both lead and rhythm guitars, they might as well have just been double-tracked rhythm guitars, because I'm not sure I heard a solo anywhere on the album. And yet, for all its problems, it's still a pretty decent album. What should be an unholy abomination of crossed genres turns out to be one of their better recordings of the 90's because, sonofabitch, it works.

In retrospect, it's not difficult to see why. Unlike the last album, where neither riffs nor vocals could overpower the pitifully bland nature of the songs, there are a surprising number of quality riffs to be found, further supported by the spacey atmosphere. Psychotropics and crazy sound-effects aside, space rock has always been about the riff, making it an unexpected companion to the similarly riff-minded doom genre. Indeed, the stoner rock genre popularized in the 90's by the likes of Kyuss and the stoner-doom hybrid popularized by Sleep owe much of their sound to the likes of Hawkwind and early UFO (as demonstrated by this tour poster). So while the combination is not unheard of, it is perhaps slightly unusual in its method:  where stoner bands synthesized the two in a way that sounded seamless and organic, some of the songs here appear to be little more than Space-rock sound effects overlayed onto what would otherwise be conventional Doom songs. This is probably the album's shortcoming, in fact. A song like "Tot" would not sound out-of-place on Black Sabbath's first album, particularly with its use of tritone, until a completely distinct second half abruptly blasts the song into space. It's as though they know they want equal helpings of Doom and Space in their songs but can't quite make up their mind how much to mix in at any given moment. The tracks which fully embrace the wandering space-leanings like "Zog" are easily the best on the album. That's not to say they're all great, as the opening of "Arx-Ng" can lean a little too heavily on the sound effects for my liking. But they nonetheless fare better than the straight-doom tracks like "Blumma Apt" or "Elephant Star", which seems to steal Symptom of the Universe's riff outright. "Cyclo-F" doesn't shoot for space but instead seems content with a mere laid-back doom outing, while the vocalist tries his best to do a Layne Staley impression. Nearly redeemed by a tasty stoner-rific riff at the end, but all too quickly fades out into sound effects.

From the 13th Sun is both surprising and disappointing, in that it is surprisingly good but disappointing that it could have been very good had they simply committed a bit more to the space-doom style. It bears listening, particularly for those of us who spin Kyuss and Acrimony as often as we do Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus, but only a few tracks will warrant repeated listens.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5496bxrhvv1mcmx

2005 - Candlemass
Sometime in 2001, the "golden" lineup of Candlemass reunited. What started as a reunion jam turned into a show, turned into a concert, turned into a tour. Recording sessions, however, proved difficult and contentious, and more than once disputes with Messiah threatened to kill the whole project. These were evidently contained long enough to finish the album, but not before considerable time had passed. The band released a reunion live album in 2002 to keep hungry fans off their backs, but it was not until 2005 that Candlemass's self-titled album finally hit shelves. I've voiced my disdain for self-titled albums released mid-career before:  more often than not they seem like a cheap way for a band to insist they've "reinvented" themselves, particularly here where, quite to the contrary, they've just reassembled their best-known lineup. But then, this is exactly what fans wanted, right?

So how does the Second Coming of the Messiah fare? Pretty well, actually. Opener and album highlight "Black Dwarf" immediately bursts out with its crushing riff to let you know that the Candlemass you know and love is back. The band sounds enthusiastic and re-energized, no longer meandering for inspiration; it knows exactly what it wants to do and sets about to do it. The tempo is a little bit speedier than vintage Candlemass, sounding more like Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell days where the earlier albums were happier to stick to Paranoid emulation. To boot, someone actually seems to have convinced Messiah to turn down his vibrato a notch.While one might quickly assume that Messiah sans vibrato is an unremarkable singer, he's more than capable of carrying the songs without it. If anything, it makes the songs more dynamic and the moments when he does pull it out more appreciated. So props to him.

There's definitely some catchy tracks here. The aforementioned "Black Dwarf" has already become a concert staple among the likes of Solitude and At the Gallows End. Others include the rifftastic doom epic "Witches" and the plodding "The Day and the Night". The rest of the tracks tend to be competent, if not quite as memorable. While there's little to complain about, the package on the whole falls below EDM and Nightfall, fitting in closer to Ancient Dreams and Tales of Creation's likes. There are standout tracks and some weaker ones that benefit from having been written by a decade-matured band that really seems to know what it's doing, even if it's not as inspired as it once was.

Not even Gothic font can save a lazy album-cover, boys

http://www.mediafire.com/?zpx1viav6hddzj8

2007 - King of the Grey Islands

The Second Coming turned out to be short-lived. Messiah left again in 2006, this time for good. Messiah himself said he wasn't happy with the direction of the album, although the band's official statement paints a different picture. After scrambling to find a new vocalist for the album left unfinished with Messiah, Candlemass settled on Robert Lowe of Solitude Aeturnus. While one would think this might spell the end of SA, Lowe has managed to remain the frontman for that as well. Don't ask me how he manages to front two largely identical bands without getting burned out--I'm getting burned out just trying to write about them. Lowe lacks Messiah's booming pipes, but he's got plenty of range and fits Candlemass's post-2000 sound well enough. The songs have a distinctly "modern" feel to them, which may be something of a turn-off to the retro-minded nature of Doom. But they're perfectly serviceable. They failed to produce much reaction out of me one way or the other, but I may just be reaching a saturation point on this band.

http://www.mediafire.com/?j1zkfh1mlqgdmm0

2009 - Death Magic Doom

Having now had time to acclimatize to their new frontman and given him a chance to work on a fresh batch of songs not written for another singer, Candlemass' most recent effort is a solid, by-the-books outing. You've got your speedy, "Die Young"-esque number at track one, the unnerving "Black Sabbath" (the song) reminiscent creeper at track two, and pretty much every other flavor in-between of Black Sabbath (the band) somewhere across the rest. "The Bleeding Baroness" loses a few points for tired lyrical content (the requisite "evil woman" track) and an unimaginative vocal line that too often just follows the guitar riff, but the riffs themselves are of such quality that it's forgiven; it remains one of the better tracks on the album. "House of 1,000 Voices" attempts to mix it up with a brief bass solo--unheard of in this day and age--and a synth choir, simulating the haunted voices of the song's namesake. While I think it works, I can't help but feel disappointing that they didn't get an actual choir. You've recorded ten albums and have achieved international success, guys; the "it's out of our budget" excuse is no longer viable. The latter half of the album seems loses steam, but Candlemass does its best to keep things interesting; just not always successfully.

For a band that's been going since the mid 80's with roughly the same lineup, I imagine this is everything you could want out of them. Metal fans are notoriously hostile towards bands they perceive as having radically changed their sound, usually concurrent with a rise in popularity, which they then dub "selling out". They would much prefer the drawbacks of a Motörhead or Manilla Road discography, where exists an amazing consistency across fifteen albums (with it coming the all-too-common complaint, "But every albums sounds the same"). As such, Candlemass has offered just that: a consistency of quality and sound that has persisted for over two decades while deviating just slightly enough between periods so as not to (greatly) offend. While it ultimately means that you can't help but listen to Death Magic Doom without comparing it to its better-executed peers, it's something you can spin on occasion and still enjoy, without shaking your head into your hands and wondering what has become of your childhood heroes.

On some editions the track "Lucifer Rising" from an EP they had released a year prior is included. It's not bad.

http://www.mediafire.com/?bad9buzm5rz1cjw

Thus concludes Candlemass's discography up to this point. They have supposedly decided to do one more album before calling it quits. We'll see how it turns out. Even if they quit tomorrow, they'd still leave behind an enduring legacy in the pantheon of heavy metal gods. Now let's just hope they don't do something idiotic before then and change guitarists on their farewell tour.
---

Next-up: Penance

Solitude Aeturnus

Been over a month since the last update. I apologize. Moving, new job, getting sleep cycle adjusted, all that. It didn't help either that I'm set to cover what is essentially the American version of Candlemass before actually covering Candlemass. Whatever.

Solitude Aeturnus formed as the band "Solitude" in 1987, named after the Candlemass song from which the band's musical style largely draws. While other bands were content to follow Candlemass's somber tone and plodding tembo, Solitude Aeturnus aped their whole stole outright, including the soaring, operatic vocals. The striking similarity earned them the nickname "The American Candlemass" soon after achieving notoriety. As if that weren't enough, lead singer Rob Lowe eventually became an actual singer for Candlemass (you see why covering Candlemass first would've been rather helpful here).


Will give an album-by-album breakdown on these guys later, as they've been a stumbling block on this blog for over a month now and I need to move on.

1990 - Into the Depths of Sorrow

http://www.mediafire.com/?886icu552a3auaz

 

1992 - Beyond the Crimson Horizon

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?z85gscjbm9a4hgm

1995 - Through the Darkest Hour

http://www.mediafire.com/?g8nfzfvmp4esux2

1996 - Downfall

http://www.mediafire.com/?2q05mm2lp6yts9j

1999 - Adiago

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?fxg4gv28egnmkua

2006 - Alone

http://www.mediafire.com/?d9hts9pknaijzab

Next up: Hopefully a band I can actually write something about.

Pentagram

Pentagram. If there's any band singularly more responsible for the "Doom" genre becoming distinct from simply "Heavy Metal", it's Pentagram. Their history is an incredibly long and confusing one (just looking at the wiki entry can make one's head spin), so I'll post a long and meandering history for those interested and then boil it down for those not. Taken from AMG's excellent biography page:

Pentagram first came into existence in 1971 in Woodbridge, VA, when singer Bobby Liebling met guitarist/drummer Geof O'Keefe. In the coming months, the duo played with a variety of local musicians, including guitarist John Jennings, bassist Vincent McAllister, and drummer Steve Martin, but by early 1972, McAllister had switched to guitar, O'Keefe took over on drums, and Greg Mayne joined on bass guitar. This lineup of Liebling, McAllister, Mayne, and O'Keefe would remain intact for the next six years, and though they occasionally performed under different names, including Virgin Death, Stone Bunny, and Macabre (the last of which graced their first single, "Be Forewarned," in 1972), they always inevitably returned to Pentagram. Another element of stability was their musical direction, which never strayed too far from the distorted psychedelic hard rock of heavy metal pioneers like Blue Cheer and the Groundhogs. A set of independent 7" recordings, "Human Hurricane" and "When the Screams Come" (this last was never released) preceded their first live performance on December 15, 1973, by which time a visible Black Sabbath influence had begun to take hold. Second guitarist Randy Palmer joined their ranks mid-1974 and his addition coincided with Pentagram's most prolific period of the decade, including close calls with record deals from both Columbia and Casablanca Records. But by 1976, Palmer was out (briefly replaced by Marty Iverson) and all of the band's professional prospects had dried up, leaving Pentagram to grind to a halt at the end of the year.

After years of silence, Liebling was finally encouraged to resume his career in mid-1978, when he met a musical soul mate in local drummer Joey Hasselvander, but it wasn't until Halloween 1981 that Pentagram was truly brought back from the dead. By then, Hasselvander had joined a new group called Death Row, which featured a young, Black Sabbath-obsessed guitarist named Victor Griffin. When Liebling stopped by for a jam, creative sparks flew almost immediately and with the addition of bassist Martin Swaney, the group officially assumed the Pentagram name once again. More years of hard work playing in clubs and composing new material followed, but in 1985, Pentagram finally recorded a full-length, self-titled debut (minus Hasselvander, who was replaced at the last minute by drummer Stuart Rose). Later retitled Relentless, the record may have been dedicated to Blue Cheer, but its contents owed an almost singular stylistic debt to Black Sabbath and along with its even more accomplished 1987 successor Day of Reckoning, it helped set the stage for the looming doom metal movement. Not fast enough for Pentagram to capitalize, however, and following another lengthy hiatus, a new contract from Peaceville Records finally led to another comeback via 1994's Be Forewarned LP (featuring a reinstated Hasselvander). But the musical climate of the time was very unfriendly to heavy metal of any kind, and the doom scene had never managed to coalesce as expected, leading Pentagram to another, seemingly final breakup.

Now for those who don't give a ****, here's what you need to know:  Bobby Liebling, strictly a singer, started the band "Pentagram" in the 70's. The band members played a mix of psychedelic hard-rock and sometimes heavy metal (Geof O'keefe would even be involved later in a project called Bedemon which was probably closer to Doom than 70's Pentagram), but it's important to remember that Bobby Liebling was the primary songwriter, and he was more of a Blue Cheer nut than a Sabbath nut. So the songs from this era will be much closer to Summertime Blues than War Pigs.

In the 80's, Bobby joined an unrelated band called Death Row (Bobby knew the drummer, Joe Hasselvander). Death Row's guitarist, Victor Griffin, was the real Sabbath nut, and his bluesy, downtuned guitar playing is equally as responsible for the "vintage" Pentagram sound as Bobby's psychotic vocals. Bobby convinced the band to rename itself Pentagram--handy for Bobby, since he owned the rights to the name--and along with Hasselvander and bassist Martin Swaney, set about writing three of the most important Doom albums ever recorded. Those privy to all the eras of Pentagram bootlegs can watch the evolution of their library as a standard track from one of Liebling's 70's outfits receives a Doom make-over under Griffin's wing.

1985 - Pentagram (Relentless)
The first Pentagram album (originally self-titled) was released in 1985 on their own label, evidently tired of waiting for someone else to pick it up. I've got an official release of a live show they did still as Death Row sometime in 1982 with most of the songs that would appear on here, so evidently they had been written for awhile (to say nothing of the ones Liebling wrote in the 70's). As far as distribution goes it leans more towards Death Row material, but "20 Buck Spin" was a well-known staple of the 70's lineup. I'd say the album is probably better for it, because even when Victor writes a speedier number like "Relentless" it ends up sounding better than most of the 70's material, at least to my ears. This album is loaded with classics, from the fantastic "Sign of the Wolf" to the immortal "Death Row". I've taken pains to emphasize Griffin's contribution to this (hopefully not to a fault) because he tends to be criminally downplayed next to Bobby's charismatic and often insane antics and Bobby's "seniority" as a Pentagram member (nevermind that it was anywhere from three to four completely different bands with Bobby as the only real constant member). But it's hard to imagine a singular riff more important to the "Doom" sound than the opening to Death Row, except perhaps the original Black Sabbath riff. Supposedly Victor Griffin tuned down to a B to get that demonic sound.

An excellent album overall. It was re-released by Peaceville Records in 1993, with a remastered sound, a new title, "Relentless", and a much better track order--Death Row is simply too important a track to bury in the middle of the album. Joe Hasselvander's fantastic and informative blog had this to say about the original release:

The debut Pentagram album on Dutch East Records NY. 1985 was a remixed version of the original Death Row demo "All Your Sins" ! Later on in 1992 Peaceville records U.K. signed the album once again for rerelease in England and restored the origial mix of "All Your Sins"!

It would seem the remaster, then, contains the intended track listing. Good to know the next time a Pentagram purist insists only the original vinyl should be listened to. Fuckbags. In 2005 the album was re-released again as a Digipack. I've got three different versions of this album, but I'm guessing the one I've uploaded is the latter, since it's the loudest. Not necessarily a bad thing, given how lo-fi the original sounds.

original cover

"Relentless" remaster

http://www.mediafire.com/?k9gq13q2j5iz1i8

1987 - Day of Reckoning

Their second album handily avoids the common sophomore slump--probably not too difficult when they've still got piles of Death Row and 70's Pentagram material to choose from. If anything, it's more consistent and a bit doomier than their first official outing. From the outset, the title track pushes the grim, hopeless atmosphere with Griffin's trademark guitar tone and downtuned riffs. "Evil Seed" follows suit with similarly bleak vibes. It's also the only song in Pentagram's library to outright borrow a couplet from Black Sabbath, specifically the opening to Sweet Leaf:  "All right now / Won't you listen?". Meanwhile, "Broken Vows" is easily one of the best songs they've ever done, with its laid-back but nonetheless engaging riff. "Madman" and "When the Screams Come" are both 70's numbers, but fit in well enough with the rest. "Burning Savior" sports a fairly creepy intro and a main riff that manages to sustain the song for its entire nine-minute run. Album closer "Wartime" is another fantastic track and one of my favorite riffs the band's ever done (if my affinity for Wartime and Broken Vows is any indication, I'm easily amused by hammer-ons. Go figure). An excellent album overall. Maybe even better than their debut, Death Row and Sign of the Wolf alone give the debut a fighting chance in my book. I love it to death, although if I had one complaint, I'd like the bass to be a little higher in the mix; I'm a bassist and even I struggle to pick the thing out under the guitar overdubs.

The album was originally released with Joe Hasselvander only playing on the track "Burning Savior" and another drummer named Stuart Rose playing on the rest of the tracks. In addition, it had a slightly different track order. When the album was finally released on CD in 1993, Hasselvander re-recorded all of Stuart's tracks. Usually I find that sort of thing unprofessional (looking at you, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman reissues), but since Hasselvander was really part of the "vintage" Pentagram lineup (he's on the next album, too), I'm willing to make an exception here. I'm not a drummer, so I can't really tell you what kind of a difference it makes. I've got the original pressing lying around somewhere--not terribly easy to find, given that it never got a CD release--so I may yet upload it for completionist's sake later.

Original album cover

Remaster

http://www.mediafire.com/?f3hzdp6df7c9mdt

1994 - Be Forewarned
This is the last album of the "classic" lineup, and to a certain extent it feels a little less inspired than the previous two albums. Not to say it's at all a bad album--the band is as tight as they ever were musically, and if anything this album probably has the best split of Liebling, Griffin, and Hasselvander-written songs. Several of the Griffin tracks here--"Too Late", "Wolf's Blood", and "Vampyre Love"--are from a batch of demos Griffin had recorded for a then-unreleased solo album (my pressing of Late For An Early Grave says 2004; I don't know if this is when it was actually released or if it's a repress from one released earlier). Griffin's tracks have more of a Wino-vibe to them, which shouldn't be surprising, given that Wino actually guests on a few tracks. They're also among the better tracks on the album. Too Late has an excellent main riff going, and Vampyre Love's almost poppy structure is strangely catchy, even with a rather strange midsection involving what sounds like a cowbell. "Frustration" has some brief moments of choir hinging on Pagan Altar territory, while the title track is another relic from the 70's incarnation. There's fewer instant classics here than Day of Reckoning or Relentless, but it's still a solid album, and I daresay it's quite a bit more ambitious in its mix of softer numbers than the strict funeral dirge that Day of Reckoning was.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?mvc9qgsnuj4azd5

 Sometime after Be Forewarned, the classic lineup of Pentagram disbanded. Victor Griffin got out of music for awhile and didn't do much until he started Place of Skulls in 2000. Bobby continued for a few more albums.

1999 - Review Your Choices
This is one of two "duo" albums, in which the entire album was performed by Bobby Liebling on vocals and Joe Hasselvander handling all instruments. Hasselvander's talent on multiple instruments is certainly impressive, but he's no Victor Griffin, and both the solos and his guitar tone leave a little something to be desired. For his part, Bobby draws in a large portion of his 70's work for inspiration (this album was recorded shortly after an unauthorized compilation of 70's Pentagram works was released by Peaceville under the name Human Hurricane without Bobby's consent, possibly explaining his need to update the stuff). Most of them sound better than their familiar demo counterparts, although on a few the "update" doesn't feel terribly inspired--like they did little more than slow down the tempo and throw late 90's, overdriven guitars over the old tracks. As always, there are some great tracks to be found. "Change of Heart" starts off a bit slow but has an absolutely killer last minute, "Living in a Ram's Head" sounds as good as it ever did (another 70's fan-favorite), and the title track sounds infinitely better than the scratchy demo I've got from a rehearsal bootleg in '74 (mine lacked proper song names and sometimes proper track separation, leading to my simply thinking of it as, "That song that comes after Please Don't Forget Me"). Liebling's vocals are a little uneven through the album--he sounds in general form on tracks like "Forever My Queen," where elsewhere he sounds completely coked-out and/or out-of-his-mind. Not a bad album, although the lack of the golden lineup is sorely missed.

 http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?c7daxkrmcpfwy2g

2001 - Sub-Basement

Reflecting the living environment of the average Pentagram fan, Sub-Basement continues the past album's precedent of scraping for 70's Pentagram classics with a side of new cuts, all written and performed by Liebling and Hasselvander. The problem is, it really does feel like they're scraping this time. "Drive Me To the Grave" sounds decent enough, and "Mad Man" sounds somewhat interesting in an admittedly retro-70's way (supposedly Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley offered to buy "Mad Man" and another 70's track, "Starlady", from Bobby, provided they also receive writing credits--Bobby turned them down), but other tracks simply feel by-the-numbers, and Bobby's voice sounds fairly weak throughout the whole album. This period of his life was apparently something of a low-point, so I suppose that's to be expected...but that doesn't mean I have to give the burned-out druggie recording my patronage. Probably the weakest overall Pentagram album, except maybe the following.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yiyg7pit3h8k9ao

2002 - First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection

Finally, after having teased you with passing mentions of Pentagram's 70's material, I can present here in guilt-free, officially Bobby Libeling-approved compilation format. It's not bad. Personally, I'm more of a fan of their 80's sound, but since nearly album contains at least a few cuts from this material, it's interesting to hear it in its original form.

http://www.mediafire.com/?v6buhmf0epc2mn6

2003 - Show'em How

I really hate being that guy. You know, the guy who complains at the recent Guns n' Roses show that the band now is basically a GnR tribute band with Axl on vocals (not that I'd ever go to a GnR show anyway), or the guy who won't shut-up that the new Alice in Chains should've renamed themselves because it's not Alice in Chains without Layne Staley. And I'd try to avoid similar slander against Bobby Leibling, alleging that he simply took over vocals for another band and redubbed it "Pentagram", but god dammit he did! Pentagram's entire backing band for this album was a perfectly competent other doom band from the area called Internal Void (we'll be covering them later), sans the vocalist. Meanwhile Bobby still sounds like he's a few inches shy of Syd Barrett, somewhere between singing and gawking at the ceiling while the rest of the band is content to follow his lead in re-recording more old material Bobby scraped off his shelf of 8-tracks. The doom makeovers that were once a pleasure to listen to and compare now just sound phoned-in, as if run through some sort of cheap software to turn any song into a Doom Metal song. The original compositions hardly impress, either. It's not a terrible album, but it's a weak album both by Pentagram's standards and even by Internal Void's standards. Thank God this is not the end.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yu9k3zq6r5gjkvq

2006 - First Daze Here Too (The Vintage Collection)

Not to be deterred by the fact that the second visit is obviously no longer a "first" daze, the second compilation installment gives us even more of those delicious 70's demos that make Pentagram collectors rush to change their shorts. This time we get two disks' worth.

What the hell happened to the middle guy's left arm?

http://www.mediafire.com/?hs49x8b46calccz

2011 - Last Rites

Sometime in the last few years, Bobby Liebling got sober, got married, and converted to Christianity. The latter might seemingly spell the end of a band titled "Pentagram," but conversion to Christianity is not always a bad thing; see Place of Skulls early Place of Skulls. Liebling's vocals have markedly improved since the last few albums, and the rejoining of Victor Griffin brings some much needed energy to the group. With Victor back on board, as well as former member Greg Turley on bass, Pentagram has produced their best album in over a decade, if not close to two. That's not to say it's perfect, and I'm equally hesitant to rank it alongside their three golden-years recordings. But it's certainly a step up from the "duo" albums or the "Internal Void w/Bobby Liebling" effort. Opener "Treat Me Right" certainly took some time to grow on me. At first listen I was powerfully turned-off by the nu-metal tone of Griffin's guitar; but the riff is competent enough, and while the tone still bothers me, the rest of the songs has all the right ingredients for a vintage Pentagram concert staple: powerful riffs, tasteful solos, and a psychotic frontman (the difference being you want the frontman to only act psychotic, not actually be psychotic, lest he look look like this while he's supposed to be performing). Other than the opener, the album's other immediate highlight is the gripping "8", which has a slightly more laid-back vibe to it, not unlike "Broken Vows", and a tom-heavy, tribal drumbeat I absolutely love. There's still a good bit of 70's Pentagram material lurking throughout the album--two of the songs are so old they even go into Bobby's pre-Pentagram outfit, Stone Bunny, but they've been rebuilt much better under Griffin's tutelage than under Hasselvander or Internal Void. It's still got some lulls, but it's a breath of fresh air after the past decade, and (I hope) portends better efforts on the horizon.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2xw1lph36b0hbj4

I've had the pleasure now of seeing both the most recent iteration of Pentagram and the reunion Death Row trio (Griffin handled vocals), and I can safely say that Pentagram in its current state still kicks ass. Bobby's sounding better than he has in years, and the band mixes just the right dose of songs from their latest album with fan-favorites in their setlist. I was able to talk to both Bobby and Victor after the show, and according to Bobby, they're more popular than ever (like a jackass, I saw Victor for about five seconds and the only thing I could think to ask was, "Are you ever going to do anything with Wino again?"). Good on them. While they're far from achieving the multi-platinum success they deserve that other less-talented bands have received (looking at you, hair metal. And nu-metal. And wherever the hell we're throwing Between the Buried and Me.), they've achieved some level of notoriety. They deserve it.

Next-up: Solitude Aeternus