Warthur The career nadir of Show 'Em How coincided with a low point on Bobby Liebling's life in general; happily over the subsequent years he would really turn things around for himself (as depicted in the documentary movie Last Days Here), and bring forth a pretty decent new Pentagram album in the form of Last Rites. In classic Liebling style, he would later piss away any goodwill generated - it's hard to come back from a prison conviction for abusing your mother - but in the moment, this felt like a bit of a turnaroumd.

It's solid doom metal of the sort we have come to expect from Pentagram. This means that you shouldn't expect anything staggering original, with Liebling still, after all these years, finding bits and pieces from the group's 1970s years to give a proper studio treatment to (Walk In Blue Light, for instance). It's got a fun, funky stomp to it, but it's hard to treat a band as mere goofy fun when stuff like that elder abuse rap is part of the picture.

Time Signature Treat me right...

Genre: dark & doomy heavy metal rock 'n' roll

The year is 2011 and the Devil is a-knocking on your door; you're in for a round of Satanic bongripping or more. Bobby Liebling may be squeaky clean these days, but Pentagram still deliver old school dark heavy rock with a touch of stoner atmosphere and references back to Sabbath in their early days.

From the slightly uptempo "Treat me Right" and "Call the Man" over the doom-ladden "American Dream", "Walk in the Blue Light", and "Nothing Left" to the melancholic dark ballads "8", "Everything's Turning to Night", and "Windmills and Chimes", the listener is treated to dirty, groovy and heavy heavy rock with an injection of doom and gloom. The guitar has a fat and dirty sound with a lit of 70s rock feel to it, and this suits the simple and primitive, but totally awesome and compelling, riffage perfectly. Pentagram show - once again - that they have found the perfect balance between rock 'n' roll and doom 'n' gloom on this album.

After decades of wear and tear, Liebling's voice has attained a raw quality which just means that his unique belting adds contributes even more to the rock 'n' roll authenticity of this release (but it also seems that he has acquired a couple of additional singing techniques, which he puts to good use).

"Last Rites" is a journey back in time to the day of early doom metal and should appeal to fans of Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General, St. Vitus and the like, but I think that Cathedral fans should also be interested in this album - and in Pentagram generally - given that Cathedral's sound is largely based on the Pentagram sound. Sludge fans might also like it - Pentagram are, in a way, one of the original sludge bands after all.

This is an instant doom 'n' roll classic!