SilentScream213 Pentagram’s “Be Forewarned” opens with a scorching track that combines Traditional Doom and Speed Metal (an AWESOME combination by the way) and right from there you aren't quite sure what to expect from this album.

The tracks go every which direction from then on, always keeping the band’s Trad Doom sound, but touching on a variety of influences and styles. An interesting choice on this album was to fill it with a bunch of shorter songs, another unconventional choice for a Doom band. This makes the diversity in material even more impressive, as each of these 13 tracks sound quite different from each other.

Unfortunately, even though the band did a good job of individualizing songs, that doesn’t mean they are all good. Some of the songs, like Vampyre Love, sound rather goofy and uninspired. The first and last tracks are the highlights, and just about everything in between is filler in comparison, making this long, 13 track album feel very hollow. Shout out to Nightmare Gown which is another fantastic, Speed influenced track.

SilentScream213 Pentagram didn’t quite come bursting into the scene in 1985, but neither were they plodding – it was a sort of midtempo shuffle between classic Heavy Metal and Trad Doom. Another thing; their riffs weren’t really evil sounding, nor were they somber. The lyrics were Satanic, sure, but the band sounded more like a casual metal band playing slowly rather than anything doomy or evil. The music, and especially the vocals, are far too cheerful for the generic evil lyrics to carry any weight at all. There are some good riffs, but there’s no atmosphere, no mood, and to top it off, the audio quality is really poor. Not a bad release by any means, as all the songs are at least decent, but Pentagram brought absolutely nothing to the table even in 1985, and it certainly doesn’t hold up today.

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.

Warthur Buyer beware: this is basically Pentagram's self-titled debut, given a new title and a scrambled track listing, so if you already have that you don't need this. I will reiterate it here what I said about it on the review page for the original release for convenience's sake.

This came out a full ten years after the initial 1970s demos on which the band honed their sound, but sonically speaking the spirit of those early recordings lives on in this unapologetic throwback to the 1970s. Bobby Liefling's vocals are perfect for the rock, drugs and wild living image of the band whilst Victor Griffin's incredibly heavy riffing rivals that of Tony Iommi at his doomiest. The album might have been preceded by classic doom metal releases by Saint Vitus, Trouble and Cirith Ungol in the previous year, but those who've listened to collections such as First Daze Here know that Pentagram mastered the style well before these others. With this excellent debut, they proved that they held onto that mastery into the 1980s.

siLLy puPPy Once again PENTAGRAM took their sweet time to release their third album BE FOREWARNED which came out a full seven years after their previous. This time it’s understandable because of the fact that many of the members were moonlighting in other bands, such as Joe Hasselvander joining Raven back in 87. The band continue their doom metal assault tactics with crushing riffs and Sabbath inspired occult lyrics. The band has really developed itself at this point into a force to be reckoned with and personally i find this to be my favorite PENTAGRAM album in the entire discography.

What works well with this one for me is simply the songwriting. Nothing is radically different from what came before, but metal music has a propensity to attain classic status or total thumbs down on subtleties. In this case PENTAGRAM just upped their melodic doom metal approach to the point where i find the balance reaches an equilibrium that makes me wanna listen to it more often. One of my all time favorite PENTAGRAM tracks is on this album, the sublime “Frustration” with its ingenious blend of doom metal riffage, acoustic mood setter and beautiful female vocal background.

Another thing i love about this album is that despite being a Sabbath type of album, it really suspends that obviousness where the band really feels like it is a force in the metal world that stands on its own. It simply is an extremely satisfying early doom metal album that may not rank as the apex of the sub-genre but it is one that i really grown to love to put on regularly. The title track is actually from the 70s and appears in its primeval form on “First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection).”