PENTAGRAM — Day Of Reckoning (review)

PENTAGRAM — Day Of Reckoning album cover Album · 1987 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Madman...

Genre: old school doom metal

Look around you. Where are you? In a graveyard at night. That's right. You can hear the howling wind in the nearby trees and the whispers of the souls of the dead. You are not alone. Sitting in front of you is Satan himself, passing you the bong.

Are you ready for another round of satanic bongripping? Because that's pretty much the sort of twisted atmosphere that this doom metal classic evokes with its full on Black Sabbath-esque (very Sabbath-esque) stoned doom metal.

After the uptempo, yet primitively dark title track, the aptly titled "Evil Seed" sneaks in on you, making effective use of the "Black Sabbath formula" with muffled doomy riffs in the verses interrupted by bursts of equally heavy but all out distorted riff sections (Candlemass have also made heavy use [pun intended] of this formula on their recent releases). "Broken Wows" is another Black Sabbath-inspired track, which makes awesome use of guitar harmonics in the main riff. More primitive and blues- derived, but no less doom-ladden, is "When the Screams Come" - which, nonetheless, contains some haunting guitar harmonics. With its 9 minutes "Burning Savior" is a more epic affair, which starts out with a dark clean-guitar intro before bursting into a series dark hard rock riffs, which build up to a sonic climax towards the middle, which is then broken down into a heavier and more doom-ladden section. The riffage may, to some listeners, be too primitive for such a long track, but the structure of the track is really what makes this a perfect epic doom metal track (and who says you can't have long songs with simple riffs anyway?). "Madman" is an uptempo track, and, while it is perhaps not the strongest track on the album, it is a welcome listen after the dense "Burning Savior" and the preceding doomy tracks. "Wartime" is another uptempo track, but a much stronger one than "Madman", because there are more things going on.

Pentagram are one of the most important, but also most underrated doom metal band of all time, carrying on the original style of metal created by Black Sabbath. The music is primitive and has a stoner atmosphere, but it is dark and doomy, and bloody awesome.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Asbestos Tiles Hardcore Punk
SUNDOWNER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lysergic Ritual Sludge Metal
SUNDOWNER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Terra Preta Sludge Metal
TITANOBOA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Endless Suffering Sludge Metal
LØV
Buy this album from MMA partners
Beyond The Shed Sludge Metal
SINICYST
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 1 day ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 2 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed