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.

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).”

Warthur A particularly skilled return to form for Pentagram, on which the star of the show is doubtless Victor Griffin, whose impassioned and energetic riffing adds a new energy to the band's classic doom compositions. Bobby Liebling is also on excellent form with his lead vocals, which are particularly dramatic on the closing title track. On the whole, Pentagram don't deviate too much from their formula on this album, but they do apply it with a great deal of skill and virtuosity, and that's more than enough for me. Of all the bands playing retro-doom metal with a 70s atmosphere in the 1990s, Pentagram probably had more credibility than anyone else simply because they'd lived and played through the 70s, and this is one of their albums where the songwriting and performances live up to their decades of musical experience.

Time Signature A timeless heart...

Genre: heavy metal / doom metal / hard rock

Get ready for another night of satanic bongripping with the madman Bobby Liebling and his maniac minions.

Like on the previous releases, Pentagram blend traditional metal with doom metal and stoner rock on "Be Forewarned", which strikes me as being a bit more rock and a bit less doom than "Relentless" and "Day of Reckoning", but it also has a more brutal production which suits the primitive and dirty rock sound of this album.

The first two tracks are more on the stoner and groovy side of things, while the first really doom-ladden track is track number three "Ask No More", which is followed by the equally doom-ladden but slightly more uptempo "The World Will Love Again". This album also contains the Pentagram classic "Vampyre Love" which is a heavy, yet catchy and melodic heavy metal track with an awesome chorus riff and equally awesome verse riff. "Lifeblood" takes us from the land of catchy rock to the depths of gloomy doom metal with its heavy oppressive intro, and while the tempo gets faster, it still reeks of doom and gloom which is also the case of "Petrified". "Wolfsblood" elegantly combines groove and doomy heaviness and is actually a really cool track, which also applies to "Frustration" and "Bride of Evil" and the dark ballady title track, which also contain some vaguely blues-based parts.

This fine album is commended to fans of doom metal, stoner rock/metal and traditional metal, and should especially appeal to fans of Black Sabbath and Cathedral.