siLLy puPPy As usual PENTAGRAM took their sweet time releasing their second album DAY OF RECKONING. After taking fifteen years to get it together to release their debut i would say only two more wasn’t so bad though. Whereas the first album sounded like it was stuck in the 70s without much 80s influence, this album sounds like it fits into both decades simultaneously by not only delivering some serious Sabbath inspired doom riffage and themes but by also including a very melodic 80s metal approach with thundering chords and even some sweet soloing.

I was a bit disappointed in the debut feeling it wasn’t really as great as it should have been given more than a decade of time to refine their sound and come up with something brilliant. It was decent but didn’t blow me away. DAY OF RECKONING on the other hand is where i feel the band really connected with their sound and delivered a haunting tale of doom and despair with ghosts and goblins by their side guiding them into the world of Lucifer.

I feel everything to offer here is step up from the debut. Bobby Liebling’s vocals are on par with the music to the point that his nuances really add a flare missing from previous offerings. The songs are catchier and the riffs are just plain powerful and hypnotic. The band as a whole really stepped up their game and sounds super comfy in their doom laden skins. The tracks vary in tempo and theme but always leave you feeling awe for the crushing heaviness and occult imagery. I do RECKON that on this DAY i really dig this one but i’m sure i will like it for many more to come.

Warthur The second album from Pentagram is a decent enough doom metal piece that feels slightly lacklustre when set next to the high-calibre releases by the likes of Saint Vitus and Trouble that came out at around the same time - or, for that matter, compared to the preceding album. Part of the reason is that the songwriting hasn't really advanced much since then; whilst it's understandable for many of the songs on their debut to be updates of old material from their 1970s demos, Day of Reckoning establishes a Pentagram tradition of rehashing said material to pad out studio albums which continues to this day. Either way, the album while decent I find rather forgettable.

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.