Phonebook Eater
6/10
"Sorrow And Extinction" is an honest Doom Metal tribute, with some hints of originality here and there.
Pallbearer are a fresh band from Arkansas, USA, and “Sorrow And Extinction” is their debut album, with of a well received EP/Demo released in 2010 behind their backs. While they are not the most original Doom Metal band out there, they still put in their music some personality that makes them distinguishable.
The Doom Metal Pallbearer play is really Traditional: slow, low octave riffs, slow rhythms, and a pretty standard pitched voice. The production of the album though makes everything sound huge and extremely heavy, a heaviness that could be accomplished only in these recent years, making Pallbearer something a little more than a nostalgic Traditional Doom Metal band. Very few are the variations in terms of sound, with the exceptions of the first and last track, both of them including more diverse instrumentation and an overall slight change in direction compared to the other three tracks. The atmosphere this huge sounds gives is an arcane, somewhat mystical one. The feeling of the entire LP in fact is one that is almost liturgical, a prayer for nameless divine figures. The lyrics, besides being about sorrow, graves, rivers, sacrifices, always incorporate isolation, and strange encounters with some sort of ancient divinities, that end up symbolizing either direct or indirect causes of man’s evil. These are lyrical themes that are familiar for Traditional Doom Metal and many other genres; Pallbearer lyric-wise seem to be almost giving a tribute to these themes, even though they never manage to feel too old or clichéd.
With almost fifty minutes of music and five long tracks, “Sorrow and Extinction” is an extremely solid release in terms of structure: the first track, the twelve minute “Foreigner”, starts with an acoustic passage and develops into a burst of heaviness, giving the track some appreciable variety. But the following three songs have no particular changes going on throughout them, making the listen a little more monotonous, considering also the fact that none of them are in any way memorable, and more or less simply get the job done by delivering an interesting and consistent atmosphere. The last track redeems a bit all the monotony, adding to the sound much more keyboards, a nice chorus, and an overall more progressive feel.
“Sorrow And Extinction” is an pretty, standard, Traditional Doom Metal album, but the energy and freshness of Pallbearer are undeniable, and, like it was mentioned, they do have a slightly unique approach mood-wise, thanks to the great crunchiness of the guitars. If the band incorporate more instrumentation and clearer melodies, they would be one of the golden bands of today’s Traditional Doom Metal.