PENTAGRAM

Doom Metal / Traditional Doom Metal / Heavy Metal / Proto-Metal • United States
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Pentagram is a doom metal / traditional doom metal band from Washington D.C. in the United States, formed in 1971.

Pentagram was formed from an earlier band called Stone Bunny.

http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/stone-bunny

In 1972 the band changed its name to Macabre for a short time and again between 1980 and 1983 recorded under a different moniker, Death Row.

http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/macabre-dc

http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/death-row/



http://pentagramband.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQwRqnTNQupNkWQZoi5k_Kg

Originating from Arlington, Virginia, United States of America, one of the earliest doom bands around, having been around in one form or another since 1971, it's safe to say that Pentagram (originally formed as Stone Bunny, then changing to Macabre and then to Death Row) had a big impact on Sabbath inspired doom metal that was to follow over the next decade. The band also strongly intertwines with the band Bedemon and is sometimes seen as one and the same. Pentagram are considered to be one of the all time classics by many older fans for understandable
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Thanks to m@x, rushfan4, Time Signature, Bosh66 for the updates

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PENTAGRAM Discography

PENTAGRAM albums / top albums

PENTAGRAM Pentagram (Relentless) album cover 3.83 | 15 ratings
Pentagram (Relentless)
Traditional Doom Metal 1985
PENTAGRAM Day Of Reckoning album cover 3.61 | 16 ratings
Day Of Reckoning
Doom Metal 1987
PENTAGRAM Be Forewarned album cover 3.76 | 18 ratings
Be Forewarned
Doom Metal 1994
PENTAGRAM Review Your Choices album cover 4.44 | 9 ratings
Review Your Choices
Traditional Doom Metal 1999
PENTAGRAM Sub-Basement album cover 2.46 | 5 ratings
Sub-Basement
Doom Metal 2001
PENTAGRAM Show 'em How album cover 1.54 | 4 ratings
Show 'em How
Doom Metal 2004
PENTAGRAM Last Rites album cover 3.95 | 15 ratings
Last Rites
Traditional Doom Metal 2011
PENTAGRAM Curious Volume album cover 4.00 | 3 ratings
Curious Volume
Traditional Doom Metal 2015

PENTAGRAM EPs & splits

PENTAGRAM Change Of Heart album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Change Of Heart
Doom Metal 2012

PENTAGRAM live albums

PENTAGRAM A Keg Full of Dynamite album cover 5.00 | 1 ratings
A Keg Full of Dynamite
Doom Metal 2003
PENTAGRAM Live Rites album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Live Rites
Traditional Doom Metal 2011
PENTAGRAM When The Screams Come album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
When The Screams Come
Doom Metal 2015

PENTAGRAM demos, promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs)

PENTAGRAM Bias Recordings Studio album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Bias Recordings Studio
Proto-Metal 1973
PENTAGRAM Demo 1996 album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Demo 1996
Doom Metal 1996
PENTAGRAM Demo 1997 album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Demo 1997
Doom Metal 1997

PENTAGRAM re-issues & compilations

PENTAGRAM Human Hurricane album cover 5.00 | 1 ratings
Human Hurricane
Doom Metal 1998
PENTAGRAM First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection album cover 3.18 | 4 ratings
First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection
Doom Metal 2002
PENTAGRAM Turn to Stone album cover 4.08 | 3 ratings
Turn to Stone
Doom Metal 2002
PENTAGRAM First Daze Here Too album cover 2.27 | 2 ratings
First Daze Here Too
Doom Metal 2006
PENTAGRAM If The Winds Would Change album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
If The Winds Would Change
Doom Metal 2011

PENTAGRAM singles (5)

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Hurricane / Earth Flight
Heavy Metal 1973
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Under My Thumb / When The Screams Come
Heavy Metal 1974
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Livin' in A Ram's Head / When The Screams Come
Heavy Metal 1979
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Relentless / Day Of Reckoning
Doom Metal 1993
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Bang It Out
Traditional Doom Metal 2015

PENTAGRAM movies (DVD, Blu-Ray or VHS)

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When The Screams Come
Doom Metal 2011
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Last Days Here
Doom Metal 2012
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All Your Sins: Video Vault
Traditional Doom Metal 2015

PENTAGRAM Reviews

PENTAGRAM Be Forewarned

Album · 1994 · Doom Metal
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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.

PENTAGRAM Pentagram (Relentless)

Album · 1985 · Traditional Doom Metal
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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.

PENTAGRAM Last Rites

Album · 2011 · Traditional Doom Metal
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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.

PENTAGRAM Pentagram (Relentless)

Album · 1985 · Traditional Doom Metal
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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.

PENTAGRAM Be Forewarned

Album · 1994 · Doom Metal
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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).”

PENTAGRAM Movies Reviews

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