PENTAGRAM — Pentagram (Relentless) (review)

PENTAGRAM — Pentagram (Relentless) album cover Album · 1985 · Traditional Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Time Signature
All your sins...

Genre: doom metal / stoner rock / traditional metal

Originally released in 1985 as "Pentagram" with a differently ordered tracklist, "Relentless" is a collection of old school doom metal, and it's f*cking damn awesome!

The songs are simple, dark and heavy. They may not be as slow as present-day doom metal, but they're still very heavy and have a sluggish punch to them; just check out "Death Row", "All Your Sins" (which sounds like something Cathedral listened to extensively in the early days of their career), "The Ghoul", "Sinister" (the epitome of really old school doom metal), "You're Lost, I'm Free", and the Led-Zeppelin-depressed-on-valium-like "20 Buck Spin". Other tracks are upbeat and even catchy, like the awesome "Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)", Relentless, "Run My Cause" (which sounds like non-sloppy Hellhammer", "The Deist" and "Dying World" - these tracks are quite rocking, but they're still characterized by the dark atmosphere that pervades the entire album.

Unlike a lot of other 80s and 90s doom metal acts, who took a rather epic approach, there is more of a 70s feel to the music on this album (given that Pentagram were formed in 1971, a lot of the tracks were probably written in the 70s), and Pentagram have more in common with Black Sabbath, St. Vitus and Witchfinder General than with, say, Candlemass. Bobby Liebling has very much a 70s rock belter, and a lot of the riffage has a 70s groove to it. Actually, there is a bit of a stoner edge (an oxymoron, I know) to the music on this album. Unlike a lot of other do-called stoner doom bands (whose music is typically just 'stoner' and not very 'doom'), Pentagram manage to perfectly balance doom 'n' gloom with spliff 'n' zoot. A lot of stoner doom is just about bong-ripping, but Pentagram is more like bong-ripping with Satan in a haunted cemetery.

The lyrical content is also very dark, dealing with death, domination, werewolves, satanism, and a lot of other jolly things.

"Relentless" is recommended to fans of doom metal and stoner rock, because it's awesome. Oh, and you don't have to be high to enjoy it - I don't smoke weed, and I still think it's awesome music.
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Time Signature wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Feel free to use it ;-)
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Now that is one hell of a review line: " Pentagram is more like bong-ripping with Satan in a haunted cemetery." That is some good shit my friend.

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