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Pentagram |
| by:
Vinnie Apicella
First time listeners
might be urged to wonder why the name "Pentagram" hasn't been used
before in the annals of a thriving Dark Metal and Doom scene. and the
answer quite simply is, it was, it has, and it is again. For a band
that's gone through as many line ups, names, and label changes, they're
in the running for all time record holder for cult band mystery that
everyone would admit to knowing but never really heard play. Pentagram's
seen its fair share of occult fashions come and go. Having first
unearthed at a time when names like Alice were tempting listeners with a
nightmarish brand of psychodrama; when Page and Plant followers were
suddenly met head on with a broodish stare and bruised ego from a bold
Birmingham scene led by names like Ozzy, Iommi, Halford, and Downing.
And "Be Forewarned," Pentagram's first 7" would see the light of its
first day way back in 1972. To call their career sporadic, puts it
mildly, and I couldn't venture a guess as to who, what, and where, but
all things considered, they've managed to put out a fair length of
titles spanning '72 through today, with the few obligatory gaps in
memory thrown in-it wouldn't be till 1985 for their first full length.
"Turn To Stone" is 17 cuts of Classic Black Metal and Doom, exactly the
way it was designed by their forefathers and with little deviation... or
evolution. Brandishing the image of their namesake, the record is an up
to speed collection that covers their days on Peaceville, for whom they
released three previous records (circa 1993), including a renamed
self-titled debut. While not as extreme as one might find a Morbid
Angel, even early Cathedral, the elements are there where if you'd cross
stones with Sabbath or St. Vitus, added in a few chimes from Electric
Funeral, and a touch of madness from Alice's "Goes To Hell," there's
"Turn To Stone," of a dark and withdrawn mentality consistent with the
time of their arrival as opposed to their latter day presence. The
production is vintage, considering we're only delving back a maximum of
eight years, "Masters Of Reality" never sounded so good! Most of the
material is of a slow, writhing nature, haunting, big on riffing,
occasionally napping, and often regurgitating bleak portrayals of black
mass-like effects of a bygone soul-selling era. Best of the worst
includes "Petrified," "Wartime," "Frustration," and "Bride Of Evil," but
specifically the ones where the evil incarnate escapes the chains of
misery for a momentary revelation of overexertion-"Relentless," "Vampire
Love," the B.O.C.-like "Death Row," and closing surge of "Live Free &
Burn." "Turn To Stone" documents the later work of a 30 year old entity
that learned well from the heroes of its day but lacked the ambition to
fulfill the promise of a new breed of underground alchemists and seem
destined to forever remain banished to the hidden hills of the Black
Metal damned. pending review of course, of their latest three
installments that followed their not so "peaceful" days at Peaceville.
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