I must admit at this point that I am a fan of Pallbearer, in particular their 2017 album Heartless. In fact it was my album of the year in 2017. It was my most listened to album in 2017, for about 9 months I listened to it everyday; most days it was the first album I listened to in the morning as it was such a great way to start the day. So, I was a mix of excitement and trepidation when I picked up the new album to review it; excitement at having the new Pallbearer a couple of weeks early, and trepidation at whether it would live up to my (possibly unfair) expectations.
The album opens with the title track Forgotten Days. Forgotten Days has slow build up of feedback before a big heavy riff comes crashing in, it feels powerful with a driving tempo and a dark, dense melancholy sense. Brett Campbell’s vocals come in, and they are just as good as i remember them to be. The chorus is as good as anything the band have recorded before, it’s more melodic than the verse section and feels looser. The track features a very melodious solo and then has a surprise for the listener, near the end of the song is a section with very heavy riffs, feedback and a huge amount of discordant noises, something that is totally new for Pallbearer. This section feels influenced by hardcore and would not be out of place on a Sludge album. Next we get Riverbed; which is still driving Doom Metal, but has a looser, less aggressive feel to the song that preceded it. The chorus is deeply melodic and full of lush tune-fullness. The track has a soft and introspective moment with just Guitar and Vocals, before going back to the loose but driving Doom.
Stasis is the next track, which is very slow and melancholic Doom. There is a very heavy section before the song takes a slightly unexpected turn, and electronic noises are added that give the song a fantastic psychedelic feel. It was unexpected, but it works so well.
Next we come to the albums centrepiece, the 12 minute Silver Wings. Silver Wings has a soft opening, slowly building up to the first riff, which feels heavy, but also controlled and measured. As this part builds, more Guitar layers are added and it is lush and full of depth. Then everything stops, just for a second, before just guitar comes back in for a short interval, and then it’s back to the heavy, and this time it’s huge, slow and is achingly melancholic. For the rest of the song Silver Wings is sad but incredibly beautiful, the only other album I know of that could pull off this level of heavy, sad and beautiful is Warning’s Watching From A Distance. This song feels so sad and despairing it feels like a requiem for the entire human race. This is the emotional centre of this album and is so well crafted, it’s dark and melancholy, almost monolithically sad, but it is also breathtakingly beautiful. In the second half of the track there is a section with lots of layered, harmonised Guitars that draws you in, and makes you wish the track would never end.
The Quicksand Of Existing is the shortest track on the album, and feels like a palette cleanser after the beautiful despair of Silver Wings. The Quicksand Of Existing is a much faster, expansive and bombastic. The tempo is mid-paced but with loads of energy and drive. The track also boasts some fantastic Guitar harmonies and a cracking Wah-Wah infused solo. The Quicksand Of Existing goes strait into the next song Vengeance & Ruination. Vengeance & Ruination has the huge, slow riffs you’d expect from Pallbearer but with a clean electric guitar melody over the top, which gives the whole song a slight gothic feel. The song has an introverted sense to it, until the last couple of minutes where a huge and heavy section with droning guitar over the top of the huge riffs. At this point the song looses the introverted feel and moves towards expansive and huge.
Second to last track Rite Of Passage is mid-paced, melodic and forceful. The track is simple and filled with great vocals, and a vast amount of tune-fullness. In the second half those gorgeous layered guitars return, and take the track to its end. The album comes to an end with Caledonia. Caledonia is as close to a ballad as Pallbearer get. The song is full of loose, deeply melancholic riffs, at a relaxed and almost dreamlike tempo. The clean Guitar from Vengeance & Ruination makes a reappearance in the second half of the track in a section that feels huge and expansive, but also very dark. The last few riffs feel heavier and tauter than the rest of the track before a clean guitar takes the track, and the album to a close.
So, was I right to feel excited about getting this album? Yes, definitely, but I’m also very glad to say after my first listen the trepidation left me. Forgotten Days is a stunning piece of work. It’s darker, heavier, sadder and in some ways feels angrier than Heartless, but then 2020 is a darker, heavier, sadder and angrier time than 2017. Pallbearer are still capable of all the great elements that I loved on Heatless; amazing riffs, fantastic solos, great harmonies and one of the best voices in Metal. However this time they are used to represent a darker world that is currently in turmoil. I listened to Heartless so much that it is difficult to judge it objectively, but I am already feeling that Forgotten Days is a better album, amazing as that might sound to anyone that feels the way I do about the album that preceded it, but I genuinely think that it has more depth and features better, more mature songwriting. Heartless will always be one of my favourite albums, I genuinely believe that it is one of the best Doom albums ever made, and the fact that Forgotten Days is probably better is truly staggering. 10/10
Distant: Dawn Of Corruption (Unique Leader Records) [Liam True]
While it’s been in a bit of a slump lately, the Deathcore scene has picked up over the last year or so with some phenomenal outputs. And to add one to the pile, Dawn Of Corruption may only be a six track EP, but it crushes as much as any full length released this year in terms of heaviness.
On their third EP they’ve managed to nail their sound, putting together a cacophonic symphony of absolute destruction. Not many bands can pull of the mixture of both Slam & Deathcore in one sound, but Distant do it perfectly. With the shrieking highs & tectonic plate changing low gutturals of vocalist Alan Grnja it goes hand in hand with the apocalyptic riffs of Nouri Yetgin, Vladimir Golic & Eise Smit (Yep, three guitarists in a Deathcore band) which adds to the untold destruction they create. The bass grooves of Elmer Maurits churn the pit of your stomach into a vile wall of death. Drummer Jan Mato is the glue to the band holding everyone in place with his precision blast beats, versatile style and 200 MPH speed around the kit to create the heaviest sounding drums of 2020.
Behind the music they create is the story of the realm of Tyrannotophia, the sounds of the worlds damnation, so to speak. And if anyone has nailed that sound. It’s distant. Disgusting. Vile. Putrid. Just a few words to describe the EP. But my got, it’s an exhilarating thrill ride through the world that the Dutch Sextet have created. 10/10
Cortez: Sell The Future (Ripple Music/Salt Of The Earth) [Simon Black]
It’s difficult third album time for Boston’s Heavy/Hard Rock five piece. Always a challenge for any band after the album you’ve been working all your careers before signing a deal, then the leftovers are finished, and they have taken their time putting this out, with four years passing since The Depths Below hit the decks. It was clearly time well spent, as the record is absolutely filler free. And HEAVY… I mean REALLY HEAVY. We are all used to that down-tuned stoner touch to the mixing desk, but these guys have really fattened up the gain and compression, so that even at low volume my stack was rumbling. And you know it’s good heavy music, because my kids told me to turn it down….
Firing off with the energetic opener No Escape, which is classic hard rock riffage driven energy, and dripping with Classic rock guitar hooks the album slows right down for the title track. Sell The Future is full of ire at the current state of the world, starting slow and cranking up the pace slightly to create some astounding pounding riffage. The lead breaks aren’t about speed and excess virtuosity, but drip with fat heavy melodic weight and really do the business, carrying the often quite lengthy instrumental sections effortlessly. Look At You turns the speed up again, and has one of the more catchy riffs and vocal hooks on offer here – and it’s a belter. I’m also particularly enamoured of Matt Harrington’s gutsy bluesy voice which compliments the soulful stripped back guitar work from Scott O’Dowd and Alasdair Swan.
Single Faulty Authors takes things back down again, with an opening guitar break that wouldn’t be amiss in a Southern Rock act, before taking a heavier down tuned trippy verse, shortly before bashing you round the face with a pure Metal brick of a chorus… and then back again. The anger continues with Deceivers, very much the theme of the album and once again a more emotive start to chugger Sharpen The Spear. The final pace flip-flop is the pacey Vanishing Point, which is by far the fastest track on the record before closing with the lengthy epic Beyond.
If I have a criticism it’s that the tracks alternate fairly rigidly between a fast one, then a slow one, but it doesn’t jar as the tracks are so richly crafted and mixed, and when they do really mix it up as they do in Faulty Authors, it just works. Uncomplicated and effective, less is definitely more on this album. 7/10