Album Review: PENTAGRAM Curious Volume

You could easily look at Pentagram and see a band whose true value lies not in their music but in their rich, well-documented mythology and the too-fucked-up-to-be-real persona of bug-eyed front man and immortal elf Bobby Liebling. You might think that in a case like that, a band’s actual music just sort of has to exist. Not so bad that you notice but not so good or interesting that it creates actual expectations for them as artists.

But unlike, say, Anvil, a musically underwhelming entity who got by on sheer enthusiasm and a fortunately-timed documentary, Pentagram has always delivered when it came to their actual stated product: tasty ass, hard rockin’ doom. Never the most prolific band (they were together for nearly 15 years before their debut dropped), Liebling and co. managed to keep up a respectable pace even as the metal scene fell in and out of love with retro-70s mystique. They’ve dropped an album or two in every decade since Pentagram was released in 1985. And most of them have been rock f*cking solid (Show ‘Em How, 2004), if not outright great (Sub-Basement, 2001).

Curious Volume is the band’s eight full-length album and their second since legendary doom axe-man Victor Griffin resumed his rightful place alongside Liebling on 2011’s invigorating Last Rites. And if I had to sum it up in a word, I’d say it’s…fine.

I’ve always said that there’s a difference between appreciating history and loving it. What I mean is that as much as I might respect a band like, say, Black Sabbath, as innovators in their field, I’m much more interested in engaging with their sexier, more evolved progeny. In the past, Pentagram has been good enough to overcome that bias. Not only were they sufficiently dark and weird, their songs had honest-to-goodness hooks. Just check out “Sign of the Wolf” or “Call the Man” from Last Rites to see what I mean. Through about a dozen listens, Curious Volume can’t summon a knockout punch.

Pentagram, and especially Liebling, have also always had a kind of drugged, slightly unhinged ambiance. While those qualities are still present on doom-y burners like “The Devil’s Playground” and “Dead Bury Dead,” a significant portion of Curious Volume is almost too clean, focused, and up-beat for its own good. Just listen to the formulaic heavy rock-isms of songs like the cheesy opener “Lay Down and Die” and “Close the Casket.” There’s also “Misunderstood,” which sounds less like one of the greatest doom bands of all time than any number of shitty dive bar bands climbing up and down the same scale until it breaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t8qX73lcgg

Part of it is the pristine production, which, in washing away the band’s signature sonic haze, only succeeds in making them less distinct. Similarly, while Liebling sounds clearer and more focused than I’ve ever heard, he’s lost some of that mad hobo wizard vibe that made his performances captivating even if he wasn’t actually the strongest singer.

But mostly, a lot of these songs are just kind of forgettable, without anything to pull them up into the echelons that we all know Pentagram can reach. Take “Misunderstood,” which sounds less like one of the greatest doom bands of all time than any number of shitty dive bar bands climbing up and down the same scale until it breaks.

At the risk of sounding too harsh, I will say that there are still some worthwhile jams here. It’s just that too many of the songs pass by without making a real case for your time. The truth is just that there are simply more modern and vibrant purveyors of this sound. And while they certainly owe Pentagram a debt of gratitude, they have the torch now. This one is for die-hard fans only.

6/10