Project Description
PALLBEARER
‘Forgotten Days’
(Album Review)
23rd October, 2020
Order / Listen
Reviewer – Chris Reid
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“Pallbearer sound as strong as ever.” – Consequence of Sound
“… Pallbearer… still sounds as huge as ever.” – Stereogum
“…sweeping and melancholic, it carves out a shadow-cast yet verdant valley between the majesty of vintage Black Sabbath and the morbid romanticism of Type O Negative.” – Revolver
“…one of modern metal’s most consistently brilliant acts…” – Loudwire
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Pallbearer – The four piece from Arkansas are the pre-eminent ‘Doom metal’ band. Their first two albums Sorrow and Extinction and Foundations of Burden are widely accepted to be modern day doom metal classics. 2017’s album Heartless saw the band take their sonic range into new territories, expanding beyond the ‘low and slow’ melancholy arrangements that they become famous for, and allowing themselves to flirt with classic rock elements and to a lesser extent psychedelia. Forgotten Days, the band’s fourth LP, continues the expansion in sound without disbanding their roots.
The production on Forgotten Days grabs me immediately. It’s honest and raw, and to some extent it gives the release an almost ‘live’ swagger. In today’s era where amp simulators, programmed drums, and editing-within-inches-of-
From a musical perspective the album has plenty of the elements that you’d hope to hear on a new Pallbearer release. The album opener/title track Forgotten Days (below) has a particularly gargantuan riff, and tracks like Riverbed, Silver Wings and Caledonia contain plenty of moments that highlight the strength of the band – a trademark mix of lead guitar melody set to a slow, doomy accompaniment that creates a mood of uplifting melancholy. From that respect the album will be satisfying to fans who have enjoyed their previous work.
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Pallbearer have always had an impressive melodic sensibility – their chord and note selection is generally quite captivating. This album showcases this strength in spades.
Despite containing enough of the elements that long-time fans will want to hear, there are some relatively new elements to the band’s sound on this release too; the use of Synth in tracks like Caledonia, Stasis and through the middle of Silver Wings is prominent. It’s good to see a band that isn’t afraid of developing their sound – the addition of the synth lines adds additional atmosphere to the arrangements. Tracks like The Quicksand of Existing and Rite of Passage are a little different than the typical Pallbearer track too, showing that the band isn’t afraid of writing in moods and tempos that are a little less in keeping with their typical style. The vocal delivery on this album is arguably some of the strongest work in Brett Campbell’s career to date – songs like Riverbed and Rite of Passage highlight this strength better than most.
The strongest tracks on the album in my eyes are Silver Wings and Caledonia, but every one of the eight tracks contained on the album has a moment that makes it a contender. You could make a compelling argument that Silver Wings contains everything that is good about Pallbearer in a single, 12 minute long, epic track – it’s got big riffs, haunting leads, memorable vocal lines and a particularly strong outro motif. Caledonia has some really great guitar work, including a lead section that is punctuated by the use of a harmoniser, and concludes the album in style.
Forgotten Days is a strong and diverse record, and will certainly be part of the conversation when compiling end of year lists.
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Order / Listen
Forgotten Days
track list:
1. Forgotten Days
2. Riverbed
3. Stasis
4. Silver Wings
5. The Quicksand of Existing
6. Vengeance & Ruination
7. Rite of Passage
8. Caledonia
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