There’s a distinctly Sabbath vibe about ‘Foundations of Burden’, Pallbearer’s second long player. The megalithic riffage is of course a dominant feature, but there’s something less tangible, too, that evokes the spirit of Sabbath from the dark atmospherics of the monumental opener ‘Worlds Apart’. A full 10 minutes long, it spirals out into prog-time.
While both lyrical and vocal duties are shared, dark mysticism, other-worldly scenes and apocryphal images delivered not in the guttural roar favoured by so many contemporary metal acts, but in a commanding and apocalyptic tone touched with a deep sense of grandeur are defining features of Pallbearer’s sound.
‘Endless open wound / Swirling mass - ten billion eyes / Dismal cosmic tomb / Spines licking astral mind’ Devin Holt sings on ‘Watcher in the Dark’, a piece that’s epic in every sense. Keeping the pace slow, the riffs are crushing in weight, but there’s a subtlety and texture to the playing that means Pallbearer are by no means reliant on brute force to hit home.
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‘Ashes’ is a softer, more sedate piece: it provides but a brief respite from the gargantuan cinematic and funereal sound that dominates the album, culminating in the colossal ‘Vanished’ which stretches out to the horizon towards worlds unknown.
Pallbearer Online
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