Wednesday, May 2

May 1, 2018 - Pentagram - When the Screams Come (1975)



When the Screams Come is a three-minute sludgy doom metal masterpiece from Black Sabbath disciple Pentagram. Drums enter in unison with a catchy guitar riff, and at 0:06 the bass leans in as well, the drums tumbling alongside. The vocals of Bobby Liebling come in at 0:17, lecturing on the perils of the deadly sin of greed. Doom metal is all about darkness and the occult, and the potential of ending up in Satan's dark abyss:

Have you ever felt pain
When the screams come you know
That you're dying in vain

Wow, that's harsh. A pattern of ominous riffs at 0:55 leads us into a series of  pitch bends at 1:02. Beware of Bobby's freaky double-tracked vocal on warn you at 1:18. Whoa, dude, take it easy. The classic rock Mountain/Imaginary Western guitar solo comes in right at 1:30, the halfway point of the song. I tell you, the pop structure is perfect. Coming out of the solo at 2:00, we get the requisite stop and start guitar and drum fills, then a bit of Sabbath/Zeppelin uptempo rollicking. Bobby sounds so much like Dickie Peterson from Blue Cheer, really uncanny. Finally, at 2:32 we settle back into the opening riff and the ride comes to a stop.

Pentagram could have been huge in their own time, if only Bobby Liebling hadn't ruined their chances by being a complete egomaniac control freak over the top drug fiend. I recently watched a documentary about him called Last Days Here. Highly recommended. He's had so many problems, but he is still alive and kicking, taking some version of Pentagram out on the road, in Europe at the time of this writing.

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