Pallbearer -
Sorrow and Extinction
Chosen by
TIM
This is my second time giving Pallbearer a chance. The first time I gave the band a go was with their 2014 effort
Foundations of Burden. While I dug what they were bringing to the table, I found that album ended up being flat and outright forgettable. While it may not have left a sour taste in my mouth, I can't say it managed to leave much of anything at all.
On this album here, however, the band manage to make quite a remarkable impression. This checks all the boxes for must-haves in doom metal. The riffs are heavy as all ****, and with the production complimenting them, they come off just as crunchy and pummelling as I could ask for. The clean vocals, which as far as I'm concerned work far better in doom metal than any other subgenre of metal, sound crisp throughout and stay buried just deep enough in the mix to compliment the band's sound. Each member of the band is a cog in the machine, and they all work together to make this project one hell of a ride.
My biggest issue with them upon hearing them for the first time was that they lacked their own identity. They did what they were doing well, but they failed to carve their own style in the same way that an Electric Wizard or Sleep have done before them. I found that they had done doom in such a run of the mill way that it failed to make them important in any way. Digging back into their catalogue however, TIM has shown me I may have been mistaken. They seem to be quite heavily influenced by the earlier doom bands. I can hear some Candlemass influence for sure, but it's as if Candlemass decided to team up with Electric Wizard and really turn things up to 11.
This undoubtedly gave Meatraffle a run for their money, and required a fair bit of thought and listening in order to make a final choice. As great as this project is, it just doesn't top Frown's album. Hifi Classics stays as best album again, but I'll be digging back into Pallbearer's discography in the meantime, so you can take that as a personal victory TIM.