What's teh big deal about Pentagram, anyway?

I actually think I bought the Pentagram First Daze Haze thing thanks to El Sabor's comments on that 'heavy riffage' thread. I still haven't picked up the Suck though.

THAT'S THE LAST TIME I TRUST YOU

I bought the collection "First Daze Here" that Relapse released a couple of years ago, and pretty much agree with you. There's a couple of catchy songs on there, but to me this is pretty much completely trivial, not at all worth spending my time with.
Oddly enough, when I'm trying to remember their songs now, all I can think of is East Of Eden's dreadful blues-bass number "Centaur Woman". Ugh.

It should be noted that I'm not a big Black Sabbath fan either, so my opinion on these kinds of bands probably won't be very weight for those interested in Pentagram. I'm more of the geeky Captain Beyond type, though I do like some newer BS-wannabe bands.

-- Øystein (wabbitseaso...), March 2nd, 2005. (Øystein)

Far from it. I think Sleep's "Dragonaut," fer instance, perfectly pays tribute to Iommi while still very much doing it's own thing.

Don't know which album's you're listening to. There is some variance in Pentagram's timbre and tone depending on who was in the band. Often the act didn't sound like Black Sabbath at all.

Sleep, eh. Six of one, half a dozen of the other with regards to Pentagram. Sleep did its own thing for "Jerusalem." Unlistenable, basically, but an artistic statement with a kind of screwy honor to it. Comparing Matt Pike ca. Sleep to Tony Iommi kind of insults Iommi.

Sleep no more kicks major ass than Pentagram, the latter which can also head into somnolence.

But "Review Your Choices" is Liebling's best album and the title cut a captivating song. It doesn't necessarily sound like Sabbath. It is sludgy, basically slow and glowering thing. Liebling puts a demented mutter (for example, "Megalania," which I think is him telling some story about a giant lizard) to it that is unique to himself. "20 Buck Spin" from one of the Peaceville records is good. "First Days Here" is not like Black Sabbath, to my mind. Pentagram also had a big first album Captain Beyond love going. Hard to find, but there was a recreation of the first Captain Beyond album by a collection of bands and Pentagram's contribution to it was excellent. For "Mesmerization Eclipse," the band did kick ass.

"Sub-basement," the last Pentagram LP I have, has a lot of wailing feedback on it.

Maybe you'd be more interested in Penance or Count Raven. Both are closer to Sabbath, particularly the latter. Sheavy also has or had a singer who is a dead ringer of Osbourne. None of these bands had rhythm sections as good as Sabbath's or can write as well as that band could.

-- George Smith (70743.171...), March 2nd, 2005.

Yeah this really isn't much more than second-tier acid rock (as mentioned above), but goddamn if "20 Buck Spin" doesn't slay me every time.

The last song of their main set Sat night was "20 Buck Spin." Awesome. They hit that fuzzy low-end sweet spot that literally tickled my balls. There is something special about them. There's no shortage of bands inspired by Black Sabbath, but how many of them had their own tribute band (Witchcraft)?

They dedicated Day Of Reckoning (1987) to Blue Cheer, but it doesn't really sound like them either. My friend Tomiiko who went to see them with me says that a documentary is in the works. They recorded the Empty Bottle show, but that's for a live album.

The last update was a year ago: http://blogs.myspace.com/pentagramdocumentary

I think they still have plenty of magic these days, unlike Iommi. The comparisons with Sab are exaggerated - based on Relentless maybe, where the Sab influence is strongest? They're more of a heavy southern rock OTT Christian guilt garage thing. What they have is those great southern vocals. They must be a tricky band to mix though, some of those albums grapple with the Liebling/gtr balance. I don't consider them second tier. First tier without a doubt, but very unstable in someway, a bit unhinged.

Bobby always big ups Blue Cheer and The Stooges more than Sabbath, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmbPA6OUjA0

\m/

Here's what I said about Pentagram for the Voice in 2003. It was for a collection and I rated it a little higher than I would now. Not indispensable but it encapsulated Bobby Liebling's thing.

"southern rock OTT Christian guilt" from upstream made me laugh. Liebling definitely had Cotton Mather drilled into him somehow.

Thirty years in the business, almost twice that many records sold—or so it seems. But for Pentagram, persistence of vision works. The collection is mid-'80s Cotton Mather-inspired sludge 'n' cack, a style absolutely no mass demographic is or was interested in—shunned even in Britain, where this band of Virginians was mystifyingly sent to market. "Vampire Love" is a catchy trudge-metal classic; "The Ghoul," Edgar Allan Poe for those prone to tattooing themselves using the nibs off fountain pens. And Bobby Liebling is a Roky Erickson type who mixes blues mumbling, I'm-living-in-a-ram's-head black metal dogma, and Johnny Cash storytelling in the space of an hour and a half.

We did a whole story on Victor Griffin/Pentagram last year, for those into such things. (Griffin lives here in town, is why we devoted so much space to him.)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/68284_150458288337600_150457901670972_287045_6806794_n.jpg

Liebling founded the first incarnation of Pentagram in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C., in 1971. That version of the band had more than a dozen members over the course of the decade, but recorded only three demos and two singles.

^great article, but I think this quote doesnt do the 70's stuff justice.

http://www.spin.com/articles/meet-dr-doom-pentagrams-bobby-liebling-returns

I just got Be Forewarned on double vinyl via Svart. It's smoking.

Be Forewarned (the song) sounds like a version of the 13th Floor Elevators nurtured in hell.
There are a couple of good songs also on the Bedemon reissue.

Saw the Bobby Liebling documentary at SXSW. It's a pretty awesome and unbelievable story, regardless of how you feel about Pentagram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Kk5K1mLmg

saw the film, which ain't bad at all. I don't have any use for the music.

Just saw the documentary myself. Goddamn. I don't know how he's doing these days but I hope he's holding it together.

In related news, listening to a lot of Pentagram today.

Despite/maybe because of the basement sound quality, love "Catwalk":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN23dhNaATw

That riff, man, so snakey.

Be Forewarned is pretty fuckin' great

I will rep for Review Your Choices but damn if I can’t get the feeling that they are the American Sabbath out my head

Bobby is out of jail and they are currently on tour:
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/bobby-liebling-is-back-pentagram-announces-10-city-u-s-tour-in-march/

Just watched the documentary. If the comments in the above link are to be trusted, his later life is even worse than I expected, he went to jail for assaulting his mother, kicked his girlfriend and child out and went back to drugs in a big way.