Tuesday 28 March 2017

Pallbearer - Heartless (Album Review)


Release date: March 24th 2017. Label: Profound Lore Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Heartless – Tracklisting

1.I Saw The End 06:21
2.Thorns 05:24
3.Lie Of Survival 08:25
4.Dancing In Madness 11:47
5.Cruel Road 07:13
6.Heartless 08:09
7.A Plea For Understanding 12:40

Members:

Brett Campbell - Vocals/Guitar
Devin Holt - Guitar
Joseph D. Rowland - Bass
Mark Lierly - Drums


Review

Pallbearer is among the best in providing the solitary musical role and that particular ceremonial escort to accompany you through life’s difficult journey. Their previous albums are among the best in doom related milestones. ‘Heartless” is an expansion of that past, a virtual montage of perplex sound and mystifying sight experience. This is a fairly technical album that is layered with dissimilar sounds overlapping, coming and going and mostly bursting with rich texture, all culminating in an intertwined and interesting album expedition.

Pallbearer are bending metal and bridging doom into a new perspective in progressive rock energy. They ring out their collective hearts, bringing a somatic sundown on the theory that the brain is just a bundle of electrical impulses and asks us to witness the spiritual sunrise as it unravels a bloom of hopeful impressions. The album cover is an image of reflected togetherness through a timeless illustrated style that will survive in your memory for quite some time.

The sheer magnitude of this release can turn ground to liquid, yet does so without violence. It takes time to absorb all the intricacies and delicacies of this enormous work. I suggest multiple listens in order for your mind sponge to achieve maximum swell. Seven tracks represent the numerous ornamental facades in the mountainside that come to life and inspire these gentlemen of doom.

I Saw the End is a superb introduction, articulating that expertise is the collapse of surplus junk. This is the ideal representation of the classic styled progression initiated by the bending of metal and the bridging of doom.

Thorns is a song of heavy, boundless riffs accompanied by 6-string spearheads which takes flight through vocal properties that give it a pair of hefty wings.

Lie Of Survival is a remarkably designed piece of sound constructed with indulgent inceptions, raptured guitars, a perfect rhythm section, some circling synths and superiorly elevated vocals. You can actually feel your soul move within you.

Dancing in Madness is stacked as a lengthy, heavy and pervasive-progressive art rock immersion.

Cruel Road - the notorious slump in all of us is prodded along into additional dimensions with this densely distorted commanding mastication of old and new doom.

Heartless is a symphonic metal arrangement demonstrating causal sound in contradiction with all its occupied vibrations and audible flares analogous to our plotted nature and connived future.

A Plea for Understanding - majestic choral harmonies of lyrical revelation flourish amidst surreal soundscapes that set the stage in preparation of the great discovery of perfect sonic chemistry released from the depth of humanity. This is pure elemental imagination. This is why music is considered art. Holy smokes.

I still don’t understand the great and mysterious forces working within this band, but they are definitely worth the heed if you make the time.

Heartless’ is a royal symbol that could only be associated with the kings of ethereal doom. This record is on a precipice and is unquestionably an essential release for Pallbearer, as well as, all of us.

Words by Nick Palmisano

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