Doom rock godfathers Pentagram aren't ready to hang it up just yet, almost 30 years after their inception they show with Sub-Basement that they are still capable of summoning up a mammoth wall of an album. As on 1998's Review Your Choices, all instruments are handled by Raven drummer Joe Hasselvander, who also shares songwriting duties with vocalist/visionary/Blue Cheer worshiper Bobby Liebling. Another common factor with the last album is the inclusion of re-recorded older tunes, a common Pentagram practice. Surely a welcome one amongst fans, since most of that old stuff was until recently not available on cd, and often features less-than-stellar sound quality. The blasts from the past here are killer versions of "Buzzsaw" and "Out of Luck," and a crappy one of "Target." The old versions of these songs all appear on 1998's Human Hurricane collection. Sub-Basement kicks off with the Liebling-penned "Bloodlust," a cool song with some weird backing vocals and a noisy Matt Pike-like solo. Some of the vocals here and elsewhere on the album are a bit sketchy, kind of garbled drugged out exclamations that aren't real aesthetically pleasing. I hear Mr. Liebling is down to three teeth, so that might account for his lack of enunciation. The aforementioned "Buzzsaw" is next, an album highlight. Of the six songs that follow, five were written mainly by Hasselvander. Joe's tunes have a different feel than Bobby's, which are very distinctive. The style of Joe's tunes actually reminds me more of Cathedral than anything. Part of this might have to do with the massive guitar sound and general production, which is probably Pentagram's heaviest. The drum and bass sound are equally as huge as the guitars. As the album goes on, it becomes apparent than Hasselvander really isn't that good at playing guitar solos. He can sort of fake it for a little while, but after the third or fourth song where the solo is about three notes, it becomes clear that that's all he can do in that blues rock style. Finally, on Liebling's "Out of Luck," he tries something different and succeeds with a slow melodic solo that is joined by a harmony second track, then a third for the climax before receding to one track of a new section, which is then joined again by a doubled harmony. Beautiful. A "quiet" last verse with some tasty Geezer-bass leads to another double tracked melodic solo. To be extra picky (no pun intended) about the production, a pick slide jumps out unnaturally out of the mix right before the end of the song. "Target" is pretty bad, a bluesy number with stops and moaning vocals that recall a really bad Danzig impersonation by Corky from Life Goes On. I wouldn't recommend Sub-Basement to someone curious to check out Pentagram (check out First Daze Here for the old stuff, then check out the Sabbathy Victor Griffin era of the band with Relentless!), but it is a pretty satisfying album for the Pentagram fan and proof that Liebling & Co. still have some life left in them (though the photos of the pale, fragile-looking Liebling in the booklet might indicate otherwise!). Hopefully he can stay alive long enough to record another album.
[Aaron Klamer]