First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection | Pentagram | Classic hard rock at its best......

First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection | Pentagram | Awesome 70's American Doom

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	First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection Pentagram Relapse, 2002 average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

'First Daze Here - The Vintage Collection' features rare recordings rediscovered, remastered and revealed for the first time ever. Be forewarned...the day of reckoning has arrived! Relapse Records. 2001.

Classic hard rock at its best... Pentagram--the American Black Sabbath!

Pentagram is one of those obscure bands that you will probably never hear about on a mainstream level. This band's cds, particularly the two compilations: "First Daze Here," and "First Daze Here Two," probably can't and won't be found at your local Best Buy or Tower Records. You'll probably have to go to your local independent record store like I did (Bionic Records in Fullerton) and purchase the album from a guy who is addicted to ganja and the 4 foot long bong hidden somewhere in his closet. But once you do purchase these two early years comps., you'll be glad you did. You will feel like you stumbled onto an obscure band that you can introduce all of your geezar friends, uncles, older cousins, and even your father (and other balding, or grey-haired middle-aged men who grew up listening to early "heavy" bands like Steppenwolf, The Hendrix Experience, Mountain, Blue Cheer, the mighty Black Sabbath, UFO, Budgie, early Scorpions [Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth-era], and The Stooges)to, as well as some of your cohorts who are disciples of the aforementioned early heavy/stoner rock bands. And all of these people shall be quite impressed.

The best way to sum up the sound of Pentagram is--think along the lines of the music of Ozzy-era Sabbath meets the vocal sound of Ian Gillian. Please don't incorporate the Ian Gillian-era Sabbath reference here as that was a completely different sounding era. The guitarist, Vincent McAllister sounds like a direct apprentice of Tony Iommi, riffs, vibrato, solos and all--and what are the odds, he played a Gibson SG during this period? I wouldn't be surprised if he was using a Laney amp with a Big Muff distortion either! Plus, the lyrics are humorous and very much directed towards men. Any band that pens the lines "Now listen here baby--I got a message for you, I need a woman who can cook, clean and screw," is top notch on my list. These cats were straight-up American classic hard rock and it's about frickin' time their early music has been put on recorded media to be heard by the masses. The cd art is pretty dark and cool as well. You know a band doesn't mess around when they use the Sigil of Baphomet as their band's official symbol (mind you, this pre-dates any other metal band such as Venom using this symbol). Get ready to rock out and impress some friends when you listen to this one!

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Awesome 70's American Doom

Pentagram, the perpetually forgotten 70's American Metal band. Hailing from Alexandria VA, they toiled in obscurity for the better part of two decades before releasing an LP. Along the way, they released a handful of singles and recorded some demos as well. These tracks are culled from those various locations and given a good treatment to form what should be a mandatory disc for every Black Sabbath Fan. While comparisons to Black Sabbath are quite appropriate, I can almost imagine a straight line being drawn to this from the works of Blue Cheer (who these guys idolized) and other early stoner/psychedelic bands. Perhaps it's just my American patriotism or something. While this certainly is very heavy music, it's not in the same league as Sabbath, and as much as I like the guitar tone on here, it's really quite different from that of Tony Iommi. You might even call it a bit of an acquired taste.

First, I'll tackle the straight up metal stuff: Forever My Queen is supposedly the most well-known song from the band. Anyway it explodes right out of the gate with a simple yet crushing riff and an awesome solo to boot. When the Screams Come is my personal favorite song on here. The main riff just drips with evil and there's a bit of thrash in the middle. Certainly we have here one of the greatest ever forgotten metal anthems, and it's a tragedy that this is only know by a small circle of devoted fans. Earth Flight, B-Side of the band's second single starts with a bass intro and builds to a heavy rocker with Sab riffs. In fact, the one in the middle reminds me a bit of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Review Your Choices is similar to the aforementioned When The Screams come, but here the guitar is toned down a bit. That doesn't mean it's any less evil, however.

Now, as I mentioned the band literally worshipped Blue Cheer, and it shows on some of these tunes. Walk in the Blue Light hearkens back to the band's earlier material, which leans more toward Blue Cheer than Black Sabbath. Not bad, but there were much better things to come from the band. The song Starlady has become notorious, since Gene Simmons had offered the band $10,000 for this song but they famously refused. Incidentally, this may have resulted in Simmons ditching the band and signing Angel instead. In my opinion, this sounds much better than what KISS would have done with it. It's a pretty straightforward 70's rocker, and yes that's rock not metal. Be Forewarned was the band's first ever single in 1972, and it's trippy with its waves of tremolo guitar. Lazy Lady, the B-Side to Be Forewarned, is another Blue Cheer-ish song here with a sliding bass intro and just some hints of doom throughout. An auspicious start for an auspicious band.

The remaining songs are a mixed lot. These strike me as works in progress, or something that could have used more development. For example, Hurricane, the band's second single, begins with a rightly marching riff and then half-way through, goes speed metal for about 30 seconds. It sounds very awesome and quite innovative, but at the same time under focused. And Livin' in a Ram's Head, a VERY roughly recorded tune cut in a club in DC, has some sort of "stoner-punk" sound but feels a little incomplete as a song. I can only imagine that, given proper studio time and treatment, this could have been blaring out of every FM radio.

20 Buck Spin reminds me of some of those old heavy jam bands like Truth and Janey or JPT Scare Band. It's a tale of a hooker and life on the street, and at the end it just takes off into an extended jam. Vince McAllister gets a little self-indulgent, but that's okay, he's actually a good player. Then finally, Last Days Here, the "quiet" song, but not emotionally light, as it deals with death and the afterlife in a heavy-handed fashion. I like Bobby Liebling's vocals on this one.

The band personally oversaw the remastery of the CD and the creation of the included booklet, with full lyrics and a few photos. Very good job on that as well.

So to summarize, if you are any kind of a fan of stoner or doom metal check this out. You won't be disappointed. Also be sure to check out First Daze II, coming March 2006, and the related band Bedemon, whose Child of Darkness CD will be out very shortly.

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VINTAGE BUT SWEET DOOM-METAL

AH, THE SWEET SOUNDS OF PENTAGRAM, ALONG WITH SABBATH,THEY ARE THE TRUE KINGS OF METAL, NOT HARD BLUES ROCK, LIKE ZEPPELIN. THEY JUST DID NOT CACTH A BREAK LIKE THE OTHER HARD ROCK BANDS OF THE LATE 60'S -EARLY 70'S, LIKE SAID BANDS AS SIR LORD BALTIMORE, CAP. BEYOND , ELIAS HULK, AND SO FORTH. BUY THIS AND GIVE THIS BAND THE PRAISE THEY DESERVE.

Cannot believe they weren't really famous

I'll be honest, I don't know what doom is but this doesn't sound like it to me. This is some of the best Rock n Roll I've ever heard. It sounds like Love, the Stooges, and Black Sabbath all rolled into one. I cannot think of anything cooler than that.

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amazing

I downloaded this album through iTunes, and it completely changed some of my musical tastes. This cd sounds like true musicians sitting around trying to write songs for the love of music, not love of a dollar. Obviously an older band, and Mr. Leibling has been in a few since, but Pentagram stands out above them all. Get this album, and you will not b disappointed.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Tracks
Forever My Queen | When the Screams Come | Walk in the Blue Light | Starlady | Lazy Lady | Review Your Choices | Hurricane | Livin' in a Ram's Head | Earth Flight | 20 Bucks Spin | Be Forewarned | Last Days Here

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