Never Quite Dead (Dying Victims Productions,) Pagan Altar‘s newest album, also perfectly describes the band’s journey since its inception in 1978. Reading the press kit, this NWOBHM/Power Doom quartet formed, recorded, and broke up before they earned much attention.
The reformation and recording history of the past thirtyish years reveal a keen awareness of who they are and why they got attention. Re-recordings of past tracks and maintenance of their original sound litter the discography. This album, featuring founding member Terry Jones‘ songwriting on seven of the eight tunes, hits all the notes of Rainbow, Blue Öyster Cult, Raven, and some Black Sabbath.
The first four tracks hew closer to Acid Rock with clean and mildly bouncy guitars and vocals. Speaking of, Jones also served as the band’s original vocalist. Journeyman singer Brendan Radigan makes a full meal of this album. The stories Terry wrote and Brendan sings throughout these tunes are suitably macabre and enjoyable.
Appropriately doomy “Well of Despair” kicks off a couple of distortion-heavy tunes. Soaring vocals and suitably dark lyrics bring the Sabbath sound you’d probably expect from the name and origins of this band.
If you’ve read some of my other reviews (especially for SUMO), you know I have a thing for instrumentals, and “Westbury Express” makes a fine addition to my collection. “Kismet,” a relic from guitarist Alan Jones‘ long-ago band Malac’s Cross, slows everything down for over nine minutes of guitar-forward awesomeness. Sure, there are lyrics. For this tune, they don’t matter. The journey the strings take you on flies over vistas of beauty and even a little danger when they grind low with a pick run up the bottom string.
You don’t have to be over 40 to enjoy this thing. But it helps. I keep wanting to say “They don’t make them like this anymore,” but Pagan Altar and my recent reviews of Manntra, among many others, keep proving me wrong. They do make them like this anymore, and they’re awesome, even if radio and Spotify never notice.
Buy the album here:
https://tinyurl.com/urypdxzj
8 / 10
LARRY ROGERS
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