By all accounts, Pentagram lead singer, original member and all around mastermind, Bobby Liebling probably should have been permanently in jail or even dead years if not decades ago. Having spent nearly forty years smoking and shooting a variety of narcotics, he finally got sober a few years ago, got married to a girl young enough to be his own daughter, had a son and in the past year reunited with long time Pentagram guitarist, Victor Griffin and released, 'Last Rites' the first Pentagram album since 2004's, 'Show 'em How.'
Musically this one is vintage Pentagram all the way and since nine of these twelves songs were apparently wrote in the early to mid 70's you can bet its got quite the classic feel to the material even if they were only just recently refined and completed. Apparently many Pentagram rehearsals began with Bobby pulling out a box of old tapes and they just go from there. It would seem those boxes had a bit of magic in them since Last Rites is just fantastic.
I can say with much ease that Bobby Liebling has one of the most distinctive voices out there and to sound unique today is really something. Also considering he's a 57 year old recovered drug addict its a bit strange how actually youthful yet powerful sounding his vocal delivery is. Frankly though Bobby has never sounded better, I mean seriously just check out songs like, 'Everything's Turning to Night' or 'Call the man' for proof of that.
His right hand man, guitarist Victor Griffin also sounds remarkable and although I've regrettably not heard his primary band for the past decade, Place of Skulls, I'll still say that his guitars glowing heavy fuzzy tone is one of the mightiest ones out there and just works perfectly with this sort of vintage metal music. His comrades from PoS, Tim Tomaselli & Greg Turley also do a fine job, Tim sounding great behind the kit while Greg's heavy thick bass guitar adds even more life to these powerful songs.
In the end the bulk of the album is quite stunning and I have to say I also much enjoy songs like, 'Walk in Blue Light' and 'Nothing Left,' but really this one is a must for Pentagram fans as well as stoner/doom fans in general. Now lets just hope Bobby can remain sober, tour the world and release another great album in a few years time from 2011.
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