Hands up who had a new album by Pentagram on their 2025 bingo card? Certainly not me. Pentagram’s continued refusal to die is partly down to reputation and partly down to the Doom hounds respect for that reputation.
Personally I have very mixed feelings about the band and specifically their mercurial and difficult frontman Bobby Liebling. There isn't a helping hand held out to him he hasn't bitten, there isn't one personal or professional relationship he hasn't damaged. I'm surprised he hasn't drowned in the Ash of all the bridges he's burned. His behaviour, jail terms, and forty year+ drug addiction is well known and not worth delving into again. The punishing documentary “Last Days Here” is widely available if you want to dive into that stagnant pool. Although you may need a shower after viewing.
Pentagram as a band were formed at the birth of Heavy Metal. They should have been huge and the American equivalent of Black Sabbath. However, the fact that it took until 1985 for their debut to emerge should be used as a tutorial to bands of how not to f**k up every opportunity you are given. To date 15 guitarists, 10 Bassists, and 14 Drummers have passed through the ranks. Recording only nine albums over forty years and at one stage touring without the incarcerated Liebling is clear evidence of the total dysfunction that Pentagram somehow operates in.
Turning to the tenth album “Lightning in a bottle” begs the question is this one last roll of the dice for Liebling? The line up assembled for this version of Pentagram is nothing short of Doom Metal/Desert Rock Royalty. On Drums is Henry Vasquez (Saint Vitus), On Bass Scooter Haslip ( Mos Generator). The real coup d'etat is drafting in Tony Reed on guitar. A well established and respected producer, guitarist/vocalist with stone Axe and Mos Generator. It is a stroke of genius for Pentagram to bring him in.
To be fair to Liebling his vocals are sounding better than they have in years. The opening track “ Live Again” is a statement of intent and the riffing is as to be expected top drawer. The naked honesty Liebling displays across 11 tracks (plus 3 bonus tracks) such as “ I spoke to Death” and “Dull Pain” reach their peak specifically in “Lady Heroin” which not only packs a ferocious punch but lyrically acts as a confessional for Liebling on the addiction that has blighted most of his life.
Reed's stellar production places Liebling's vocals front and center of the album. The musical support Reed and the band bring to the project elevates it to a really high quality. I'd go as far to say not only is this a fully realized album but possibly Pentagram's finest musical release.
With a stellar band behind him and a January release on an established label (Heavy Psych Sounds). Liebling gives it his everything both vocally and lyrically. We can live in the hope that this continues. That they tour, that the tattered reputation of Pentagram can be repaired, and most of all that Liebling does not F**k it up as per usual.
If that does turn out to be the case and this is the last album under Pentagram name, (Liebling at 70 years of age is closer to the end of his career than the beginning) its a hell of a album and to my ears the only release since their debut that fully justifies the reputation as Doom Overlords
-Bobo Coen
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