Pallbearer - Heartless

Angry Metal Guy

You know the saying about hindsight being 20/20, right? It’s easy to look back on instances in your life, and wonder what you could do to change things to make them better. To make them easier. To make them right. We reviewers go through this ourselves, looking back on prior reviews, and wondering if we overscored something that we haven’t touched since. Pallbearer‘s last album, the stellar Foundations of Burden, not only provided the soundtrack for the memories of broken promises and lost friendships, but also became my favorite album of this past decade. So needless to say, a lot is riding on Heartless, the third full-length from the Arkansas doom kings. With the same line-up intact, did Pallbearer build from their successful formula of “Funeral with a dash of hope”?

In many ways, the answer is a resounding yes. While still retaining their trademark airy doom riffs, Pallbearer incorporated some progressive rock influences into Heartless, giving their songs a nice, optimistic counterpoint to the heft and dirge. Opener “I Saw the End” beautifully exemplifies this, with the first half welcoming you back like an old friend. The guitar interplay of Brett Campbell and Devin Holt remains a pivotal focal point, drawing you in with thick riffs, and guiding you with beautiful harmonies. Halfway in, however, the song switches gears slightly, and prog rock influences emerge, giving the song an almost Mastodon feel, but still very much Pallbearer in sound and spirit. Truthfully, this change-up came unexpectedly, but still felt organic and unforced. By the end of the song, I was completely won over.

One of the other key ingredients of Pallbearer‘s entrancing sound is the voice of Brett Campbell. On their debut, Sorrow and Extinction, while his voice was shaky, it laid the groundwork to a more comfortable performance on Foundations. Here, Campbell’s voice expands and soars with absolute confidence. From 8:53-9:24 of the incredible “Dancing in Madness,” Campbell croons like a seasoned pro, sending an already beautiful song into orbit. The last couple of minutes of the Floyd-influenced heart-wrenching closer, “A Plea for Understanding” showcases his expanded range. Between the honest, heartbreaking lyrics detailing a break-up (“Behind the eyes lies a truth/So deeply concealed/Somewhere inside is a place/Where the weary rest and heal/Anger, fear, and regret keep the darkness at hand/But these feelings are real/All I ask, won’t you please understand?”), “A Plea for Understanding” tugs at your heartstrings like great doom should. The accompanying vocal harmonies by Holt and bassist Joseph D. Rowland also propel the sadness and hope forward a considerable amount, further cementing why Pallbearer lead the pack in American doom metal.

Thankfully, Heartless welcomes back the warm, organic production found on Sorrow and Extinction. Mark Lierly’s drumming sounds thunderous and clear, and Rowland’s bass presence is strongly felt and given a chance to shine. The songs breathe better, especially the airy “Lie of Survival,” giving the music color and depth. But not all of Heartless shines as brightly. “Cruel Road,” while not a bad song, has a hard rock groove in the first verse that feels largely out of place when compared to the rest of the song and album, and the title track also misses the mark a bit. But as with Foundations, they’re minor nitpicks in an otherwise stellar addition to an impeccable discography. Pallbearer incorporated some new sounds into their winning formula, and crafted a progressive doom metal masterpiece.

But how does this compare to Foundations, you may ask? Right now, I see them both as even on the battlefield, with both records edging each other out in certain areas. Foundations has the slight edge of being heavier and doomier, but Heartless has the more adventurous songwriting and the best vocals the band has recorded to date. One thing that is certain is that, once again, Pallbearer will be in my Top Ten by year’s end. And like its predecessor, I will probably regret not rating it higher. Only time will tell, but that means more time with Heartless, and I’m not complaining one bit. Neither should you.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Profound Lore (North America) | Nuclear Blast (The Rest of the World)
Websites: pallbearer.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/pallbearerdoom
Releases Worldwide: March 24th, 2017

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Pitchfork 60

Rising metal stars Pallbearer have an unlikely fusion of influences: melancholic doom, prog that’s more ’80s slick than ’70s technical, and a touch of Boston’s hyper-produced hard rock. One couldn’t have predicted they would go from cult metal festivals like Rites of Darkness to Bonnaroo in a few years. Pallbearer should be commended for making it this far with their sound, but Heartless, their third record, shows that they have run up against their limits.

Album opener “I Saw the End” is similar to Foundations of Burden’s “The Ghost I Used to Be,” Pallbearer’s first realization that they could take their heavy sound and mold it into something catchy. Those often opposite attributes are sharpened and condensed, especially when guitarist Devin Holt rips into his solo at the end. They covered Type O Negative’s “Love You to Death” on last year’s Fear and Fury EP, and in “The End” they’ve mastered Kenny Hickey’s layered, warm goth-metal soloing. Combined with their Pallbearer’s love of Pink Floyd, they’ve reaffirmed prog’s role into metal, especially Rush’s cerebral rocking.

Heartless could use more of that inspiration. They’ve become their own worst enemy by writing meandering tracks that betray their prog loftiness and their innate need to crush. “Thorns” attempts to light the same fire as “The End” and exhausts itself as it goes on. “Lie of Survival” and “Dancing in Madness” are worse offenders, as both build towards nothing and use doom as a crutch, rather than as a starting point. In the past, weighty sorrow poured out; here, it’s strained, slow for the sake of slow. Background synths don’t add anything to these songs, and they also don’t get across bassist Joseph Rowland’s infatuation with krautrock. The beginning of “Dancing” is ripe for more active electronics, some series of Tangerine Dream-like arpeggios, something to break up the monotony that was once so rich. Pallbearer are not shredders or speed demons; any slight dip in momentum is fatal, and those two tracks shoot Heartless down. It hasn’t worked against them before, as they were adapting doom into prog’s confines, but this record doesn’t move that concept forward.

“Cruel Road” awakens Heartless from its stupor by taking a lumbering approach to theatrical metal. “Road” moves like a King Diamond song in its succession: a brooding intro, rising hysterics, a dip into neoclassical melodies, then another climatic spike to close the song. Overt dramatics are something Pallbearer hasn’t worked with before, and it feels a lot fresher than most of the record. The common line between “I Saw the End” and “Cruel Road” is Pallbearer falter less when they break out from their gloomy template. “A Plea For Understanding” is the longest and most somber track on Heartless, and perhaps its best, with a lighter take on doom. Holt and Campbell’s shimmering cleans really carry that mournful feeling “Dancing” and “Lie” struggle to convey, and Campbell’s vocals have never soared higher. “A Plea” is such a chore to get to, and it’s too bad Heartless is more defined by its bookends.

I recently saw Pallbearer perform in Austin, and Rowland was brimming with energy, acting almost as a hype man, and Holt found a new ecstatic height in his soloing. They brought an arena liveliness to a sound that requires patience. “The End” benefitted from this invigorated band, and there’s good to reason to think it will become a staple of their sets. Bringing it live is still crucial to metal success, and on that front they are ready to ascend to the next level. That doesn’t translate on Heartless, where too much space is squandered.