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Pentagram follow up their Last Rites with autumn 2012 UK tour

Posted: 11 years ago
Doom-metal legends enlist Gentlemans Pistols as support, tickets on sale now

Formed as far back as 1971, Virginian doom/dark metallers Pentagram are not likely to be 'celebrating' 40 years of making some of the most intense hybrid of metal going. Instead, they will be plotting their next move and follow-up to 2011's subtly-titled Metal Blade Records release, 'Last Rites', their first studio album for 7 years, and the recent DVD 'When The Screams Come' . Not that Bobby Liebling and the boys have any worries about how to fill a set-list for a tour - they might not have been the most prolific of rock bands since the '70s, but seven albums is plenty to be getting on with.

Taking Black Sabbath (just reformed), Uriah Heep and a nod to the darker things in life as their influences, Pentagram spent more than a decade releasing rare 7" singles, splitting, regrouping, splitting and then reforming to begin making proper full-length albums, starting with the uninspired 'Pentagram' debut (uninspired in so much you'd have expected them to think of a title, at least). Regardless of the lack of imagination as far as titles go, 'Pentagram', later aptly re-titled as 'Relentless', stands up as a decent debut set. But, you've guessed it, after issuing a second album, 'Day of Reckoning', that album's moniker proved to be a portent of things to come - they split again.

The enigmatic Liebling pretty much owns the Pentagram name and with a trio of new musicians, including previous member, guitarist Victor Griffin, he set about crafting last year's 'Last Rites'. It turned out to be one of a trio of releases, which also included the live set 'Live Rites' and a compilation 'If The Winds Would Change', as well as the aforementioned DVD and the gritty Sundance -related documentary about Lieblings life, 'Last Days Here'.

If you want to see one of doom-metal's premier and most colourful bands, check out Pentagram on tour in the autumn. First stop is Bristol on 31st October, followed by London on 1st November, then Manchester and Glasgow. Tickets for these rare shows, with Leeds rockers Gentlemans Pistols in support, cost from £15 and are available now.

Paul Pledger