Thursday, August 11, 2016

Pallbearer : "Fear and the Fury"




This is really a single with two covers attached to it. The first is a single originally released on a flexi-disc for Decibel. If you haven't heard this song yet, it's as good if not better than anything from "Foundations of Burden". They also tackle a Dio era Sabbath song with "Over and Over" which often doesn't get as much love as the Ozzy stuff. Brett Campbell handles it well. Dio is a power-house and to emulate him invites cheesy power metal comparisons. He tastefully handles what could have turned this into some stinking power metal and lets the passionate melancholy ooze out.  The solos are nailed pretty well too. The bass player sits back and doesn't get to involved in some of Geezer's wandering runs, over all there is a more relaxed vibe to the song, but it still captures the dark heaviness to it.

 Campbell takes a different approach on their cover of Type O Negative's " Love You to Death". He doesn't doesn't attempt to dip down into Steele's range, instead he focuses on the phrasing, even rolling his r's for the moments from Transylvania. I thought they would think the more goth tinged elements were campy and try to smooth them over. The guitar picks out the keyboard lines. It's evident that Campbell's voice is not as powerful as Steele's or have the same resonance. He tends to picks his battles while doing the job at hand with this one. I'm a huge Type- O fan so if it gets a thumbs up for me then it's saying something.Of the three songs here, the Type O is the weakest, but is still better than the filler on most doom albums I run across and helps cement Pallbearer's place at the top of the heap when it comes to today's doom crop.


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