Pale Divine

Thunder Perfect Mind (Slow Ride/Game Two)
by Craig Regala

It starts with an 11-minute gallop that hits a wah-wah Eddie Hazel funkish vamp 4:50 in then dive bombs some ’80s I-kin-play-faster than-you triplet action before getting back to whatever started the whole deal. The second track comes in with a classic rocker riff as developed in metal land in the age of very long (not poofy) hair. Look, this is a classic doom record that’s stacks up as a “sounds” version of one of those guitar hero things Shrapnel puts out. It’s about the salient sound and style of the genre’s guitar heroics. The vocals are ok but mixed foggily and somewhat distant, the drums and bass churn on and ho!, there goes Mr. Guitar Player whoopin’ it up again. I like to read the liners to see who bands thank for inspiration. Here it’s all either acid rock proto metal, BNWOHM, or doom metal/Goth/doom. One song’s written and guested (“20 Buck Spin”) and one penned and sung (“Dark Knight”) by Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling, one of the doom lifers, Pentagram beginning just post-Sabbath.
(PO Box 22640 Denver, Colorado 80222)