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PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 8:26 pm
by nightsblood
I'm gonna assume there's a thread about this around here somewhere and I'm just too rusty at searching the Corroseum to find it.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:30 pm
by Priamos
I'm afraid not. No one gives a shit to tell his opinion about music anymore.

Anyway, a fit closure (?) of a significant band. Not as good as "Mythical..." but definitely a necessary addition for any collection. The band also announced some shows with the singer of Magic Circle/Stone Dagger. I have to say that i won't mind the band stay active and write some new material with this line up. On the contrary... We can't afford to lose Alan Jones' extraordinary talents and if they are going to be coupled with Brendan Radigan's vox, we should expect some more great things to come.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:45 pm
by Khnud
Still waiting for my copy! Temple Of Mystery apparently had some distribution problems and their copies arrived very late from the plant.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 8:37 am
by Levi
As a long time fan I think it's a great album, but I also do prefer their earlier "doomier" material.
Looking forward to the show on Hammer of Doom, sound clips from the first show in Canada were great.

What I find a bit annoying about the vinyl version (the No Remorse edition, but it seems the same for all the versions, still waiting on the copy from Temple of Mystery) is that The Ripper got cut out of the album as the second to last track to put it on a (albeit beautifully etched) one sided 10". If you listened to the cd version first with the normal order of songs, that's a bit weird.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:00 pm
by Aiden
Still waiting to get my copy so I'll post up an opinion on it soon.

As regards Alan continuing making music then this sounds positive;
http://crankitup.se/pagan-altar-terry-j ... done-time/

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:39 pm
by nightsblood
The fact that it fell to me, who posts here about as often as Manilla Road releases an album with top-notch production values, to start this thread should make everyone who has visited this site for 5+ years really, really depressed! Even I didn't realize the poor Corroseum had fallen into such malaise as to be unable to muster enough enthusiasm to start a thread for a new Pagan Altar album.... GEEEZ, what a sad lot of wankers we have become!

Anyway, I haven't given the album enough spins to form an opinion yet. It's on my To Do list. Who knows, maybe I'll even summon the will to report back with another post in a few weeks and give my 2 cents. :lol:

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 7:45 pm
by Khnud
I refer to the "Current Vinyl Collector Scene"-thread.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2017 12:41 pm
by Astra Wally
It's their less memorable album for sure. I feel I won't listen to it that much. Still a great album of course, and very emotional as one can expect...

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 7:09 pm
by MEXDefenderOfSteel
Still waiting for the Die-Hard version, can´t have an opinion on packaging yet but by knowing the people behind this I think it is a safe bet to say it will be killer.

About the music, classic PA in my ears, the only "con" I found just by listening two tracks so far (I´ll wait for my copy for the complete experience) is that drum sound, I don´t want to say modern, but at least too clear to my ears, something that I am not used to while listening to this band.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 2:17 pm
by Levi
The gig at Hammer of Doom from Time Lord was absolutely amazing.

This line up works wonderful and singer fits in perfectly, sounds a lot like Terry actually, without sounding like a copy just for the sake of it. They announced they will be continuing under the Pagan Altar moniker in this line up from next year onwards and will be playing more shows.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:53 pm
by Aiden
It was a stunning show. I wasn't familiar with the vocalist but he was very good. Great to see Diccon & Andy in the band again.
I was near the front and everyone was going nuts. Brought back so much happy memories of their gigs.

The idea that they will play under the Pagan Altar name from next year is just plain wrong. I know loads of bands have done this but I can't call a band Pagan Altar without Terry Jones. It's reminds me of Thin Lizzy without Phil Lynott. I have a lot of respect for Alan but I can't agree with him on this I'm afraid.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 6:14 pm
by Levi
Must agree on that, I found it fitting and respectful towards the history of the band that they were not playing under the name 'Pagan Altar'. Don't think it's necessary to adapt the name again to draw a crowd, but I was suspecting something like that already when it was mentioned as such on the Metal Magic festival poster.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 8:23 pm
by Trigger
Was it Brendan Radigan handling the mic?

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:00 am
by Levi
Trigger wrote:Was it Brendan Radigan handling the mic?
Yes.

Re: PAGAN ALTAR 'The Room of Shadows'

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:54 pm
by nightsblood
So, someone (madrushmedia) finally distributed this in the US and I scooped up a copy last month. And now I'm gonna rant about it a little bit.

Sooooo, PA albums usually take a little while to grow on me, and maybe I haven't given this one quite enough time yet (played it probably 10-12 times so far), but am I the only one who feels pretty disappointed? Let's break down what's wrong with this album:

First the length: 7 songs isn't a lot to begin with, but given that the closer is a 90 second acoustic piece, it's really just six songs. That can be OK, but it means you can't mess up on many songs and still have a good album. We need a minimum of three strong numbers, which PA is definitely capable of based on their other albums.

So, let's check the song titles we have to work with:
'Rising of the Dead'- Didn't they already make a song with this title? Oh, I'm thinking of 'Judgement of the Dead'... or am I thinking of 'Rising of the Dark Lord'? Hmmm, confused.
'Portrait of Dorian Gray'- gee, wonder what that one's about...
'Danse Macabre'- uh, Celtic Frost cover?
'Dance of the Vampires'- Didn't they already make a song with this title? It was Druids instead of Vampires you say? Hmmm.
Title track- OK
'the Ripper'- gee, wonder what that one's about...
'After Forever'- uh, Black Sabbath Cover?
Y'know, it does not inspire confidence in the consumer when the band only has to come up with names for 7 songs and yet they ape 2 titles from classic bands and then rip off 2 titles from their own songs to boot!
But it's the music that matters, right? What's this puppy sound like....

Rising-- cool song, I like it! Slowly builds, nice and doomy, very reminiscent of their best material. Great, all aboard!

Portrait- Uh, I feel like I've heard PA use this same song structure a LOT. They really dig the rhyme scheme of abcb-abcb (if you don't know what that means, stop reading posts from crusty old headbangers and use the internet to go educate yourself, grumble grumble kids these days). OK song I guess, but nothing special here.

Danse- Since the music is exceptionally soft and laid back here, let's stop and check out the lyrics:
"follow the dancers,
and join us in this one last dance
Leave the living, follow the music,
and we'll all dance the Danse Macabre"
# of times 'dance/danse/dancers' appears in the lyrics = 20. Repetitive much? That may be the most since Men Without Hats finally went the fuck away. So you can danse macabre if you want to, but please leave me behind.

Dans, er Dance- I've played this album at least 10 times and I have no idea what this song sounds like.

Room- OK, once again the music isn't holding my attention, so let's danse right into those lyrics. They tell the tale of a young boy scared of dad's trophy room, who then grows up and forgets all about it, and his own kid is also afraid of the same ol' trophy room.
And what grisly spectacle of horror do they find in that room?
Uh, none.
BUT WAIT, what horrifyingly gruesome fate befalls them?
Uh, the kid gets scared when his ball rolls in the room and he has to scamper in there to get it back.
..... BUT WAIT! What eldritch horror lurks there, stalking the family, waiting to lunge forth from the (room of) shadows to strike fear and terror into their hearts?
Uh, they don't say.
So, basically nothing at all happens in this story?
That's right.
TL;DR- kid gets creeped out by dark room. Same thing happens to next kid.
.....
WHAT THE FUCK MAN?!?! 'the Room of Shadows' is basically just the freaking attic in every house occupied by a 5-year old. I've read cereal box ingredients that were creepier than this song. What is the point here; they take a strange swipe at materialism? You know, if some demonic creature really lives in your den, I don't care how fucking materialistic you are, you're gonna notice! How does materialism wipe out your ability to sense Pure Evil in your spare bedroom? "Gee honey, the lights are flickering and the place smells like sulfur and I hear weird demonic laughter but that doens't matter 'cause I just got this pricey new limited edition Christian Dior handbag!". HUH? Oh fuck this, let's just move on....

Ripper- abcb, abcb, we get it, we get it, oh, I so don't have the patience to sit through 10 minutes of Jack the Ripper story time. Next!

After Forev- oops, the song's already over. Didn't exactly last forever.

So basically I'm hearing one really good song and lots of nice guitar work, which puts 'Room of Shadows' on par with the best album VAN HALEN ever made. Yikes.

Maybe I'll give this another chance, but I've got a stack of other CDs waiting to get spinned, and I feel no need to sink more time into this one.