Pentagram- Be Forewarned

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Sat Oct 09, 2010 4:38 pm

Be Forewarned will always be a classic album for me, just love it. When it came out in 1994, a real dark time for good metal, a time when there seemed to be nothing sounding this good, this heavy, no one I knew then even barely knew who they were, a real dark time for doom metal. To have another Pentagram album come out at all made it perfect. I cannot criticize anything about it, sorry.

Black Axe · Post by **Black Axe** » Sat Oct 09, 2010 4:52 pm

doomedplanet wrote:When it came out in 1994, a real dark time for good metal, a time when there seemed to be nothing sounding this good, this heavy

Except for Iron Man, Count Raven, Penance and Solitude Aeturnus who all released awesome and very heavy records that year.

Lama · Post by **Lama** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:56 pm

It's not my favourite Penta-album, therefore "Day Of Reckoning" and "Relentless" (and "First Daze Here" 1 & Too) are waaaaay too good, but I like listening to it from time to time. Production is indeed damn heavy, but also a bit hollow. Weird. Don't have a problem with "Vampire Love" though...

I got this album for free somewhere around 1999 (on CD, before all you guys start gettin' angry with me) from a diehard - and ignorant - black metal fan. He got fooled by the band name, thinking they would play stuff like Gorgoroth or something like that. He was so pissed off that he just gave it away. To the right person, I guess

"Review..." and "Sub-Basement", I really liked those albums when they were released, but I need to revisit them soon. I also have "Show...", but haven't listened to it yet. So much music, so much stuff to do, so little time...

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:03 am

Black Axe wrote:Except for Iron Man, Count Raven, Penance and Solitude Aeturnus who all released awesome and very heavy records that year.

Good examples, but these were easy to overlook back in the day, at least here in the US. Iron Man was totally unknown back then. Count Raven- and actually everything on the Hellhound label- was considered so-so B-rate material that got little circulation. Solitude Aeturnus had very little exposure from their first 2 albums, and 'through the darkest hour' didn't get a great reception at first. and I don't even remember seeing that Penance album listed in Century Media catalogs, let alone anywhere else.

Maybe these did better in Europe than they did here. Cathedral was about the only doomy band getting attention in the US around that time. The only reason I knew some of these bands back then was that SA got interviewed in Sentinel Steel, and then a SA disc and 2 Hellhound releases showed up in the used CD store near campus. The HH discs (Count Raven & Internal Void) sat there untouched for months before I finally decided to pick 'em up and give 'em a try; no one knew who they were. I think all 3 had been sent to the campus radio station as promo copies, but not even the station's Metal Show ever played them on the air (I listened religiously and would have noticed Count Raven and SA).

I got another SA cd a little later in a punk-indie store outside Cleveland; they carried tons of CM and NBA cd's.

It's always funny thinking back to how hard some of this stuff was to track down back then. I spent months trying to get discs by Amorphis, Sentenced, and Winter. Had to special order 2 of the 3

Thank the metal gods for that lil' indie store near campus! I've often wondered how much $$ I spent there over the years buying used cassettes and cd's.

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 6:42 am

Of course I love all these albums that came out around the same time but none of these bands are even remotely like Pentagram and "Be Forewarned" really came out of the blue after 7 years of silence. The Solitude Aeturnus album in '94 is a classic but how can it compare to Pentagram?

Black Axe wrote:Except for Iron Man, Count Raven, Penance and Solitude Aeturnus who all released awesome and very heavy records that year.

The Sentinel · Post by **The Sentinel** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 4:33 pm

I still don't have the first one on vinyl. I guess I will never find the original. Are the Peaceville releases of the debut any good?

agvd · Post by **agvd** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:08 pm

anthares wrote:S/t, The day of reckoning and this Be forewarned rules. And in this order.

Agreed.
I'm surprised to read that people are iffy on "Day of Reckoning". Not much touches their first LP in my book, but the second is also a masterpiece. I highly recommend people to check out the first two through the original vinyl releases of the first two instead of the Peaceville re-whatevers if possible.

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:14 pm

Sent- the orig isn't that hard to track down, but lately it usually runs close to $100. There was a copy on ebay yesterday but I don't see it now... another one ended early I suppose

I have the reissue cd on Peaceville; haven't played it in awhile but I don't recall having any qualms with the sound quality or anything.

Rob- It was so out of the blue that I completely missed it upon release! Wasn't until much later that someone mentioned it in passing and caught me totally off guard- I had no idea it had come out

And no, none of those other releases can hold a candle to it (the SA is pretty damn heavy though

). However, it was surpassed the next year (95) by Saint Vitus' (un)godly 'Die Healing', but it too got very little attention at the time (Hellhound releases got zero respect).

Lama · Post by **Lama** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:37 pm

agvd wrote:
anthares wrote:S/t, The day of reckoning and this Be forewarned rules. And in this order.
Agreed.
I'm surprised to read that people are iffy on "Day of Reckoning". Not much touches their first LP in my book, but the second is also a masterpiece. I highly recommend people to check out the first two through the original vinyl releases of the first two instead of the Peaceville re-whatevers if possible.

"Day Of Reckoning" is filled with fantastic songs, but the production is a step down compared to "Pentagram". However, I have a 'raw' version of "Day..." on CD-r and that one sounds way better than the official release.

Off course, nothing beats the original vinyls, but I don't have any problem with the Peaceville-reissues.

DTP · Post by **DTP** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:49 pm

Lama wrote: I got this album for free somewhere around 1999 (on CD, before all you guys start gettin' angry with me) from a diehard - and ignorant - black metal fan. He got fooled by the band name, thinking they would play stuff like Gorgoroth or something like that. He was so pissed off that he just gave it away. To the right person, I guess

haha, similar tale here too; got this for free from a stoner-rawk fan, but he only liked stuff that either ripped off KYUSS or FU MANCHU ('good-time stonerruck') and he hated the vox so it was his loss in the end...to me this is PENTAGRAM's last solid recording. love the in-yr-face gtr tone and the title track is prob one of the best closers ever! still haven't heard 'subpar basement' and the others...

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:34 pm

Bit surprised to hear Hellhound was thought of as a second rate label. I mean, releases like "Die Healing", "Yet so Far", "Destruction of the Void"... wasn't that considered good doom back then?

Lama · Post by **Lama** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:52 pm

mordred wrote:Bit surprised to hear Hellhound was thought of as a second rate label. I mean, releases like "Die Healing", "Yet so Far", "Destruction of the Void"... wasn't that considered good doom back then?

In the 90's doom metal equalled "Black Sabbath rip off" or "slow, boring crap" according to most big metal magazines. Released on Hellhound or not. Apart from a small diehard fanbase, nobody was interested in doom bands, because they all got bad reviews. Off course the albums you mentioned are great, but only a few people were aware of that.

Black Axe · Post by **Black Axe** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:12 pm

nightsblood wrote:
Black Axe wrote:Except for Iron Man, Count Raven, Penance and Solitude Aeturnus who all released awesome and very heavy records that year.
Good examples, but these were easy to overlook back in the day, at least here in the US. Iron Man was totally unknown back then. Count Raven- and actually everything on the Hellhound label- was considered so-so B-rate material that got little circulation. Solitude Aeturnus had very little exposure from their first 2 albums, and 'through the darkest hour' didn't get a great reception at first. and I don't even remember seeing that Penance album listed in Century Media catalogs, let alone anywhere else.

They were just as easily overlooked as Pentagram. But any 'doom' metal fan (well, in Europe at least) would try and follow these kinds of bands and labels like Hellhound. Even more so if they heard the 'Dark Passages' comp. which features 3 of the 4 bands I mentioned. I know I've seen Hellhound releases mentioned in some European rock/metal magazines of the day.

Just to be clear, I rate those albums higher than Be Forewarned(except the SA which I rank about the same) and they are among my absolute favourites.

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 3:38 am

The 'raw' CD-R version of 'Day of Reckoning' you mentioned Lama is actually a rip of the original LP - stuff was re-recorded and remixed for the Peaceville reissue.

Black Axe · Post by **Black Axe** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 8:11 am

daniel wrote:The 'raw' CD-R version of 'Day of Reckoning' you mentioned Lama is actually a rip of the original LP - stuff was re-recorded and remixed for the Peaceville reissue.

Mostly Stuart Rose's drumming being replaced by Joe's I believe.