Review Your Choices

Pentagram broke up some time after their third album, leaving behind only Liebling and Hasselvander, who chose to continue creating music together under the same name. This is the first of two "collaboration-era" albums by the band, in that Liebling is on vocals, (for better or worse) and Hasslevander is on literally everything else. The album which resulted wasn't really that bad, but was also not quite as good as the first three are.

The rerecorded oldschool Pentagram tunes are nice to hear, and are mostly there as a result of the band wanting to record official versions of tracks that were present on the prolific bootleg Human Hurricane. Fan favorite Forever My Queen is on here, as well as Living In A Ram's Head, Review Your Choices, and more. They're treated pretty well musically speaking, with doomified arrangements and huge-sounding production. Forever My Queen's earlier versions, though less doom metal-oriented, I find more enjoyable than this version, mostly due to their frenzied psych-rock guitar solos, (I'll speak more on this album's lackluster lead guitar soon). However, the double kick drum on this album's version does add a nice heavy metal touch to it, and it features a few new lyrics which are two new things not present on the older recorded versions.

Bobby tries his best to deliver a strong performance but comes up short more often than not. This is partway through his vocal transformation, so at times he sounds like 80's and 90's Bobby but at others he sounds like post-2000s Bobby, all drawled out and such. I guess I would call this an inconsistent, but not terrible vocal performance, something marginally passable. It often sounds like he's not even trying at all, so it's a miracle Hasslevander got him to record for two whole albums. While most of Lieblings solo writing contributions exist on here as re-recorded old tracks, they're doomified enough to fit right alongside the collaborative tracks.

Hasslevander plays the drums, his main instrument, just fine on this album. Exceptionally, even. His bass and guitar skills, while most certainly decent enough to handle the rhythm section, are lacking in the lead department. Most of the time, his lead work is reminiscent of, but not quite as good as former guitarist Victor Griffin's style. Griffin's trademark harmonies helped make the first three Pentagram albums classics, and his command of the axe was integral to making the first three albums as great as they were, which could be a reason I don't find this album as good as its predecessors. Hasslevander doesn't really play anything very technical while playing lead, and this fails at least this album's version of Forever My Queen, which originally relied heavily on a long, frenzied ending solo. He tries his best though, and the leads are in fact doomy, despite not being super impressive.

Hasslevander co-wrote the new songs with Liebling. Gorgon's Slave shines as a highlight of Hasslevander's riff-writing, it features this great downtempo riff consisting of a couple power chords with strummed arpeggios, and it's just undeniable. The heaviness and great structure of this track manages to impress despite its weak lead guitar and vocal performances. It also picks up in the middle and gets nearly thrashy, a style which is also present on Mow You Down.

New song I Am Vengeance, despite being heavy and having a couple cool parts, features Bobby sounding like a crackhead from the southern US going on a rant for most of the runtime. It's ultimately too slow and unchanging to be anything special. I can't believe it's only about 6 minutes long, it feels so much longer because it's really so boring for most of it. They accomplished everything this song was going for way better in the album closer Megalania, which features heavy as fuck riffs and actually quite good lead guitar sections. It's a force to be reckoned with, sounding like a more burnt out version of Be Forewarned from their third album.

Last but certainly not least, the production is fucking massive on this album. The drums sound just right. When the guitar and bass sync up, they are mixed to create a giant crushing wall of doom that could make any bluesy riff fat as hell. The mixing and mastering jobs for this album and its sequel, Sub-Basement, are the main attractions from this era of the band my opinion. It enhances the hell out of otherwise pretty decent tracks. My rating is as high as it is because I believe they did the perfect job making this handful of tracks sound as big and powerful as they could, despite technical limitations in the vocal and lead guitar department. One thing you can say about this release is that it definitely still sounds like classic Pentagram, even though half of the classic lineup is missing. While the tracks themselves don't feature the best songwriting to ever grace a Pentagram release, they are performed well enough and sound fucking great. They did the best they could, and it's certainly nothing to scoff at.

"But if they already peaked creatively, then how can this album be their "ultimate statement?" Well, a creative peak and an ultimate statement are both very high praise, but in this case they differ in many ways - more on that later. But, just know, forming the ideas behind this review requires an in-depth look at this seminal American doom institution.

Pentagram is one hell of a curious band, and I don't use that word simply because I just reviewed Curious Volume on here yesterday, I actually really mean it. Their 70's material (which, as a younger fan, I have experienced exclusively through the First Daze Here compilation CDs) reflected early metal as far as I can tell, but in my opinion, it bordered more on psychedelic rock than Black Sabbath's seminal metal classics like Paranoid, Master of Reality, or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, as evidenced by the fact that a 70's Pentagram-inspired doom band like Witchcraft is considered to have a psychedelic rock component themselves, right here on the Metal Archives. But why does this musical tendency of early Pentagram matter? Well, I think when they were known as Death Row in the early 1980's, they further embraced heavy metal music (since, as the metal historian knows, heavy metal was evolving fast at this time, for example the NWOBHM was going strong) while still retaining their distinct melodies that we know so well from songs like "When the Screams Come." As a result, the first three Pentagram albums are all classics, and there can be no debate about that - while Pentagram (Relentless) serves as the best introduction to the band's wholly original doom sound for the average heavy metal listener, Day of Reckoning and Be Forewarned place a greater emphasis on those doom metal melodies I mentioned above, which to me makes it clear how once their music got a little bit heavier than it was in the 1970's, they were playing fully "matured" doom metal - that said, from the very beginning, they were a doom band.

This brings me to a point I do not necessarily need to bring up to make my case, but I would still like to expand upon since I could talk about Pentagram all day, this being from the user gasmask_colostomy's 2015 review of Day of Reckoning. In this slightly critical but ultimately insightful review, this user astutely notes two things - one, Pentagram in the 1980's is far removed from the band they were in the 1970's, and two, Day of Reckoning introduces the sound that would be expanded upon on Be Forewarned (by which I assume they must be referring to those distinct melodies which define the doom metal genre and can also be heard in early Trouble or Cathedral songs). Indeed, both albums are littered with those sorrowful and mysterious guitar lines like on the bridge of "Day of Reckoning" or in the chorus of "Nightmare Gown"(which along with "Fear No Evil" by Trouble are palpable examples of "fast" doom metal - melody, progression, and mood defines this music, whereas slower tempos are often just coincidental.) I like these points on their own but I would like to unify them by saying this - Pentagram circa 1985-1994 doesn't resemble Pentagram circa 1972-1980 because they became more of a heavy metal band, but I still think they remained somewhat faithful to their original sound by retaining those melodies I've talked so much about. "When the Screams Come" fits perfectly on Day of Reckoning while still doing justice to the original, and I'll always stand by that.

But hey, look at this, I can come up with a better example of rerecorded old songs being put to damn fine use for a new album, that being 1999's overlooked Review Your Choices, which actually relies heavily on the band's 70's material, but to its merit. After Be Forewarned, which in many ways was the band's creative peak (since it featured so many at the time new and overall tastefully dark songs), Pentagram's (superb) lineup tanked and Martin Swaney and Victor Griffin left. Granted Joe Hasslevander was still in the band and he's actually the main hero of Review Your Choices since he plays every instrument and totally gets the songs, but there's no denying that he and Bobby were under strain on this outing. Some people fault them for reusing the title track and "Forever My Queen", but honestly it goes perfectly with the new songs like "Gorgon's Slave", which is actually the most gloomy song Pentagram had written up to this point and is one of my favorite doom metal tracks. And yet at the same time, the rerecorded songs are entirely faithful to the original versions, just way heavier and murkier sounding. Those chord progressions were always doomy as hell!

Additionally, I originally thought that songs like Gorgon's Slave or "I Am Vengeance" were written as an attempt to fit in with doom metal circa 1999 since by that point, metal subgenres were well established and there were plenty of classics to be found in each one. However, as I made clear above, I think Day of Reckoning and Be Forewarned already were totally mature doom metal. It's just that while songs like "Madman" and "Lifeblood" from those albums rely on chilled and mysterious doominess, songs like "Change of Heart" from Review Your Choices are simply very downcast, which reflects the loneliness of the lineup at the time and Bobby's addiction struggles. In fact, I think the title of this album is really very apt, especially if you know the lyrics to the title track - "Review all of your choices now, there's no one 'round to show you how." That song especially makes me feel lonely and depressed, the version from this album in particular. And they totally did review their choices here! It shows, because what a monster of an album this is. It's like Mournful Cries and Lunar Womb in that it's doom I have nothing bad to say about. It may not be Pentagram at their most creative but it IS Pentagram, the definitive experience of their music I'd say, even if the muddy production here makes it a bit less accessible to get into than the first three albums. Songs like "The Diver" or "Mow You Down" might seem a bit like "filler" to some, but I think deep cuts can add completeness to albums, and they do here. Most albums with this many tracks aren't this strong overall, anyway. Lastly I would just like to note that the doom to be found here is a bit less melodic than that of Day of Reckoning and Be Forewarned. To me they went for more of a Saint Vitus kind of trudge on this one, just not as punk-leaning as their younger brothers in that band obviously.

Overall an essential doom metal album! These guys were a pioneering band of the style and this album is the ultimate testament to that - for this reason it's still my favorite Pentagram album and I do find it pretty interesting how it fits into their discography. Sub-Basement from 2001 also uses the same formula as here but honestly I'd only rate that one an 85% which is a bit low considering Pentagram is one of my favorite bands, just because the songs have less of a sense of direction on that one, but on Review Your Choices it's like the perfect balance of variety yet consistent doominess and strong songwriting. I'd definitely recommend picking up the Season of Mist CD pressing if you can too, because it's fairly cheap from most websites, that way you can get some great doom in your collection! The only thing is, I don't recommend starting with Review Your Choices if you're just getting into traditional doom, because this one is a bit more bleak and burned out sounding. Try one of Pentagram's first 3 albums or maybe The Obsessed!

...though rest assured it ain't that funny dentist-cum-farmer country bumpkin from Iowa, so classically presented beside his squat, austere wife in 1930's American Gothic.

Rather, it's none other than this brooding pre-millennial slab of quintessential American doom metal sordidly titled Review Your Choices, by the one and only Pentagram - front-runner of Washington, D.C.'s heartily pioneering doom metal scene for as long as anybody, most of all, Bobby Liebling, can remember.

Hell, I remember it all too well myself, being the massively celebrated glory-piece of my one "token" stonerrock.com mail-order back in the day when the genre was still a fledgling in evil eye of populace at large; Pale Divine's quintessential Thunder, Perfect, Mind and Witchcraft's withered self-titled beginnings served as palatable asides, while Electric Wizard's dominatrix bound Supercoven constituted a meandering, humdrum let-down.

OK, so the brick-hued, Devil-hyped cover rocks like nobody's business...what about the album, and/or tunes themselves?

Worth noting at inset, alongside 2002's studio album number five, the dungeon-esque Sub-Basement, RYC solely features Mr. Liebling on the mike, with heavy metal carouser Joe Hasselvander handling everything else; namely the drums and both bass and guitar. Between us, this here is the firmer and punchier, as well as more "deciduous", volume.

Following starter "Burning Rays", an incandescent and brief, stiff-upper lipped pacemaker whose combustive-ly bursting, gritty riff-work duly conjures vistas of the Sun's flaring corona, things take a gruelling, molasses dipped, squealing turn with monolithic morass of "Change of Heart"; that is, right up until 04:13, whence mild drumstick clatter and cumulative skins tumble set acid tone for a "heart" rendering and downright pumping guitar progression followed by gnarled, albeit lively, pentatonics in form of Joe's sleazily panoramic, valedictory guitar solo. Vintage, 1970s 'gram paragon "Living In A Ram's Head" then charges into full-fiery focus while doing justice to its 1979 7" single under High Voltage Records, which, inexplicably, failed to spur the lads to greatness...until, as the fable goes, years - even decades - later.

The predatory vibe and paradoxical wanton kookiness of "Gorgon's Slave", admittedly, is a take it or leave it affair, owing to its sinister tempo and flair, in addition to Bobby's nasally drawn out and demented thespian candor which gives impression the ole serpent coiffed demoness of Grecian lore herself took a sabbatical from her equally fowl islet-dwelling sisters in order to cast mythical round of "petrifying" glares within the cloistered confines of the studio. Then, slightly half-way in, his truly springs back to life as both a slippery guitar shuffle and jarring drum run set the (craps) table for Joe's by-now reminiscently rueful and rocking hammer-on'd fare. That said, he adheres to a more compact and neurotic style than Pentagram's usual go-to (contemporary) ax-man, Victor Griffin, who takes on a vociferously symbolic and intense - at times, seemingly never-ending - "hard line" approach to his soloing.

Clacking shut the A-Side is the ominously no-frills, semi-automatic, rapid-fire dirge, "Mow You Down" - this LP's token hard-driving grit-ster akin to "Relentless", "Day of Reckoning", or perhaps even "Mad Dog", from 2002's upcoming Sub-Basement - before titular masterpiece "Review Your Choices" elevates things to a proper level of Pentagram pep, if you will.

Dig the following helter-skelter opening verse, juxtaposed as it is over a diabolically teetering - however maddeningly poised - 70s styled retro-riff, to put it wildly:

"Man and woman try to keep a tie
While looking at what passes by
Village thieves and all the tramps
Somewhere someone left some gaps
Look before you leap my friend
Should god take you in his hand
It's a very small price for your sins you spend
And there's a man with a pitchfork around the bend

Alright!"

Particularly poignant is how, upon development of an extensively laid-back and sleek, if not downright wizened (!), blues-y guitar solo, each subsequently slack vocal line yields further dangerous and dexterous, hellbent mysticism, and thus, until this gem's satisfactorily saturnine denouement. Alternately, the brisk, yet odd, pair of B-Side openers - "The Diver" and "The Bees" - are better appreciated off the low-brow, uncanny and raw Human Hurricane (vintage) collection, from 1998 - a must for the erudite Pentagram connoisseur, along with the First Daze Here Collection, #s One and Two.

At 2.5 minutes a'piece, these twin "lugubrio-sities" fail to stir like their unholy brethren; to be fair, Liebling's vocals are as glum, gloomy and despondent as ever, if not more so...the guitar licks are gnarled as fuck, no surprise there...While not necessarily filler, consider them graveyard dirt of the first order. (Interpret as thou wilt.) Now, "I Am Vengeance" is a rarity worth its ranting weight in tortured Bobby-isms; it truly is an exercise in mangled oratory expression, plus the down-tuned, debasing string bends are their very own monster, not only for this record, but the entire Pentagram song vault as a whole. The fortune-teller evoking sprinkling, twinkling keys four minutes in yield grooved the frig out power chords sure to crowd your thoughts, burr-like, to far side of your cranium...a decent offering, no-how!

Primordial to this here flailing review, the "Forever My Queen" version at hand is much meatier and stout than (during) its initial, incarnate, fleeting heyday. Although Hasselvander does terrific job of layering down the fuzz i.e. wild fire leads, favor the time-honored Vince McA. variant any day. To wit, he appoints his own nifty, sinewy signature, in a similar arch-type manner as the "Griff" master on respective, crisp whippersnappers such as "Sign of the Wolf" and/or "Dying World", both from 1985's ground-quaking turning point, Relentless.

While "Gilla?", bluntly put, is a coy and pointless "connerie" - French for inanity - consisting of bonzo'd Bobby going full-blown nasal on the ubiquitous main (fifths) riff to DP's "Smoke On The Water", "Downhill Slope" and "Megalania" perfunctorily close this wry, fickle-minded package along comparatively reflexive and glad, placid tones as, say, "If The Winds Would Change", or possibly that ill-bred Dutch (oven) whimsy from 2011's Last Rites, "Windmills And Chimes" (I'd prefer chives...). The latter, however, with its grinding, slow-burn palm-muted groove and spellbinding, coffin nailing lyrics, makes for a deadly doom metal "wine-and-cheese-pairing" with 2007 Show 'Em How humdingers in the festively cool jugular vein of "Elektra Glide" and "Prayer For An Exit Before The Dead End". (Hence, I forever pine for further Pentagram production featuring said one-time Internal Void line-up.)

Nostalgically speaking, the LP sleeve for Review Your Choices is worth its weight in gold, what with memorably depicted Pentagram keepsakes ranging from Count Chocula to Old Scratch himself in myriad manifestations. Even the verso's knobbly Willow tree and crepuscular surround beckon from here to Geno(v)a, Italy, headquarters of exalted Black Widow Record Label - known for wheeling and dealing in highly collectible, albeit rather obscure, 12" wax from likes of Bedemon (a proto-metal Pentagram spin-off, also from the early 70s), Blue Dawn, Northwinds, and, ah, the misspelled but fetching Witche's Brew.

Well, then.

Grab that oversized three-prong fork and have a stab at 'er, already!

"The evil churns, you'll start to burn
But will you crack, you can't turn back, oh no
Review all of your choices now
There's no one 'round to show you how
But the hand comin' down has-a reached it's end
You know who's still around the bend!"

Bobby Liebling may be his own worst enemy but you can't accuse him of giving up for too long. Having been coaxed out of a drug-induced retirement by drummer-turned-instrumentalist Joe Hasselvander, Review Your Choices is the band's fourth full-length studio album and the first of two to feature only two musicians as Hasselvander plays all the instruments that accompany Liebling's tortured warbling. It's a ballsy move for a group of their reputation though it still results one of their more unstable efforts.

In a way similar to Sabbath's Born Again, Review Your Choices is one of Pentagram's heaviest albums and also one of their most poorly produced. Like the debut before it, the sound is quite raw but it doesn't have the same balance. Hasselvander is a more than competent guitarist though his tone is rather stilted when you consider the more rhythmic approach combined with its overwhelming presence in the mix. Bobby's voice was also pretty shot at this point, resulting in an odd drawl that sounds less like a doomy Dickie Peterson and more like a really stoned Ian Anderson.

The band was also really starting to use the 70s material as a crutch at this point. While the tracks are pretty well written and always proved to be strong additions to previous efforts, they worked best when challenged by great songs written with the current lineup or when the production suited their inclusion. The title track fits in really well with its more laid back approach but classics like "Forever My Queen" and "Living In A Ram's Head" are given a big disservice by this production job.

And like Be Forewarned before it, there may be a few too many tracks though most of them are pretty decently written. There is a little less variety than before as the songs are evenly divided between fast rockers and longer doom tracks. "Burning Rays" and "Mow You Down" are among the best entries though the oppressive riffs on "Gorgon's Slave" and "Downhill Slope" are also worth mentioning. A few songs like "Change Of Heart" and "Megalania" have some catchy riffs though the structures fall a little short of an essential status.

Pentagram has never made a less than solid album but this is where they really got tricky to recommend. You gotta give props to it and its successor for getting finished at all when you consider the absolute hell Hasselvander went through to make them, but it may be one of their weaker efforts. Whether you like this album or not will likely depend on your feelings on the production job. I can certainly get behind it but newcomers will need to review one of their earlier choices first.

Highlights:
"Burning Rays"
"Gorgon's Slave"
"Review Your Choices"
"Mow You Down"
"Downhill Slope"

Originally published at http://psychicshorts.blogspot.com

This was one of the last Pentagram albums I listened to, and I never seemed to be able to enjoy the later releases as much as the classics for some reason. However, after a couple of listens it finally hit me, and this is now easily one of my favorite releases from the band. Opinions aside, let's get to the music.

First off, the production is fantastic. The album art really does illustrate this album's sound very well. It has a "hazy", and SUPER heavy sound that fits with the music perfectly. It is definitely not a generic, over-produced production job by
any means. There is really no other Pentagram album with this kind of
production, and that gives Review Your Choices it's own unique charm. Also, this album was recorded around the time when Bobby was still recovering from his drug addiction problems, and you can practically hear the heroin abuse in every track.

There are many songs on the album that are remastered old classics, but whether you've heard them before or not, this album gives them a totally new, drugged-out sound. Every song is great, and the album flows well. It is also a good length, at around fifty minutes long. There are many songs that are five minutes or longer, and they tend to be some of the best songs as well. Change
of Heart, Gorgon's Slave, Megolania, and I Am Vengeance are all crushingly heavy, epic songs that reek of hard drugs and depression (in a good way, of course).

This is definitely one of the most "bizarre" sounding Pentagram releases, and that is much in part because of Bobby's vocal performance. While his vocals are certainly not in top form here, they fit the songs well, although there are a couple songs where it's almost humorous how fried he sounds. The man was really in the middle of a crisis at this point in time, and a lot of emotion can be heard from his voice and the music. This is by no means a happy album, and several listens could very well drag the happiest man down to depression.

The drums aren't really anything special, but still contain plenty of creative fills and interesting patterns, often extremely slow to fit the music. Joe does a great and impressive job at laying down tracks for all instruments here, and keeps things fresh on the drums. It takes a pretty long time for this album to get stale, and it's always there for you, tempting you to come back and listen, like a syringe full of heroin to a drug addict.

Review Your Choices is a very heavy and powerful album that all Pentagram fans need to listen to. It really is something special, and while it may be the "black sheep" of the Pentagram discography, that doesn't stop it from being one the craziest-sounding, unique Pentagram albums ever made.

"Review Your Choices" is simply the heaviest and meanest record in the Pentagram catalog. Total doom, a descent into the pit! This is not the "classic" Pentagram lineup (which I consider the "Death Row"-era lineup), but the album was recorded as a two-piece with drummer Joe Hasselvander handling all instrumental duties. And Bobby Liebling is present as always, to give doom metal heads one of the best ablums of the genre, period.

"Burning Rays" is an excellent album opener, but my favorite track is "Gorgon's Slave," which starts out with some doomy riffing and creepy vocals. But when it breaks into the fast part, if your aren't headbanging madly, then you must be dead already. This IS heaviness! The album is comprised of new tracks and re-recordings of old tracks from the 70's (as is usually the case with Pentagram albums)such as the almighty "Review Your Choices," another kickass track. The album ends with "Gilla?" which is just a bunch of odd noises.


"Review Your Choices" stands alongside the best of the Pentagram albums, and is essential Doom Metal listening. I also recommend "Relentless," "Day of Reckoning" and then everything else the band has ever recorded during its long and legendary career. DOOM ON, muthaf*kka!