Thunder Perfect Mind

Upon reflection of harebrained, yet effective maneuvering which consisted of plugging old school tape deck recorder via 3.5mm cable into Mom's laptop - a luxury back in the early aughts - towards tediously enthused cassette copying of brill sample tracks from Albuquerque's pioneering yet bankrupt All That Is Heavy online store, am willing to concede, despite futuristically shocked woe, that token "cutting edge" technology, such as my treasured and soon rare Sony MP3 player, serves a purpose every now and then. Thus, once I'd siphoned off the entirety of their free collection - I still recall very first lifted song, "Nothing Much" by Toronto's Nice Cat - followed suite by placing sensibly patronized mail order comprising stoner doom genre cornerstones which entailed, in ascending order of greatness, Witchcraft's ever-wizened self-titled debut from 2004 (long before subtly diluting occultic edge), Electric Wizard's memorably monolithic genre Stonehenge, Dopethrone of the extended UK variant, Orange Goblin's clutch hitting Coup De Grace gem, and finally, Pennsylvanian power trio Pale Divine and its too-wicked-for-words, expansively intricate and thoroughly grooving full-length master establishment, Thunder Perfect Mind. Hearing manifold spins for first time since 9/11 aftermath, fully re-revel in cathartic scope of its melodically sizzling pentatonic magic.

All four make for remarkable trailblazing among their now exploded, wide open scenes, whilst middling PD efforts consist of 2004's mildly tamer, albeit strongly recommended Eternity Revealed and 2007's Cemetery Earth, alongside 2012's Painted Windows Black and ace return to incipient colossal form in titular 2018 whopper. An additional, last minute stab at guitar godliness follows with Covid trapped Consequence Of Time, which, after cursory listen, instils nostalgic musings of here feted opus. However, at cost of parroting myself, Thunder Perfect Mind is truly special, as it effortlessly melds cohabitable schools of sound ranging between bluesy, '70s styled, Pagan Altar-ish heavy rock mythos and loftily doomier American East Coast proclivity akin to Internal Void, The Hidden Hand and Pentagram, though of a superiorly skilled and artily sophisticated essence. In fact, crazed eleven minute opening sprawl of "Amplified" and its circuitously hypnotic freestyle lick riffing and spot-on psychedelic (s)pacing induces insouciant pundits, alongside intermittent, mitt blowing wrist merchants, to eagerly exclaim headlong flurry of "Holy Cows!" and "Wows!" attributable to avant-garde Glen Mills party's tidily refreshing, oft mesmeric and butyraceous (buttery smooth) presentation and flow.

Impressively, most of the ten songs, which include highly congruous cover of Pentagram's classic lead choked, seedy hooker tryst extravaganza, "20 Buck Spin" as well as Bobbly Liebling sung finale "Dark Knight", crest elongated five minute mark; notably, "Amplified" and "Judas Wheel" double that, whilst sole exceptions to time rule consist of said cover, alongside pair of successive mid point instrumentals, "Gods, Monsters & Men" and brief prelude to exotically twinkling "Star Child", "Dream Flower" (not quite found among allies within, say, Pop Cap Games' Plants Vs Zombies debacle...)

Beginning to noise of squelching feedback, "Amplified" resoundingly lives up to its title, seeing founding front man/guitarist Greg Diener, bassist Jim Corl and drummer Darin McCloskey throwing everything but the kitchen sink as far as symbiotic riffing-turned-soloing goes, whilst "Magic Potion" stuns by way of sheer incepting dexterity, attaining even Rust In Peace level of complexity, with Diener's gruffly concise mid range affecting a shouty prose as he crafts ever-sinuous and tangential riff-work often succumbing to wah-wah induced embellishment on both rhythm and lead.

Whereas "Judas Wheel", with its toned down crunch, takes a backseat by alluding to standardized D.C. doom sound, "Pale Divine" proper and "Gods, Monsters & Men" relaunch unto hard driven fretboard acrobatics, as clean-up batting former cranks up the heat thanks to Diener's alternatively mystical and wan delivery proffering sheer counterpoint to his usually roguish (happen)stance. Riffs and solos go hand-in-hand, to point where they even come together as one, voluble sonic monster. To wit, "Gods, Monsters & Men" demonstrates excellent poise and control, best summarized as a slow-burn whirlpool of halting stomps and dissonant, wheezing solos; plus, McCloskey's elfin drum ridden gives off a nifty little jazz feel, down to its innocuous fade-out before instrumental whimsy - namely, the Black Sabbath (i.e. "Orchid") evoking clean guitar progression of "Dream Flower". Next up, on an ephemeral level, the beautiful reverb laden splendor of "Star Child" matches memorable harmony of Angel Witch's "Sorceress" and UFO's "Doctor, Doctor", or, for want of later example, Pantera's mellow "Cemetery Gates".

Actually, "Star Child' was an early stonerrock.com sampler, which, during bumbling tape transcription, instilled increasing urge to hear TPM in full. Aside from its fairytale-ish, clear guitar production and chameleon-like, distorted introductory solo (reminiscent, in timeliness and depth, of similarly inductive Pagan Altar lead on Brits' "Satan's Henchmen"), Diener pulls out all the stops with his hauntingly echoed vocals, amid back-and-forth immersion between soft clarity and hardy groove. Also, the sky bound, doubly phrased climax solo assures one-way ticket to wonderland...in stark contrast to bemoaning, condemned witch cries defining start of "Devil's Mark", a rockier, as incandescent, incestuous cousin to Amulet's "Mark Of Evil" or Blood Curse's "Conqueror Worm" (and further neighbor alarming "screamer" best kept in check, volume-wise).

As for last pair of Pentagram related tracks, I can't fathom a more conducive and impacting way to flesh out Pale Divine's singular millennial smash, Thunder Perfect Mind. (In terms of crucially barn-burning chops, the Victor Griffin braised "Dying World" could've filled "20 Buck Spin"'s shoes, but non-vespertilionine "Dark Knight", however, makes for a winning endgame, comparable to how Liebling's younger formation, Stone Bunny, supplied closing reprisal fodder for Witchcraft LP with eclectic "Yes, I Do".) If you dig heavy metal, doom or stoner rock, owe yourself celebratory dance to Pale Divine's tessellated youth!

PsycheDOOMelic is probably the best current label for doom metal, and Pale Divine is a great example of the quality of their output. Pale Divine play a style of doom metal firmly rooted in the 70s and 80s, although they don't necessarily mimick one band in particular so it's difficult to compare them to anybody. Vocalist Greg Diener sounds quite a bit like Scott Reagers or Bobby Liebling or one of those others 80s doomy vocalists that did a good job of imitating Ozzy whilst disregardeing the Birmingham accent. He has a very powerful voice and is crucial to the band's sound, and songs like Dark Knight wouldn't be the same with Diener's lungs.

As for the actual songwriting, I'm reminded of different bands at different points of the album, yet the whole disc still flows consistantly and doesn't really sound mixed up, the band combines their influences well into a sort of doom pot pourri. Opener 'Amplified' is pure, unadultered rock and roll and reminds me more of Bishop than any gloomy doom metal band, even though it still has that deep, low sound to it. However, 'Gods Monsters and Men' actually has a Kyuss (BftRS-era) feel to it, whilst 'Dark Knight' has a strong epic vibe that reminds me of Manilla Road more than anybody else (especially in the fantastic vocal arrangements). Then we have the short, string-picked instrumental 'Dream Flower' that would sound right at home on Sabbath's Masters of Reality in place of Embryo or Orchid, and then John Klein's lead guitar reminds me of some really early bluesy metal, like Pentagram or even Blue Cheer (in tone and delivery).

You might expect the band to sound all over the place, but that isn't the case. This album flows nicely, one superbly well-written song after the other, and the influences are all sewn in well. The PsycheDOOMelic rerelease has two live bonus tracks, and they're both played so perfectly that you can tell this band has rehearsed their asses off. A very tight performance, which tells me two things. One, this band must be excellent live, so if you live in or around Pennsylvania then you should definitely be sure to go to a Pale Divine show, I can guarantee an excellent performance. And two, this being Pale Divine's first album, I'm sure they could have only improved on their later releases, so along with 'Thunder Perfect Mind' I would also recommend checking out their subsequent albums, any real doomheads should not be missing any Pale Divine in their collection.

Pale Divine were among a handful of bands who I first experienced via the old Mp3.com site (remember back when it didn’t suck?). Their Crimson Tears demo, while shoddily produced, was good enough to make me take note of them, watching for a legitimate debut later down the road. That finally came in 2001 with Thunder Perfect Mind (TPM). Gone is the crappy production, instead replaced by a massive sound providing a backbone for songs which are at once crushing, emotional, and somber.

Pale Divine’s sound is sort of a mixture of quite a few things. They’re not really a traditional doom band in the pure sense, though a lot of their stuff sounds that way. Likewise, calling this “stoner rock” is somewhat a misnomer as well, as TPM is often more focused than much of the droning stuff that gets labeled as such. There are a few psychedelic moments thrown in for good measure, such as the middle break in “Amplified”, and there’s even a healthy dose of inspiration taken from the 70s rock scene (you know the sound). If that sounds like a mess, well, trust me, it’s not.

There’s even a mix of song styles – you’ve got the epics (“Amplified” just crushes for most of its 11+ minutes, and “Judas Wheel” is also very solid) for sure, but the best song might be the brooding, almost semi-ballad – yet still mammoth heavy – “Star Child”, a song on which singer/guitarist Greg Diener puts on one hell of a performance dripping with power and emotion. He’s got a limited range, but his deep bellow is a perfect match for this style. Pentagram main man Bobby Liebling even checks in to do vocals on the last two tracks, one of them being, strangely enough, a Pentagram cover. While stylistically somewhat different from Diener, his vocals fit great, especially on “Dark Knight”.

The drums and bass are about as expected, solid but certainly not fancy. However, Diener’s guitar work is fabulous, rising far above the usual monotonous mega-heavy but simple-to-a-fault work seen on some similar albums. Deserving of special mention are the solos, some seemingly out of place on a doom album, yet still working perfectly. At times we get the standard “wall of noise” sound, but never once is melody sacrificed for sheer heaviness, as there almost always seems to be some sort of swirling guitar riff right around the corner. There aren’t many faults to note, though the “Dream Flower” song is a worthless 40 second acoustic dirge.

Fans of any of the styles mentioned in this review – traditional doom, stoner, 70s-fused metal, even slower traditional metal – should give Pale Divine a shot. Somehow this thing was allowed to go out of print despite being released in 2001, but it was recently reissued by PsycheDOOMelic, so it should be relatively easy to find. Head over to their official page to try some samples, and spread the word on Pale Divine as they still remain criminally unknown. Excellent stuff.