Hey guys,
This might sound like a stupid question but as the thread title asks, how popular were Pentagram (USA) from when they put out their first self titled release to pretty much now?
Did they have a cult following? Were they huge doing venues like Madison Square Garden?
I'd love to know anything.

Take their already small cult following and divide it by 100. I think that's a safe estimate.

Big enough to be noticed by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.

I know they opened for one of Judas Priest's concerts on the Stained Class tour so they were big enough to get on that show.

Not quite. Pentagram's manager was a relatively known journalist who invited Simmons and Stanley down. Doesn't necessarily mean they were well-known and doesn't pertain to his question anyway.



He's asking about the period from 1985 onwards.

Somewhat related: two videos of Pentagram performing @ Hole In The Sky 29/08/2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJqqVVev ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rge4O7G ... re=related

(Both of them load VERY slowly)

LOL

Pretty funny, but I would say it's probably accurate that they're more popular now (which isn't really that big even by underground metal standards) than they were back in the day.

bobby looks like a toothless grandfather on drugs

That's what I actually meant. They're relatively unknown today so I imagine they'd be considered almost non-existent in the mid 80s. Great band though.



I don't know if he has kids, but he more than likely is one.

Judas Priest weren't THAT huge in 1978, just big enough to be on Japanese TV.

I can't imagine they were TOO popular. Even now, they're still pretty underground. I just think with more modern bands citing them as influences, people decide to go and check them out, hoping they'll find something similar. And for good reason; Pentagram kick ass.

I really don't know about the 1980s, but what I find interesting is that a lot of people do know the 70s stuff. I guess those 7s must have been passed around a lot at the time, probably dubbed and so on. I'm talking mostly about people who aren't metalheads...collectors of psych and hard rock stuff from back then and so on. The guy who used to run the prog/psychedelic rock store that was open here for a while knew them, as did a fellow and his girlfriend who put on a radio showw full of 1970s rarities, and they knew nothing about the influence the band has had on doom metal. From what I've read, also, they were pretty big in the Virginia area, because there weren't many bands of a similar style back then at all and at the time the area was rather stunted artistically. Some fanatic from there wrote something about the band when "First Days Here" came out, explaining how he collected what was available by them in the 70s and how he thought the band was better than Sabbath. Pretty interesting.

pentagram is better than sabbath >_>

I definitely disagree with that, but this detracts in no way from their quality.