Heartless

Much like what has been going on with the black metal scene lately, doom metal is taking its own sort of turn, and Pallbearer are a strong candidate for this kind of movement. Heartless is their most recent release, which stays true to the backbone of doom metal, but exceeds the general consensus of what somebody would expect to hear. Instead, since being typical seems to hold such a high premium, they assess this with some drops of depressive styles, and tampers with the distortion to assist this kind of an atmosphere. The end product? A pretty solid and rainy release that can get a little awkward at times.

Instead of cracking down on dark, raunchy, and slow riffs the whole time, they use that as more of a background effect, allowing the rhythm guitar to lay out a lot of the ground work. On the forefront, we get small guitar pieces that veer completely away from anything dark sounding, and they take on more of an emo rock sound. The compositions are definitely fantastic, but it can be hard to get into, seeing how much it opposes the rhythm sections, and for sure needs to grow on you. On the plus side, the vocals are very fitting with this, seeing that they also take a higher and cleaner standpoint, rather being dark and devious. This wouldn't allow any space for evil gimmicks or malicious numbers (despite it being an hour long). Instead, it leaves the listener with a feeling of sadness and sorrow. Chants are subtly thrown in to convey the message a little better, such as in "Cruel Road". And of course, there's always a spot for acoustics to chime in here and there for greater affect. There could be no better setting than a rainy, dreary day on a screened in porch by the mountains to enjoy a record like this.

Song structure is different for sure, following no formats, and avoiding choruses or verses by all means. The only pattern that runs on most of the tracks is opening with something less deep and heavy, and something more emotional. But anything with that much potential ceases to be repetitive. At times, it can be uplifting, and it's absolutely beautiful. The intro to "Dancing In Madness" is mind-blowing, and the way that it transitions into the doom and gloom is rather impressive. Seeing that most of the tracks are seven minutes or longer, there's plenty of time for them to draw out the instrumentation, taking more of the attention than the vocals receive. Sometimes though, it can get a little too out of control, and what seems to be pedal happy, thus causing more distortion than what is needed and becomes overwhelming. Usually this gets broken up by chug-driven breaks, particularly in the longer songs. Despite the great flow in "Dancing To Madness", there are many weak spots in transition in other parts of Heartless, as well as things that work, but don't work well together. Overall, I appreciate what Pallbearer are doing, as it shakes up the genre a little bit, and while it isn't perfect, it's definitely worth buying.