Heartless

Quite why a band that named themselves Pallbearer back in 2008 started slipping down the doom path into accessibility is anyone’s guess, but it’s true that on newest album Heartless, the Arkansas crew won’t be appealing to fans of the genre’s glum and crushing ethos. Not to say that this is a buoyant album, though there is more hope and light than with weightier influences such as Warning and Candlemass. The melodies played on songs like the opening ‘I Saw the End’ edge in to post-rock architects such as Mogwai and Pelican, including a lot of the explorative spaciousness that one expects from those quarters, amply demonstrated by the drift of the soft frame to ‘Lie of Survival’ or the relaxed textures of ‘A Plea for Understanding’.

Naturally, the de-escalation of the punishing doom sound does provide some problems for Pallbearer. Given that the four-piece emit just seven songs during an exactly hour-long album, there is little urgency to the music and riff ideas are spread sparsely between clean guitar sections that occasionally feel like random noodles inserted purely for the purpose of bridging sections or smoothing out the experience into one long dream. The use of synthesizers by Joseph Rowland and vocalist Brett Campbell are key in producing this smooth sound, which robs much of the tension from the release, barring the harder-hitting opening pair. There are rare aggressive moments, such as the yelled mid-section of ‘Dancing in Madness’, though this is also cumbersome and feels shallow compared to the soulful singing and rich, layered instrumental that follows.

Heartless isn’t without merit though, and the climax of ‘Cruel Road’, as well as the riffing of ‘Thorns’, might sate fans of heavier fare, while those in search of textured and wandering progressive adventures are unlikely to be cross about the results. What Pallbearer have failed to do, on the other hand, is turn their large target into a consistently diverting album, since there are too many moments during the songs when attention can wander. More work needs to be done to integrate all the influences into a satisfying whole.


Originally written for Metalegion #3 - www.metalegion.com