Down, Pentagram and Warbeast @ The Electric Factory.

Text and images by Chad Sims.

For music fans one of the greatest things to come out of the internet has been the relative popularization of niche genres of music.

Not that long ago it was difficult for most music fans to give certain styles of music or bands a chance because we weren’t sure it was worth the investment of our hard earned dollars. We can now listen to any number of bands we want with just a couple clicks of the mouse. I personally believe that this ease of listening is partially why formally niche styles of music like extreme metal have become more popular over the last decade. Sure, these bands probably won’t be on Top 40 radio anytime soon but most of them have fan support of which they never dreamed.

Last Wednesday night, Down, Pentagram and Warbeast played the Electric Factory. All of these bands play a part, one way or another, in my theory proposed above.

Warbeast

Warbeast is mostly made up of members from the Texas metal scenes that have been playing since the late 80s thrash days.  Most notably lead singer Bruce Corbitt played in the excellent thrash band Rigor Mortis. These veterans have been given another shot on Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Records.

Any music fan that has never seen a thrash metal band comprised of great musicians live, really needs to.  The bombast of the music is really hard to imagine from a recording alone.  You need to feel the double kick drum while listening to the speed and precision of the guitars at hair raising volumes to really appreciate this music.  Everyone won’t walk out of the show and carve Slayer into their arm, but the power and grace of this music is something to behold.  Decked out in old school spikes and leather Warbeast certainly succeed in demonstrating these qualities.

Bobby Liebling from Pentagram

Up next is the should-have-been legends Pentagram (though they still may wind up legends).  Pentagram is the musical child of lead singer Bobby Liebling who has been making music under this name since 1971.

Liebling was the subject of the recent documentary Last Days Here.  The film tells the story of the ups but more often than not downs of Pentagram.  In the end, the film becomes a rather uplifting story.  Sorry to be a spoiler, but obviously things have worked out for Bobby (this is a great documentary and really worth watching).

The name Pentagram was familiar to me being often cited as an influence of any number of doom bands, but I never listened to the band until a friend let me borrow their first full length 1985’s Relentless (alternately titled Pentagram).  This album was a life changer.  It was like finding a bunch of lost, roughly recorded Black Sabbath demos.

I feared I wouldn’t get to see Pentagram live, and Liebling’s condition at the beginning of “Last Days Here” only furthered this suspicion (he looked like a living scarecrow), so when this show was announced I was ecstatic.  Despite a fever of over 100 degrees I was going to see Pentagram.

Of course, Pentagram is also known for not performing when they are supposed to (part of the reason they never made it).  Every moment until they took the stage was filled with anxiety that Bobby had screwed up again and that they wouldn’t be playing, but at last they took the stage.

They jammed through a blistering set that was filled with almost every song from Relentless including my personal favorite, “Dying World.”

For a guy who has abused his body like he has, Liebling is still a great perform: bugging out his eyes, strutting about the stage, and writhing on the floor during guitar solos.

One unexpected bonus is the return of longtime guitarist Victor Griffin.  Liebling is known for alienating people (another reason for their obscurity), so it is great to see that Victor and Bobby have made up enough to have recorded a new album and to tour.

I don’t mean to paint an overly negative picture of Bobby Liebling.  If you watch Last Days Here you will see that despite having fought a lifetime of demons he is at his core a good (albeit self-destructive) person and great musician.  It is wonderful to see him getting the recognition he deserves.

Finally, Down was up.  Down is something of a super group made up of members of Pantera, Crowbar and Corrosion of Conformity.  The most well known member of this band is the previously mentioned Phil Anselmo of Pantera fame.

Pantera was an important band for me during my musically formative years, but the tough guy swagger lost appeal as I grew older.  While I do like certain songs from Down, on the whole they don’t really do it for me.  Despite my personal preferences I was excited to see Anselmo perform live, so I went into the show with an open mind.

The main problem with Down is that almost all of their songs lack a strong melody.  Though Pantera was not the most melodic of bands, the vocals usually carried the melody and tied the song together.  In Down, Anselmo often barks lyrics in a hardcore like delivery taking away the melodic element.

On the other hand, I am guessing that people are not going to Down shows for great songwriting.  They are going for energy, tight playing, and riffs a plenty. Down certainly delivered all of those elements and the crowd went, in the words of Anselmo, “heads down” in return.

On the strength of the Pantera connection alone, Down would likely still be going strong all these years later. The other bands, however, may have been lost to time without some of the technology we take for granted today.  It certainly is a great time to be a music fan.