The history of Virginia hard rock band Pentagram, often billed as “America’s first doom band,” is one of what-ifs. What if charismatic singer Bobby Liebling were a little less volatile? What if the band’s 1975 Columbia Records demo had been completed? What if 9,000 mitigating variables were different? Well, then, sure, yeah, Pentagram might have been America’s Black Sabbath.
The success of 2011 doc Last Days Here, about Pentagram’s string of close calls, has done much to revive (and over-inflate) the band’s legacy. The latest Pentagram reclamation attempt is the reissue of Child Of Darkness, a 1973 demo by Pentagram offshoot Bedemon (half-behemoth/half-demon). Long circulated in underground circles by proto-metal aficionados, it’s a fine example of simple, riffy, sorta-shitty American hard rock.
There are some memorable songs (the title track, Serpent Venom, Last Call), but Bedemon, like Pentagram, are too caught up in melody and overdriven blues riffing to be truly substantial, especially considering that Black Sabbath had released three records by the time recording on Child Of Darkness began. Sometimes recovered documents like this show how the official history of heavy metal tends to favour the actually heavy.
Top track: Child Of Darkness
Pentagram play the Opera House as part of NXNE on June 20.
