Review Summary: Endings, thorns, lies, madness, and cruelty. What's not to like?
Pallbearer’s Heartless is doomy, sure. Let’s get that out of the way. There’s melancholy, plenty of dissonant, grindy low-tuned guitars, and haunting vocals. The lyrics wonder about tomorrows, endings, lies, cruelty, madness, all that.
But that’s not what makes this album great. It is also groovy, riffy, proggy, and… melodic. Yes, there are melodies to be had in this album, and they come at you in both the lead guitars and in the vocals. These four musicians from Arkansas-- Brett Campbell (vocals, guitars), Devin Holt (guitar), Joseph D. Rowland (bass), and Chuck Schaaf (drums)-- are great at establishing grooves, moving in the changes, and letting the melodies in.
Pallbearer has a knack for making it seem like existence itself is at stake in each song change. And there are a lot of changes—in time signature, as clean goes distorted, as rock becomes doom, as singing turns to shout. “Lie of Survival” hypnotizes with its sleepy fuzzy lead guitar stepping lightly around some clean arpeggios, until the song slips into a distorted, stretched-out groove. The song is unapologetically epic, taking on the macro questions of existence. Do I share every bit of angst in this song? No. Do I find the opening line “All the gods have fled” to be so perfectly suggestive, laid down with just the right amount of grief, to win me over? Yes I do.
I am tempted to say that “Lie of Survival” is the best song on the album, but it’s not. That honor goes to the amazing, soul-crushing “Dancing in Madness.” This is a song that lives and dies in many parts, and several genres of music, before it’s done. Some of your friends won’t like certain parts of it. It begins with lonesome drums kicking around, and falls into a haunting keyboard arrangement, before ripping into a guitar solo that would not seem out of place emerging from David Gilmour’s guitar. And while we can live in that Floydian world for a while, the song opens up into some wailing doom, then transitions into a sludgy groove that hits the sweet spot. But then—and you may find yourself checking whether you are in the same song, and understandably so, given it comes close to the 12-minute mark—by the end you have a melodic and thoughtful song again, and the Floydian vibe returns, before finally Campbell brings in the most infectious section of “Dancing in Madness,” which is Campbell’s own plaintive singing.
From start to finish, the songs are creative, complex, and true to the genre, while also being catchy, singable, and cataclysmic in tone. “I Saw the End” features some (can I say fun?) call-and-response guitar parts. “Cruel Road,” the riffiest song on the album, breaks away about two-thirds of the way, into a layered guitar duet and sends the guitars flying along with Brett Campbell’s singing, until both his vocals and the guitars tighten up and get angry. “Heartless” has many sludgy parts that are complemented by solo guitar sections that seem to answer back and tell a story. “A Plea for Understanding” closes out the album with some slow moments but also some chillingly delivered vocals.
It’s good musicianship, skillful songwriting, and the emotional execution is so well done that the album just feels sincere. This album will become your guilty pleasure that no one else in your family will want to listen to.
