PENTAGRAM (Show 'Em How) LP/CD
What for an exquisite titel for this outstanding album! I don't know, what could have been a better one. Maybe "Master Of Reality", but I guess this title belongs to another band.... Anyway, now I'm worshippin' this band for about 20 years, and whenever a new album comes out, and I listen to it, I find myself with my jaws on the floor like a small child looking at the christmas tree, and all this reactions without the aid of any chemical induction, but this days are already over in my life. Maybe as in Bobby Lieblings life, but who knows and is it really important if you have such a gorgeous result like this album? No!!! I still wonder how much awful bands are pretending this band as an influence and some of this groups really think they come close to this group, but nobody does. And "Show 'Em How" shows again why this band is a world of his own, who don't needs any comparisons to any newer bands. Like other veteran musicians or bands within the real heavy genre, here's the scale. Nothing more and nothing less! Ok, I need to come down and try to lose some words about the music. Black Widow Records is still the home of PENTAGRAM but Joe Hasselvander had left, and though he's an outstanding musician Bobby Liebling has finally found a real line-up. He teamed up with the creme de la creme and no others than Adam Heinzmann (bass) and Kelly Carmichael (guitar) of the outstanding Maryland group Internal Void and Mr. Mike Smail (drums) of Penance / Internal Void are building now the backbone.It's crystall clear that this men know how to handle their instruments, and Kelly Carmichael is for me still one of the most underrated guitarist, together with Dale Flood of Unorthodox. Adam Heinzmann and Mike Smail are a hell of a rhythm section and they fill every hole here. Mr. Liebling don't need to develop his theatrical angry shock tactics, and his voice becomes more forceful from decade to decade.
While his early singing style reminds me to a cross between a young Iggy Pop and a healthy Ozzy Osbourne, mixed with a very own blend he progressed his voice over the last 35 years into something that is much to unreal and scary for this worl, without losing his soulful impact. One can't describe his voice and needs to listen to it. "Show 'Em How" contains ten songs, and as on previous albums some of the tracks are well-known to all Penta-fans. This time, the band has chosen "Catwalk", "Wheel of Fortune", "Starlady", "Goddess", "Show 'Em How", and the mournful "Last Days Here" and it's a real pleasure to listen to the re-stored versions. The other five tracks were written by Bobby Liebling himself or co-written with Kelly Carmichael and especially "Prayer for an Exit Before the Dead End" is a song filled with bitter-sweet melancholy and an atmosphere which causes me shivers down my spine. "Elektra Glide" is packed with some of the heaviest and mightiest riffs, where Kelly shows that he isn't only a godsend riffmaster, but an very emotional lead-guitar player, too. If you dig Internal Void, than this is nothing new for you. "City Romance" is a sinister heavy mid-tempo hitter, with a neck-breaking groove and a powerful vibe. It doesn't mean anything that I haven't mention all tracks, because here are no average material included. To compare this album with the brilliant "Sub-Basement", PENTAGRAM are sounding more progressiv and have build a perfect bridge between the 70's to the current times, and what it makes it more fascinating is that "Show 'Em How" still sounds modern, meant in a positive way. And if all this isn't majestic enough, the album was once again recorded and mastered by Chris Kozlowski at The Polar Bear Liar Studios in Middletown, Maryland assisted by Kelly Carmichael and Bobby Liebling. No doubt about it, this album belongs with the new Internal Void and the new Hidden Hand to the best albums of 2004, that's sure. A must-have!!!! Buy and bow down!!! At least I hope, that this line-up will come over here to Europe to play some shows, and if not, please record another album.
(KK)