Pallbearer – "Foundations of Burden" ...

With their debut release in 2012, Sorrow & Extinction, Pallbearer created one of the best doom albums of all time. Its five especially long doom tracks that are the perfect soundtrack for any funeral, doing its title justice and leaving doom lovers craving more. So would their follow up live up to the standard they’ve set for themselves or be an epic failure? We now have the answer...

Pallbearer’s sophomore release, Foundations of Burden, is very much Pallbearer through and through by which I mean there is no denying they have their own unique sound that is very recognizable. That’s a compliment where so many others blend together especially in the genre of doom. Foundations of Burden is not just Sorrow & Extinction Part Two and if that is what you wanted or were expecting you may be disappointed though you shouldn’t be.

On “Foundations” I think Pallbearer have created not only another epic doom masterpiece but we may have to create a new genre just to describe it though it may turn doom lovers away if I name it. Where S&E was the perfect soundtrack to your funeral leaving you thinking, perhaps even longing for, death Foundations of Burden is, dare I say, uplifting. Yes, Pallbearer have somehow created light, a word I use loosely here, uplifting doom which seems like a contradiction in terms until you listen to Foundations of Burden in its entirety. I just can’t think of any other way to describe it.

 I love doom as much as I love anything. It is emotional music that connects you to it in a way that no other genre of music does, at least for me personally. That is why we love it. Good doom reaches down into you, grabs a hold of your spine putting it in a death grip which most often makes you feel dark and hollow with thoughts of death and decay firing through your brain. Foundations of Burden reaches in grabbing your spine in that same death grip but rather than filling you with dreams of a nice warm death it lifts you up, making you feel like you’re floating on a nice comfy cloud, of course, it’s still doom so it’s a storm cloud but you float above a storm that rages just below you. You stay high and dry while everything below you is pummeled to dust by the unrelenting onslaught Pallbearer reigns down.

Brett Campbell’s haunting clean vocals sound like a ghost calling out from the great beyond but where on Sorrow & Extinction his voice invoked a feeling of doom and dread, here on Foundations of Burden it makes you think the afterlife may not be such a bad place to be after-all. Pallbearer’s sophomore effort only further cements them at the top of the doom heap. I wasn’t even all the way through my first spin of “Foundations” before knowing that as of this moment it is my #1 album of the year and I can’t imagine what could come along to knock them from the top spot. It was a doom album that grabbed an hold of me and demanded my top spot last year, "Kongh’s masterpiece Sole Creation", and unless some miracle happens Pallbearer have just done the same thing vastly improving my 2014 and filling my #1 spot.


I won’t go through all six epic tracks in detail as they just have to be heard. I think I’ve given you a pretty good overview from the slightly aggressive opening of Worlds Apart to the gloomiest track and album closer, Vanished but there are no stinkers or “throw away” tracks to be found on this one. My favorite may still be the previously released, The Ghost I Used To Be, but that is mainly because I’ve already listened to that track about a thousand times. If you haven’t already you should pre-order this doom gem or at the very least be standing in line to pick it up next Tuesday when it is unleashed on the world. In case you need further encouragement the entire album is streaming right now over at Pitchfork (Listen Here: HERE). I’ve been listening to it non-stop and you should be too. Yes, it’s that damn good!

Find Pallbearer:
Facebook: HERE
Twitter: HERE
Bandcamp: HERE
Their Official Website: HERE

Words: Feind Gottes (http://www.thydemonsbescribblin.com/)