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CUSTOM HEAVY - THUNDER PERFECT MINDby Chris Barnes My oh my, the earth rumbles, the heavens shudder and Doom's children dance in a dytharambic frenzy. This is one monster of a doom album my friends, but thankfully not so doom that rock-heads can't get their minds around it and dig the Divine. A juggernaut of Heep/Trouble/Pentagram/Bang, 70's jam band and heavy NWOBHM influences, Pale Divine cuts a wide swath with it's Thunder-music. Funeral riffs dual with power riffs, minor chord progressions underlie some burning guitar and drum work to produce some of the most mind-bending doom jams put to record . If fellow Doom-alum Slow Horse are the Grateful Dead of the doom jam, Pale Divine are most certainly the Allman Bros. There are so many twists, turns, time changes and crescendos to be had on Thunder Perfect Mind, that it's really hard to pinpoint what the best track on here is. "Amplified" is a damn good start though. An eleven-minute taste of everything that Pale Divine has to offer..the thunder-riff, the careful attention to dynamics and an amazing instrumental interplay between guitarist/vocalist Greg Deiner, drummer Darin McCloskey and bass-player Jim Carl...and most of all, the embracement of Doom as a music form with out resorting to unadulterated Black Sabbath cloning. One of the highlights of the album is Greg and Pentagram vocalist Bobby Liebling sharing vocal duties on the Liebling-penned torcher "20 Buck Spin" as well as the Liebling/Pale Divine collaboration of "Dark Knight". As good as this album is though, there are some minor production problems. Through most of the album, Deiner's vocals are so low in the mix as to sometimes be barely audible and sometimes McCloskey's drum work gets drowned out by guitar. Nothing to deter from the enjoyment of this massive album, but things to think about for future recordings. A great effort by Pale Divine for their first full length album. DOOM!! Back to Reviews Back to Pale Divine Home |