It’s always exciting to hear a new release
from Pagan Altar, even when the material isn’t all that fresh. The Time Lord EP
is a spruced-up CD version of a vinyl-only release that I Hate Records put out
in 2004. The EP comprises five demo recordings dating as far back as 1978—way,
way before heavy metal became the self-sufficient mini industry that it is
now.
Pagan Altar were perfectly positioned to make a splash during the NWOBHM, yet it took the rise of the Internet to
bring them out in the open. It’s a mystery to me why they didn’t get signed to
a specialist label like Neat or Ebony at the time. Maybe their downtrodden and
macabre Olde English style wasn’t what labels were looking for. They didn’t fit
in with more fresh-faced and energetic bands like Saxon, Maiden or Leppard who
were cracking it commercially, or extreme bands like Venom, who had an
immediate appeal to the growing legions of freaks out there. Maybe if there’d
been a doom scene beyond Witchfinder General and Trouble, Pagan Altar would
have risen from obscurity more quickly. They've found their niche now, though, alongside the likes of Pentagram as once-obscure, now-revered
forefathers of doom.
Elderly the songs may be, but there’s no
expiry date on these babies. Blow off the dust, wash off the soot, and they’re
still pretty tasty. “Highway Cavalier” is a hard-charging
slice of biker rock about livin’ free and easy (and that’s how it’s gonna be)
that rules even if the drum set sounds like something salvaged from a tip. The title track is the EP’s high point,
partly because it's a heavy metal song about space. It has a Hawkwinded charge to it before opening up in its
final act for some wonderfully drawn-out southern-rock soloing. The next three
songs all ended up on Pagan Altar’s debut, Volume 1, and feature more of the
band’s Sabbathy side, especially on "Judgement of the Dead." The recording quality is brittle but damn if there isn’t
some impressive bass playing rising above the hiss. It’s almost as if they
recruited Geezer himself for the session. On the nine-minute “Reincarnation” vocalist
Terry Jones gets to showcase his unique, raspy style. Even in the band’s youth,
he sounds like a wise old sage. It's probably down to the trebley recording, but that razor-wire guitar tone during the song's scorching climax sure works for me.
While it’s not the perfect place to first
approach the Pagan Altar, there's no denying that this EP features some excellent material. These
recordings aren’t exactly up to Martin Birch’s standards, but they’re well up to
the job of capturing Pagan Altar’s mystique; the band's raw despondence and devotion to the macabre corners of heavy metal. Nobody writes
and plays ’em like this anymore. Kudos to Shadow Kingdom Records for making
this release available again.
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