First Daze Here Too
Label: Relapse
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: First Daze Here Too
To go from misunderstood and unmarketable to legendary and name-dropped in just three decades takes only one thing: a great name. Washington, D.C., band Pentagram fused together the best elements of ’70s hard rock and proto-metal – Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, the Stooges – in a unique way that befuddled the music biz powers-that-were. Pentagram’s thudding, groove-centric rock had just enough menace to live up to their ominous moniker, despite the fact that most of their songs were lyrically straightforward with only occasional hints of evil. But nobody ever listened to Vincebus Eruptum for the lyrics, and nobody will pick up this second collection of Pentagram effluvia looking for a challenge to Ronnie James Dio’s metaphorical genius. If you put Pentagram on that continuum – rather than one that includes later unsung D.C. legends like The Obsessed – this two-disc set of studio outtakes and rehearsals is rewarding.
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2006.