| Pentagram | |
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Live at the DNA Lounge |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Arlington, Virginia, United States |
| Genres | Heavy metal, doom metal |
| Years active | 1971–1977 1978–1979 1980–present |
| Labels | Metal Blade Records, Season Of Mist, Peaceville, Black Widow, Relapse |
| Associated acts | Deathrow, Place of Skulls, Internal Void, Spirit Caravan, Unorthodox, Wretched, Valkyrie |
| Members | |
| Bobby Liebling Victor Griffin Greg Turley Albert Born |
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| Past members | |
| Gary Isom Lee Abney Vance Bockis Kelly Carmichael Jon Cook Ted Feldman Joe Hasselvander Barry Stern Adam Heinzmann Marty Iverson John Jennings Richard Kueht Rick Marinari Steve Martin Greg Mayne Vincent McAllister Geof O'Keefe Randy Palmer Stuart Rose Mike Smail Russ Strahan Martin Swaney Paul Trowbridge Mark Amman Kayt Vigil |
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Pentagram is a American heavy metal band from Virginia, most famous as one of the pioneers of doom metal. The band was prolific in the underground scene of the 1970s, producing many demos and rehearsal tapes, but did not release a full-length album until reforming in the early 1980s with an almost completely new lineup. Throughout the band's history the only constant member has been vocalist Bobby Liebling. The revolving lineup of Pentagram has featured many well respected musicians in the local doom metal scene, with members spending time in other acts such as Raven, The Obsessed, Place of Skulls, Internal Void, Spirit Caravan, among many others.
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In the fall of 1971, Bobby Liebling and Geof O’Keefe decided to leave their previous bands (Shades of Darkness and Space Meat, respectively) to form a new band that reflected their interest in emerging metal acts such as UFO, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep and Sir Lord Baltimore. At Liebling’s suggestion, the group was named Pentagram, a sinister moniker that reflected the gloomy subject matter of their material. Although the band would change its name several times during 1971 and 1972 (Virgin Death, Macabre, and Wicked Angel were all considered during this period), they would eventually (and permanently) return to their initial moniker.
Also, contrary to popular belief, they were never called Stonebunny; this was the name given to Space Meat when Bobby Liebling joined them briefly.[1]
During their 5-year career, they would have 7 different managers, including Gordon Fletcher, a Washington D.C. rock journalist who wrote for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Creem and Circus. The others were Steve Lorber, Phillip Knudsen, Skip Groff, Bob Fowler, Tim Kidwell and Tom McGuire.
The initial Pentagram lineup consisted of Bobby Liebling (vocals) Geof O'Keefe (guitar), Vincent McAllister (bass), and Steve Martin (drums). Early practices included the long-time standard "Livin' in a Ram's Head", along with several other long-lasting Pentagram stalwarts.
After a month of rehearsals, Space Meat alumni John Jennings joined to create Pentagram's dual-guitar "Mark II" lineup. It soon became clear, however, that Steve Martin's jazz-influenced drumming did not fit Pentagram's hard-rocking style, and so he was asked to leave the group. His position on the drum stool was dutifully filled by guitarist Geof O'Keefe, reprising the role of drummer he had previously enjoyed in Space Meat.
This "Mark III" lineup of Pentagram was a strong one, and at the time, it seemed like Pentagram had found a permanent lineup. However, after this lineup's first rehearsal, Jennings called O'Keefe to tell him that he was leaving the group, citing a lack of interest in heavy music as his reason for departure. After a few rehearsals without a guitarist, bassist Vincent McAllister picked up a guitar and proceeded to shock and amaze Liebling and O'Keefe with his frenzied, feedback-laden soloing. Prior to this revelatory moment, O'Keefe and Liebling could not have possibly anticipated that their humble bassist would go on to become Pentagram's resident guitar god for the next five years. McAllister would later leave for California (1980) to attend classes at the Guitar Institute of Technology (G.I.T.) and Jennings would subsequently collaborate with Mary Chapin Carpenter during the 1980s and into the 1990s as her primary guitarist.
On Christmas Day 1971, this "classic" Pentagram lineup began rehearsing, with Bobby Liebling singing, Vincent McAllister on guitar, Greg Mayne (formerly of Space Meat) playing bass, and Geof O’Keefe on drums. In mid-1974, rhythm guitarist Randy Palmer joined the "Ram Family", as the group was known, but left in January 1975 due to drug problems and the group once again continued on as a four-piece.
Thanks to manager Gordon Fletcher's industry connections, the group had several "close calls" in the following years with regard to a recording contract. On April 29, 1975, Fletcher persuaded Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman (producers and managers for the legendary Blue Öyster Cult) to see them rehearse. Impressed, the two arranged a demo session at Columbia Studios in New York in September. Unfortunately, the session went sour after a conflict between Liebling and Krugman over a point of production, and the group's major label hopes were dashed. The group would also rehearse in front of Kiss members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in December 1975, but the Kiss camp was unimpressed by the group's lack of image and the group remained unsigned.
On December 16, 1975, Bobby Liebling and his girlfriend were arrested, leading to the other members of the band meeting on New Year's Eve to discuss their status. The decision was made that the rest of the band would quit Pentagram, because Liebling owned the rights for the name "Pentagram", and they could not continue under that name without him. The remaining members unsuccessfully auditioned singers during much of 1976 before recruiting Marty Iverson as a second guitarist in the summer of 1976 and deciding to give Liebling a second chance. However, after beginning a recording session at Underground Sound, the band split from Liebling again, leaving the sessions unfinished and unmixed.
For much of their career, Pentagram rehearsed at the American Mailing warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia, due to the fact that both Geof and Bobby lived in high-rise apartments. Geof’s father, George, was an executive at American Mailing. Geof had used this location for many of his previous musical projects, whether on his own or with Space Meat. At the warehouse, the group was able to have a good practice room to store their equipment and play loudly without the worry of complaining neighbors. Many of these early rehearsals were recorded onto Geof's reel-to-reel tape recorder. Many of these rehearsal tapes are now traded amongst Pentagram fans and offer recordings of the many early lineups the group went through in the early 70's. When American Mailing moved locations, Pentagram eventually moved to rehearse at Greg's house, which he was renting with an old friend and locally renowned keyboardist Knox Cockrell.
Pentagram’s first 7 inch was released under the name Macabre, entitled "Be Forewarned" and included "Be Forewarned" and "Lazy Lady." The record was produced by Phillip Knudsen and released on Intermedia (TBSM 003). This recording ended up being one of the band's only proper releases, although a promotional 7 inch of the song "Hurricane" (Boffo Socko R13859) was also released during that time. A large number of demo and rehearsal recordings, as well as 22 unreleased studio recordings exist from this time period. Despite the handful of recorded material, Pentagram’s repertoire reportedly consisted of nearly 80 original songs, written or co-written by Bobby Liebling, as well as covers such as "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds’ version of "Little Games."
Demos that they recorded include:
Many of these songs would appear on the semi-authorized 1972–1979 compilation, the bootleg followup 1972–1979 (Vol. 2) and the hard-to-find (albeit official) Human Hurricane compilation. In 2001, Relapse Records issued an authorized compilation of twelve early tracks, three of which were live rehearsal recordings. The release was entitled First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection). Following the compilation's success, Relapse released First Daze Here Too in 2006, a 2-disc, 22-track compilation of unreleased material.
After O'Keefe, McAllister, and Mayne split from Liebling, a new lineup consisting of Liebling (vocals), Randy Palmer (guitar), John Ossea (drums), and Rick Marinari (bass) began rehearsing in the basement of a dentist's office. However, this lineup folded after only a couple of months and Liebling was once again bandless.
On Halloween 1978, Liebling bumped into his friend Joe Hasselvander at Louie's Rock City while seeing Sex, a band featuring both ex-members of both Pentagram and The Boyz (Hasselvander's previous band).[2] Hasselvander was playing in a singer-less group consisting of himself (drums), Richard Kueht (guitar), Paul Trowbridge (guitar), and Marty Swaney (bass). Liebling soon joined the group, and in less than a week they would take on the Pentagram moniker and begin performing Liebling's material from the previous Pentagram line-up. This configuration played several shows and released a 7" single in 1979, but personal problems caused this line-up to dissolve later that year. It is generally referred to as the High Voltage Era of Pentagram.[3]
In 1980, bassist Lee Abney and guitarist Victor Griffin formed a Northern Virginia doom metal band named Death Row. Shortly thereafter, drummer Joe Hasselvander joined, and the group recruited Bobby Liebling on vocals. Former member Martin Swaney soon replaced Lee Abney on bass and the classic Death Row line up was forged. Following two demos in 1982 and 1983, Hasselvander left the band in 1984. Stuart Rose was picked as his replacement, and the band soon assumed the Pentagram mantle. The 1982 demo, 'All Your Sins', was then prepared for remix to be released as the first album, 'Pentagram', in 1985.
The 1983 demo, along with several live recordings from 1982 and 1983, and the bands first jam from 1981, were collected and released via Black Widow in 2009 as the double CD Alive In Death.
In 1985 the band released the first full-length studio album. Initially self-titled, the album is often referred to as Relentless due to it being given the name when it was reissued by Peaceville Records. The album contains a mix of new songs and 70s era songs, as will all the Pentagram albums to follow. After recording their second album, Day of Reckoning, the band folded yet again, and in 1989 Greg Mayne and Randy Palmer rejoined Liebling with the addition of Ted Feldman on guitar and Jon Cook on drums. The band was working towards recording the third LP, but shortly after their first performance in Maryland, the band split up. The previous lineup then reformed in 1993 and Peaceville Records reissued the first two albums. During this same time, Peace Records released the semi-legitimate 1972–1979. This was the first time many of the 70s songs were released. In 1994 they released their third full-length album, Be Forewarned. The band split up again and emerged as a duo, with Liebling retaining vocal duties and Joe Hasselvander taking care of all instrumentation. In 1998, Downtime Records released a number of early recordings on a compilation album entitled Human Hurricane. Liebling and Hasselvander recorded both 1999's Review Your Choices and 2001's Sub-Basement as a duo. A bootleg follow up to 1972–1979, 1972–1979 (Vol. 2), was released in 1999 by Peace Records. Shortly after Sub-Basement Hasselvander split with Liebling, who soon recruited guitarist Kelly Carmichael, bassist Adam Heinzmann, and drummer Mike Smail, all members of Frederick, Maryland based doom act Internal Void. The new lineup recorded Show 'em How in 2004. This album in particular has seven re-recorded 70s era Pentagram songs and three originals.
After Show 'em How, the band has been somewhat in limbo due to Liebling's unstable behavior, including collapsing in the intro to an important show at the Black Cat Club in Washington, DC, forcing the band to recruit Hasselvander and others from the audience to perform in his stead.
Hank Williams III has included a rendition of the classic versions of Pentagram's "Be Forewarned" and "Forever My Queen" in his live set. During his set at Washington D.C.'s Black Cat club in 2006, Liebling joined Williams onstage and performed the songs himself. Also in 2006, Liebling joined Witchcraft onstage at their DC show to sing Pentagram covers "When the Screams Come" and "Yes I Do".[1]
In July 2000, former members Griffin and Abney formed Place of Skulls following their departure from Pentagram. The band's music is akin to Pentagram's more recent sound. The band briefly featured doom metal legend Scott "Wino" Weinrich on their 2003 With Vision album, though he has since left to concentrate on The Hidden Hand. Abney left in 2002 but returned in 2007.
Randy Palmer died in 2002 from injuries suffered in a car crash, while Vincent McAllister died in May 2006 from cancer.[1]
Bobby Liebling announced on his MySpace page (now the official page for Pentagram and all things related) that he is currently negotiating with an unnamed record label for a new Pentagram studio album entitled Last Rites, which will include "many guest musicians" including original members from the '71-'76 First Daze Here era. Also slated for release is an authorized DVD autobiography produced by 914 Pictures entitled "Last Rites: The Fall and Rise of Bobby Liebling." A teaser is currently available at 914pictures.com.
Joe Hasselvander has started a solo project called The Hounds of Hasselvander who released an album in 2007. For live performances he has recruited Kayt Vigil on bass and one-time Pentagram drummer and Maryland doom mainstay, Gary Isom on drums. Hasselvander also contributed to Blue Cheer's latest album, What Doesn't Kill You (2007).
On August 23, 2008, Pentagram's then new lineup was announced, which featured Bobby Liebling being joined by Russ Strahan (Guitar), ex-live only member from the mid-90s, Gary Isom (Drums) and Mark Ammen (Bass).[4] The line up was named after a forthcoming new album, "Last Rites".
In 2009, the band played two triumphant shows entitled "Last Rites Live" in New York City and Baltimore, MD. The NYC show was filmed for the upcoming documentary film, "Last Rites: The Fall & Rise of Bobby Liebling" set to be released via sometime in late 2010. Due to the success of these shows, the band did a 7 date mini-tour which included two sold out shows in Chicago, plus dates in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco's DNA Lounge, Hollywood's House of Blues and Austin, TX.
On March 14, 2010, Russ Strahan abruptly left the band exactly one day before a spring tour was to begin.[5] Scrambling to find a guitarist, Liebling contacted Johnny "Wretched" Koutsioukis of Wretched fame to replace Strahan on lead guitar. Russ had this to say about his departure:
It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I find myself having to walk away from Pentagram. Due to communication breakdowns and inner band issues, I had to make this very difficult decision.[6]
With a tour starting within a day, Wretched had limited time to learn songs and for the first few shows the set list was cut short. Currently it is unknown as to whether or not Strahan was fired or quit. Wretched has since departed from the band.
On their May tour which ended at the Maryland Death Fest, Victor Griffin played guitar and Greg Turley played bass as a touring professional. Additionally, Greg and Victor played some June shows with the band. After this tour ended June 24, the band entered a hiatus.
In February 2011, Metal Blade Records announced that Pentagram would be playing South By South-West (SXSW) in March 2011 and would follow up with a European Tour to begin on April 14, 2011 at Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands. Additionally the band announced members would include Greg Turley on bass and Albert Born of Virginia as their new drummer.[7]
In 2001, Relapse Records issued First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection). It consisted of unreleased material from the 70s. In 2002, Peaceville Records released a compilation of songs from the first three albums titled Turn to Stone. Peaceville re-released the first three albums on CD in digipak format in 2005. In 2006, Relapse released a second compilation of unreleased 70s material under the name First Daze Here Too. These reissues allowed Pentagram's early material and albums to finally be widely available.
Last Days Here is a yet unreleased documentary film featuring the daily struggles of Bobby Liebling, lead singer / co-founder of Pentagram. The film is directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton from 9.14 Pictures who are best known for their acclaimed documentaries, "Rock School" and "The Art of the Steal". Sundance Selects, a sister company of the Independent Film Channel, purchased the film with plans to release it theatrically as well as OnDemand in the Winter of 2012.
In 2011, the documentary toured the Film Festival circuit with a debut at the prestigious SXSW Film Festival as well as the Independent Film Festival Boston where it won the Grand Jury Prize. Other festival cities include Chicago, Sarasota -FL, Columbia - MO, as well as stops in Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Australia. At the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2011 it won the prize for Best Music Documentary.
Bedemon was an offshoot of Pentagram in the early 70s (circa 1973). The name was chosen as a portmanteau of two earlier suggested names, Demon and Behemoth.[9] Prior to joining Pentagram, Randy Palmer and his friend Mike Matthews along with Bobby Liebling and Geof O'Keefe (then current members of Pentagram) got together to record some of Palmer's compositions. The first session resulted in three songs: "Child of Darkness", "Serpent Venom" and "Frozen Fear".[10] After a short time the group got together again and recorded some more tracks. When Palmer officially joined Pentagram he brought two tracks with him, "Starlady", and "Touch the Sky".[10] After Palmer's departure from Pentagram the Bedemon got together in 1979 to record three more songs: "Time Bomb", "Nighttime Killer" and an unnamed composition by O'Keefe.[9] A slightly different line-up (featuring former Pentagram member Greg Mayne on bass) recorded "Night of the Demon" along with some older songs in 1986.[9]
Many songs from the Bedemon sessions were released on various bootlegs throughout the years, but were never officially released until 2005, when Black Widow Records released Child of Darkness.
In 2002, Randy Palmer, Mike Matthews and Geof O'Keefe got back together to record nine new original Bedemon songs. A few months after the studio quality basic tracks were recorded, Bedemon leader Randy Palmer was killed in a tragic automobile accident. Geof and Mike, along with vocalist Craig Junghandel whom Randy had selected to do the vocals prior to his accident, completed and mastered the songs in 2010. The new material will be released in late 2011 or early 2012 on vinyl.
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