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By: Sander van den Driesche
Every year there is at least one album in the metal scene that people seem to talk about all the time. Last year this flag was carried by Deafheaven’s Sunbather, which caused much debate, this year it will probably be Pallbearer and their second full-length album Foundations of Burden, the fantastic follow-up to Sorrow and Extinction, which was released over two years ago. For some, Foundations of Burden is in the top 5 releases this year, to others it’s an overhyped release, something they would rather quickly move on from. I fall in the first category. This year has been excellent on the doom front, but Foundations of Burden is one of the stand-out albums as it’s catchy, and brings together the heaviness of the genre, but with beautifully sung melodic vocals. I had a chance to speak to bassist Joseph D. Rowland and guitarist/lead vocalist Brett Campbell when they played Glasgow recently.
When I bring up the hype around Foundations of Burden, both Joseph and Brett start smiling.“It’s definitely been taking us by surprise.” Brett says. “I mean we’re just trying to make a good album, but you can’t really expect the kind of response that we’ve got.” When I mention the Deafheaven analogy and how some ‘true’ fans in the genre absolutely hate that release, I ask them if they feel the same happened with Pallbearer in the doom metal genre. “Yeah, some people totally hate the new record. Is this because perhaps it is being hyped? It can’t be denied that it is what it is. But I also like to think it’s because we made a good album you know.” Joseph adds “I wouldn’t say we’re successful yet, but to come out of the gate and for us to be in the spotlight a little bit more than a lot of bands that have been doing it for years, I think some people are kinda sceptical about it. But that has nothing to do with us. We made the music that we wanted to do. It’s never been about anything other than just making the music that we feel passionate about. Music that we love listening to ourselves if we were all of a suddenly thrust out of the band being that big and it would be like other people making it. It’s about trying to make something that’s valuable to us.”
One of the strong points of Pallbearer is the infusion of melodic vocals to the heavy doom metal. It gives the band its own identity and it also adds a lot of more classic heavy metal influence to their music. “It’s an amalgamation of all the different things that we’re really into.” Joseph responds. “There are a lot of awesome heavy bands from Little Rock and the Arkansas metal scene, but none of them have clean vocals like that. We kinda wanted to be like Arkansas metal style, but also do something that was different, because all the other bands have harsh vocals. We wanted to fit in within the greater scene in a way, but also do something that was unique to the scene.”“Yeah absolutely,” Brett adds. “The clean vocals came as a reaction against there not being too many bands that are doing that like with the super heavy style. We thought it would be cool to have melodic vocals, like the classic metal that I’m into. Things like Dio and stuff like that.”
This is Pallbearer’s first European tour, although it isn’t their first time in Europe as they played Roadburn Festival and Hellfest last year. They are on tour for nearly 6 weeks with the legendary YOB, which should only result in big audiences everywhere. Tonight’s show at Audio in Glasgow is completely sold out for example. When I ask how the tour’s been going so far Joseph says “It’s been really good! But we’re still kinda like getting the hang of the rented gear and stuff. We’re constantly struggling with broken gear of our own.” Later on during their show this couldn’t be truer as Brett was struggling to get the head of his amp to work during their opening song. Brett adds “It’s been pretty rough on us!” This is the first time YOB and Pallbearer are on a big tour together, but they’ve played before at a label showcase in California. When I ask how the tour got together Brett mentions that their manager brought up the idea one day and they just replied ‘fuck yeah, let’s do this!’ “We met Mike a couple of times before and he’s such a nice guy and easy to talk to, so we didn’t think twice when we were asked about this tour.” When I ask them what they think of Europe so far, Brett says “It’s all places we’ve never been before so we’re looking forward to every day.” One of the major negatives of touring all over a continent is of course the fact that you spend most time sitting in a tour bus, and that you don’t get to see much of the places you play. When I ask them if this is the case with them, Brett replies “Yeah, that’s kinda like everywhere. We’ve toured all over the US, but I’ve only seen a tiny amount of it. But the drives are still cool. You can see the countryside changes. And in Europe most of the drives are shorter so you get to spend a bit more time in each place.” Joseph adds “Yeah we’ve been to like almost every major city in the US, but yeah we usually don’t see more than 6 blocks around the venue. I actually haven’t watched most of the drive during this tour yet, as we actually have the sleeper bus. I’m asleep in the bunk most of the time!”
Another thing YOB and Pallbearer have in common besides playing mind-blowing doom, is Profound Lore Records. A couple of YOB’s previous albums were released through the label and it’s been Pallbearer’s home since their début release. I personally think Profound Lore Records is one of the more interesting metal labels around, as label owner Chris Bruni consistently releases high quality albums, which are always slightly more groundbreaking than the stuff other labels release. “Chris is an amazing good dude.” Joseph says. “It’s still a small label in the sense that it’s just one guy who’s doing everything. He’s just a brilliant music fan; he spends so much time seeking out stuff that is creative. He’s constantly looking for bands that are pushing heavy music and which isn’t traditional survivalist stuff. There are other labels doing that stuff, while Profound Lore is always looking for things more on the edge. He’s looking for the stuff that is pushing the boundaries a little bit more.”
At this point we could hear the heavy rumblings local support band Buried Sleeper started to make on stage, and I suggested the band to go into the venue and see what Glasgow doom had to offer. But first Joseph had to find his Van Halen t-shirt, again bringing back that classic heavy metal influence. Thanks Joseph and Brett for the nice chat!
