Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Stream the New Pallbearer Flexi Disc, “Fear and Fury”!
Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…
Iron Reagan somehow crammed a 13-song EP (Spoiled Identity) on a flexi, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed shoehorned 11 tracks onto their first of two Christmas flexis, Make a Joyful Noise. Given that those bands traffic in punk, hardcore and grind—and have awesome senses of humor—we were hardly surprised to see every available inch of their plastic stuffed (with frozen dope). Being pretty much the total opposite of those two bands, Pallbearer pose a different kind of challenge for the Flexi Series. Mind you, we don’t mean “opposite” as in “pretentious.” The acclaimed Little Rock outfit doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously as one might imagine, given the nature of its intimate, sprawling doom (a cool revelation from our forthcoming Decibel Tour cover story in the April issue). But five of the six tracks on our favorite extreme album of 2014, Foundations of Burden, eclipse eight and a half minutes, which is simply more real estate than our flexis allot.
Luckily, “Fear and Fury,” the first taste of new Pallbearer music since Burden, is one of their shortest songs yet, clocking in at just under six minutes. I know it’s hard to believe, but they still manage to cover a fuck-ton of emotional and sonic terrain in the mere blip we’ve afforded them! “Fear and Fury” was recorded specifically for the Flexi Series in late 2014, and just extends the boys’ insane winning streak: two full-lengths in the top five of our year-end Top 40 list; a standalone and dB Tour cover feature; two slots in our Top 100 Doom Metal Albums of All Time issue. Maybe we’ll open an artisanal cheese shop with them next. Hear this crusher here, and then pick up the actual flexi here, but, move fast before they’re gone for good.
The April 2015 issue of Decibel also features At the Gates, Converge, Behemoth, and Enslaved, and can be purchased here. But why not just get a full subscription so you never miss one of these awesome flexis?
