Label: Nuclear Blast
Artist: Pallbearer
Tilte: Forgotten Days
Duration: Album
Cat #: NB54392
Year: 2020
Format: 2 x Vinyl
Packaging Type: Gatefold sleeve

Forgotten Days the fourth long-player from the progressive doom purveyors Pallbearer eschews the compositional maximalism that hoisted predecessor Heartless aloft for the heaviest groove and the most visceral hooks to come out of the Arkansans to date. Spread across eight towering tracks.

Forgotten Days sees PALLBEARER embracing their roots again, but this time with a doom-infused metallic spark that's infectious and transcendent. Indeed, this album is everything a PALLBEARER fan could love. It is a raw and riveting evolution, filled with emotion and the unique downcast exuberance that has defined the band's storied career.

PALLBEARER have found the perfect musical economy on Forgotten Days. The quartet— comprised of Brett Campbell (vocals/guitars), Devin Holt (guitars), Joseph D. Rowland (bass/vocals), and Mark Lierly (drums)—have distilled the last decade of music and touring know-how into songs that have an undeniable urgency.

Songs like 'Riverbed,' 'Stasis,' and 'Vengeance & Ruination' feature Campbell's best vocal lines to date. Even after they're long over, Campbell's heartfelt cantations leave an indelible imprint. Other songs, like 'Silver Wings,' 'The Quicksand of Existing,' and 'Forgotten Days’ stunning bookend 'Caledonia,' demonstrate PALLBEARER’s considerable restraint, where riffs sing out with character and feeling instead of being folded into impenetrable complex shapes. Indeed, the album's opening title track is crushing old-school heavy metal perfection. 

PALLBEARER formed in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2008. A heavy rock band from the South isn't that unlikely, but one that is responsible for, in part, rekindling America's passion for heavy rock/doom metal is all but unbelievable. From Sorrow and Extinction (2012) and Foundations of Burden (2014) to Heartless (2017), PALLBEARER ignited in generations new and grizzled, not just a renewed interest in originators such as BLACK SABBATH and CANDLEMASS but also infatuation over echelons of lesser-knowns.

Even the press was taken aback, with the Arkansans landing prominent coverage in The New York Times, SPIN, NPR, Rolling Stone, and Decibel. Today, PALLBEARER defies categorization while appealing to the tenets of the very genre that now considers the group's oeuvre as crucial and influential. Forgotten Days is proof of that. One listen to 'Riverbed,' 'Caledonia,' 'Stasis,' and the album's 12-minute epic, 'Silver Wings,' and they solidify their place in music as one of the most creative and talented rock bands in the modern pantheon. They've made their mark on metal, and with Forgotten Days« PALLBEARER are destined for bigger things. 

Recommended if you like: Royal Thunder, Spirit Adrift, High on Fire, Sleep, Conan, YOB, Weedeater, Black Sabbath.

Track Listing:

Side 1:
1. Forgotten Days
2. Riverbed
3. Stasis

Side 2:
4. Silver Wings

Side 3:
5. The Quicksand of Existing
6. Vengeance & Ruination

Side 4:
7. Rite of Passage
8. Caledonia