Album Of The Week: Pallbearer Foundations Of Burden

Pallbearer don't sound like Black Sabbath. Or they do, sort of, but only to the extent that early Low sounds like a Phil Spector girl group, or that second-album Bon Iver sounds like Bruce Hornsby. The influence is there, clearly audible, underpinning everything Pallbearer do. But it's all filtered through waves upon waves of oceanic gloop, melting and warping and refracting that original sound until it's something entirely different. It's the Sabbath sound when heard through a couple of different Babelfish filters. If, for instance, Iron Maiden were a sped-up drama-class version of Black Sabbath, then Pallbearer sound something like a DJ Screw remix of Iron Maiden, or like Iron Maiden after they've been petrified in black tar for a few thousand years. Pallbearer trade in triumphant leads and instinctive juddering caveman riffage and higher-than-the-sun vocal wails, just like so many metal greats before them. But they don't use those sonic ingredients to batter or scream. Instead, they fold them on top of each other, layering them up like blankets on a cold night, and slowing them down into psychedelic sludge.