Heartless

Heartless is a triumphant metal album, and is yet another entry on the list of arguments for Pallbearer being among the few bands in the genre’s peak echelon today. With Heartless, Pallbearer has laid down the gauntlet for the entire metal genre to even contend for its album of the year.

Heartless will kick your ass during its entire running time. It’s a product of a rare band that, through dint of hard work and sincerity, will certainly be a huge crossover success.

Heartless proves, Pallbearer is more than capable of making those old moves feel fresh.

Heartless continues the successes of Sorrow and Extinction and Foundations of Burden, while also incorporating familiar but tasteful sonic flourishes from adjacent genres.

What makes the band so great isn’t just their utterly compelling sound; it’s that on this, their finest record, they’re not so much going for “fucking epic” as for emotional heaviness.

An exciting follow up to 2014’s Foundations Of Burden that edges the band’s sound forward while keeping sight of what they do best, Heartless is a glorious open wound that bleeds melody. Right on.

It delivers the sound of a mature band coming into its own and learning to utilize its various strengths.

Heartless continues to build on the band's reputation as one of the biggest acts in doom metal.

Tracks like “Thorns” and “Dancing in Madness” continue the band’s patented crossbreed of smoky chugs and far-out sonic filigrees, furthering the emotional edge of their sound. For others, the band’s tendency towards soaring prettiness instead of sludge punishment might make Heartless a little light-handed, lacking the full steamroller crush of classic stoner rock outfits.

Each trek follows a similar path: a tumultuous hike through sludgy quagmires and craggy doom, culminating in a melancholic, melodramatic guitar solo. This repetitive pattern accordingly obfuscates the LP’s overarching dynamic arc, although the record’s not without its surprises.

A set of wistful, stirring anthems. [No. 141, p.61]