GiggySound

Pallbearer didn’t creep into the consciousness of doom metal fandom so much as rocket explosively to the forefront of discussion with their debut album, Sorrow and Extinction. It would have been hard for anyone to match the unusually high expectations generated by such a debut record, but the band from Arkansas delivered magnificently just after the midway point of 2014 with a masterpiece of epic melodic atmosphere and heaviness that engulfed listeners in its powerful emotional tides. Foundations of Burden was easily one of the best records of the year and an undeniable classic as far as doom metal goes, consolidating Pallbearer’s distinction from the prevalent trends in the genre through their great capacity for infusing profound beauty and poignancy into bone-crushing heaviness. Ahead of their first Australian tour in June, I was lucky enough to catch up with bassist Joseph D. Rowland and discuss what went into making such a fantastic album and what fans can expect when they make their way down here.

Black Captain: Foundations of Burden is a quintessential example of what always attracted me to doom, particularly when I think of some of those more melodic early 90s European bands that were emerging from the whole Earache and Roadrunner death metal hegemony at the time. It is probably most succinctly explained by the first lyrical passage of the album: “Without light, the dark encloses all”. There are so many beautiful contrasts of light amongst the really brooding heaviness on the record, giving the latter so much greater impact. Was that atmospheric contrast something you were more conscious of when writing for your second album?

Joseph Rowland: I think that’s something that we’re always trying to keep in balance. We’re definitely drawn more to the melodic end of the spectrum than writing ugly, heavy music. Obviously, we’re into that really heavy music; but, at the same time, we try to keep a lot of melody involved. I think that goes hand-in-hand with balancing those light and dark aspects, keeping dynamics in the music and having sections that are kind of restrained or pulled back a little bit compared to the most bombastic elements. That’s present emotionally and dynamically throughout the album.

BC: With American doom I think it’s quite noticeable, when compared to those European bands I mentioned previously, that there’s often a stronger blues/rock influence evident. You guys really bucked that trend with your albums. It’s encouraging to read some of the influences you’ve cited over the years and how that’s led you away from being another one of those colour-by-Black-Sabbath-numbers groups.

JR: Yeah, at this point I think that style of music has reached a critical mass. There just can’t be any more of those Sleep clones, which obviously in itself is kind of a Sabbath tribute. That’s stuff that we love; but, I just don’t think the world needs another band that just copies Sabbath songs with changing the patterns up a little bit. I mean, it has its place. But it’s kind of tiresome at this point. We’re definitely approaching what Black Sabbath did but trying to incorporate other elements like progressive rock and hard rock, basically a lot of stuff from the 70s but without trying to do a retro-throwback thing either. We want to push things forward.

BC: I’ve seen you talking about bands like Asia and some other really unusual — in the context of a lot of heavy music paradigms — bands that have inspired you.

JR: Bands like Asia and Boston, their songwriting sense is really, really incredible. That’s definitely something that we relate to and aspire to, to be able to write songs that are memorable and have that melodic sense in there without being derivative.

BC: You’ve mentioned Al Cisneros as your favourite bass player and of course Geezer Butler being a big influence. You’ve also cited Geddy Lee alongside those guys, which of course really underlines the impact of prog rock on Pallbearer’s music. You might be surprised to know that Rush barely even show up on the radar down here in Australia.

JR: Oh wow, really?

BC: Yeah. I’m curious about what your favourite Rush record is, given the size of their body of work and how diverse it is. An influence by Geddy or that band can take on a really different form depending on where you find their most resonant expression.

JR: I actually think my favourite Rush record is probably Signals. It kind of bridges between the more progressive stuff from the 70s and then like getting into that more keyboard-era Rush without it being all keyboards. It’s still pretty heavy and moody, a little less joyful than their late 80s stuff and the more like hard rock 90s stuff. I actually got to see Rush play a couple of years ago and it was really, really fantastic.

BC: Far out, probably my favourite, too! I listen to songs like “Losing It” these days and can clearly hear a gateway leading eventually into doom, qualities like that really melancholy and slow riff in the bridge.

JR: Yeah. It’s awesome.

BC: Vocally on Foundations… there are these moments very reminiscent of classical and pre-classical choral music, where there are these epic passages with everyone in the band singing together. Is that something you’ve listened to a lot and been directly influenced by?

JR: Yeah… I mean, it’s definitely not like a direct influence in the sense that it’s not something that we were necessarily going for. We just wanted to start incorporating more harmonies and kind of make it more layered and interesting. Also, we wanted parts where someone besides Brett (Campbell, vocals & guitar) is doing the lead vocal or the major vocal part. I just feel like it adds a little bit more interest to the music, as long as it’s beneficial and not just being done for the sake of excess.

BC: It worked really well. It added such an epic dimension to the record, some of it reminding me a bit of the more tranquil parts of something like Mozart’s death mass requiem, that kind of thing.

JR: Oh yeah, growing up I had years of classical training and spent time writing four-part chorales and stuff. It’s just a distant memory now; but, I think some of that influence definitely creeps in there.

BC: Your lyrics are well known for their deeply personal nature. Do you get asked a lot to flesh out what they are specifically drawn from?

JR: I think at this point people have come to understand that we are never going to directly address what any of the songs are about. Every now and then there’s something that we might share with someone that we’re close to. But in terms of the press, there’s been enough of it now that they know we’re never going to answer something like that.

BC: As you are writing such emotional music with these lyrics of such personal depth, do you find that a lot of your engagements with fans of the band take on that nature, that they are drawn to express themselves with you in the same way?

JR: Yeah there have definitely been plenty of interactions where people have shared with us that the lyrics were really meaningful to them in some way and helped them get through some moment of difficulty that they were having at some point in their lives, whether that may be the loss of a loved one or something like that, dealing with relationship problems, all sorts of stuff, pretty much most of the adversity that you could think of, really. Something in the song has lent some kind of specific meaning to them in those moments. That’s always been something that’s quite humbling to us, that there’s this connection that they made with something that was really important and meaningful to us and it helped them put something into context in their life. That’s always rewarding and humbling to hear from people.

BC: “Ashes” is such a great counterpoint to “The Ghost I Used To Be”, the way it flows out of that grandiosity and intensity of the preceding song. The whole record is so well put together in that way. Was it an easy and natural thing for you guys to figure out? Or something that you tinkered with for ages to get that flow that was right for you?

JR: We pretty much knew that the last three songs on the album were going to be “Ghost I Used to Be”, “Ashes”, and “Vanished”. It was the first half of the album that we kind of struggled with, rearranging it quite a few times whilst we were in the studio. We ended up with something quite different to what we’d expected it to be from the beginning. But the second half of the album we pretty much knew from the get-go how that was going to be. And, “Ashes” was always going to be the penultimate song.

BC: You’ve no doubt been asked about a billion questions about the attention you’ve received since your debut album. That kind of hype can often be the undoing of a band, where they start to get away from what worked so well with songwriting, made them so distinctive, and becoming focused on writing for an audience, ‘catching the wave’ and creating a broader accessibility in their sound. How have you dealt with all of those accolades and kept it from affecting how the band writes music?

JR: At this point in time, we’re still taking the same approach as we always have, just take everything in stride and don’t have any expectations of what the next step will be, but just be ready to go for it if the opportunity presents itself. In terms of the writing, I mean everything that we’ve written so far has just come about in a really natural and organic way. Our process of writing for the last 4+ years has just been Brett and I working on songs separately and then getting together with the band and filling in the gaps, doing some slight rearranging and adjustments to the skeletal structure of the song. We’re currently in the midst of writing new stuff again now. I don’t think there’s ever really been any pressure for us to write songs in a particular way; so, that’s just a bridge that we cross when it comes.

BC:

JR: I always feel like it’s a goal of ours to have our live show be more of an experience, not just you coming and standing there and watching us play. I’ve heard a lot of different things; so, I really think it just comes down to the individual. Someone might say it was like a religious experience whilst someone else will say it was really boring! (laughs) I mean, personally, I always try to channel any intensity that I have inside into the performance, so that it’s a cathartic experience and hope that it creates something of a primal event. We’re definitely not one of those bands prone to just standing around and getting into the shoegazing. We all love what we do and put everything into the performance every night. But yeah, it will all be down to everyone’s individual perception, how much they enjoy the music, how well we’re conveying it, how drunk we are, a lot of different factors.

BC: Reading the reviews from when you got to tour with Yob there were descriptions of people doing things at doom gigs reviewers hadn’t seen before, the way the audiences were getting into it to a degree that you’d be more likely to see at something more uptempo and frenetic in nature. You’d both released albums very close to each other, and to tremendous acclaim. The buzz on that tour must have been unreal and a really good experience for you guys.

JR: Oh, definitely. It’s definitely one of my favourite tours that we’ve been on. We had never toured Europe before. We’d been over to play festivals, but hadn’t toured like that. We were over there for six weeks and we got to connect with a lot of fans and play a lot of really amazing places.

BC: No doubt you’ll get a great reception down here and people are very excited about seeing you play here in Australia. Thanks for having a chat today, Joe. All the best for the upcoming tour.

JR: Yeah, I’m really excited about it. Thanks!

Pallbearer tour Australia for the first time on the following dates:

June 17 – Melbourne – Ding Dong Lounge
June 18 – Hobart – Dark Mofo Festival
June 19 – Melbourne – Northcote Social Club
June 20 – Sydney – Hermann’s Bar
June 21 – Brisbane – Crowbar

Tickets on sale now from lifeisnoise.com, Oztix and venue outlets.