A DECADE AGO, it seemed unfeasible that the funereal sounds of doom could so emphatically capture the hearts and imaginations of metal fans and press alike, much less breach international charts, but heavyweights Pallbearer achieved just that on Heartless, their third record. It broke the Top 200 Stateside (peaking at No.187) and Top 100 (No.98) in Germany, while also landing high spots on numerous critics’ end-of-year lists. Frontman Brett Campbell tells us the band aren’t resting on their laurels and may just have completed their most ambitious and emotionally cathartic record yet.
On each release you’ve developed and expanded your sound. How does this new record fit in with that trajectory?
“I’d say this album is an amalgam of everything we’ve done so far. We haven’t pushed so far in the technical directions as we did on Heartless, because by the time we got to Atlantis [the single they put out in June 2019] we felt we’d gone as far in that direction as we were looking for. The initial writing stages for this record had us strip back and go more aggressive and direct instead; there’s still some slow, funereal stuff we might’ve had on Sorrow And Extinction, but our songwriting has been refined over the years. If you’ve never heard Pallbearer before, this record is a fantastic place to start.”
Texas isn’t usually a go-to destination for doom records. What was it like recording at Sonic Ranch?