September 1, 2019 by A.S. Van Dorston

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show, as it wasn’t particularly hyped, outside of being highly anticipated by the small doom metal community who recognize the importance of Pagan Altar as one of the key originators of doom metal. Thankfully, I was blown away.

Pagan Altar was formed by father and son Terry and Alan Jones in 1978 in Brockley, UK. Despite having a fabulously theatrical stage show involving skulls, coffins, hooded sorcerer cloaks and pyrotechnics, they never officially released an album during their initial run. Demos from 1978-79 and 1982 were later reissued in various incarnations, currently available as The Time Lord EP and Judgement Of The Dead. It didn’t seem possible a talented band could have even more of an underdog status than long-suffering American counterparts Pentagram, but Pagan Altar achieved it. After a long hiatus, a surge in interest in doom resulted in recording songs written during the first era and released as The Lords Of Hypocrisy (2004), received ecstatically by doom fans. Mythical & Magical (2006) was just as great, but then the band went dormant again.

By 2014, they had an album called Never Quite Dead in the can, recorded in their home studio. They were unhappy with the results, and then Terry Jones succumbed to cancer in 2015. In 2017, Alan got together a new band and re-recorded the album, releasing it as The Room Of Shadows on the Temple of Mystery label, run by the Montreal based couple Annick Giroux and François Patry of Cauchemar. Alan expressed interested in doing a live show, so Annick connected him to Brendan Radigan, vocalist for Magic Circle, who she thought could handle Terry Jones’ phrasing. While the younger singer has a more powerful delivery than Jones’ nasally Bon Scott/Ozzy hybrid, it was a great fit. Cauchemar guitarist Andreas Arango filled in on second guitar, and they played Annick’s Wings Of Metal Festival in Montreal later that year. It went so well, that they also played the Hammer Of Doom festival in Wurzburg, Germany, and a few other European dates in 2018. American doom fans sadly watched from afar, thinking they’d never get a chance to see Pagan Altar again.

Behold, a gift from the original dark lords of doom, a North American tour! Only five dates, Montreal, Toronto, Brooklyn, Chicago and Los Angeles. I was lucky enough to catch them last night just down the street from me. Thinking Cauchemar would start later in the evening, I unfortunately missed them. A friend was very impressed by the band’s musicianship, and it sounds like they opened the night with a great performance. I have their EP and two albums, and look forward to a followup to Chapelle ardente (2016). Next up was Chicago’s High Spirits, celebrating their 10th anniversary of their high energy hard rock inspired by 80s melodic AOR. Unfortunately their drummer had a family emergency, so bandleader Chris Black, being a talented multi-instrumentalist (and all around metal genius behind multiple bands such as Dawnbringer, Superchrist, Aktor, Professor Black and more) filled in on the kit while various friends and band members filled in on vocal duties. For the remainder of the set, Patrick “Rusty” Glockle of Satan’s Hollow/Midnight Dice (even wearing the band uniform of black t-shirt and white pants) took over on the kit, and the energy surged as Black triumphantly took the mic and the audience sang along with the simple, anthemic choruses. It wasn’t technically up to par with the half dozen shows I’ve seen High Spirits, but the camraderie of this tight-knit community made it just as fun.

Finally, Pagan Altar took the stage. I was just as excited to see Brendan Radigan, as his band Magic Circle, with three amazing albums under their belts, have frustratingly never done a proper U.S. tour, and never played Chicago. With Magic Circle getting significantly more spins on my playlists than Pagan Altar in recent years, it was an adjustment to hear him sing with the doom legends. It also took him a few songs to get warmed up, cuz it’s not metal to warm up before a show (unless you’re Bruce Dickinson). So at first he sounded to me like a cross between Terry Jones doing Bon Scott, and Jack Black attempting Ronnie James Dio. However, everything clicked by the fourth song, one of my favorites, “Sentinels of Hate” from Lords Of Hypocrisy. The drama, the dynamics, the hook of the chorus, the twin guitar solos, it was perfect. And it sounded so much more satisfying in the small room than the always imperfect recordings. Radigan is capable of soaring into stratospheric high notes, but restrained himself in respect to the material at hand. But he added an extra level of intensity that I imagine the elder Jones may not have delivered in their handful of performances the previous decade. Alan’s intricate, proggy guitar playing at times revealed the band’s roots in influences such as Wishbone Ash, and I always love me some twin guitar sounds.

<a href="http://paganaltarofficial.bandcamp.com/album/lords-of-hypocrisy">Lords of Hypocrisy by Pagan Altar (Official)</a>

While the band had kicked off the set with the 1982 song “Pagan Altar,” and “Highway Cavalier” from The Time Lord, when Radigan asked the crowd if they wanted to hear some oldies, they lost their minds. For sure, it was a treat to hear an additional trio of Judgement of the Dead songs, “In the Wake of Armadeus,” “The Black Mass” and title track, sounding better than ever live. After the one-song encore of “The Time Lord,” probably the final opportunity to see Pagan Altar was complete.

After seeing Iron Maiden last week with their most over-the-top stage show yet, complete with flamethrowers up Dickinson’s sleeves and a nearly full-size Spitfire replica, I wondered if I would miss the bombast at smaller shows. But the intimacy more than makes up for it (as does the way cheaper ticket price that allows me to buy some merch from the bands). To see the flip side, the dark underground/underbellow of NWOBHM history, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.