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Pentagram are American doom incarnate, formed in 1971 in Alexandria, Virginia by vocalist Bobby Liebling and built into legend through a notoriously revolving lineup that only Liebling has survived. Godfathers of the genre right next to Black Sabbath, they spent the '70s underground passing demos and rehearsal tapes hand to hand before the proper albums landed in the '80s. Lightning in a Bottle, out January 31, 2025 on Heavy Psych Sounds, is their ninth record and first in nine years, cut with Tony Reed and Scooter Haslip of Mos Generator plus drummer Henry Vazquez, and it swings between classic doom, blues rock, hard rock and acid-soaked psych.
We caught Pentagram up close when they played Levitation 2024, and that night made this one personal. So we are pressing Lightning in a Bottle as a Levitation Edition: a "Panic Room" Yellow and Clear 50/50 with splatter, limited to 150 copies.
The thing that floors us about Lightning in a Bottle is how alive Liebling sounds. Nine years and a lifetime of near-misses later, the man is still snarling like he has something to prove, and the new band gives him the heaviest pocket he has had in ages. Reed's riffs are thick and patient, Vazquez swings instead of just pounding, and tracks like Dull Pain ride that slow, smoke-filled groove the genre lives on while leaving room for the blues and psych runs that always set Pentagram apart from the pack.
Is it perfect? No. A couple of cuts in the back half lean on familiar moves and could have hit harder with a trim. But that is a small ask of a band this deep into its saga, and the highs more than carry it.
What earns the pressing is the feeling that Pentagram still mean every word. This is doom written by the people who helped invent it, played by a lineup that respects the weight of that, and it sounds enormous on wax. If this record pulls you in, scope our pressings from Windhand, Dead Meadow and Kadavar next.
Recommended if you like: Windhand, Dead Meadow, Kadavar.
