Pagan altar

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Pagan altar
Pagan Altar live in 2009 at the Metal Merchants Festival in Oslo, Norway
Pagan Altar live in 2009 at the Metal Merchants Festival in Oslo , Norway
General information
origin Brockley , England
Genre (s) New Wave of British Heavy Metal , Doom Metal
founding 1978 as Pagan, 2004
resolution 1985
Website http://www.paganaltar.co.uk/
Current occupation
Alan Jones
Terry Jones †
Dean Alexander
William Gallagher
former members
Electric guitar
 Ron Neary
Electric guitar
 Matt Young
Electric bass
 Glenn Robinson
Drums
 Ivor T. Harper
Electric guitar
 Les Moody
Drums
 Toby
Drums
 Mark Elliot
Electric bass
 Greg
Electric bass
 Trevor Portch
Drums
 John Mizrahi
Drums
 Brian Cobbold
Electric bass
 Diccon Harper
Drums
 Peter Dobbins
Electric guitar
 Richard M. Walker
Drums
 Andy Green
Electric guitar
 Luke Hunter
Electric bass
 Russell McGuire
Drums
 Ian Winters
Electric bass
 Marcus Cella
Electric bass
 Manny Cooke
Electric guitar
 Vince Hempstead

Pagan Altar is an English Doom and New Wave of British Heavy Metal band from Brockley , which was founded in 1978 under the name Pagan , disbanded in 1985 and has been active again since 2004.

history

The band was formed in 1978 by siblings Terry Jones (vocals) and Alan Jones (electric guitar). Both had previously worked in the band Hydra, among others. The band's original name was Pagan; however, the band found that this name caused false associations, which is why they switched to Pagan Altar, inspired by Stonehenge and Avebury . The band initially consisted of five members, before several line-up changes took place and the group only consisted of four members. This came about during a performance in Reading : Since Ian Gillan was performing very close by, the Pagan Altar Concert was poorly attended. As a result, a guitarist at the time decided not to perform with the band. The group decided to play four people, after which the band decided that they should continue to consist of only four members. The songs The Time Lord and Highway Cavalier contained on the EP The Time Lord were recorded at New Cross Studios in late 1978 , Judgment of the Dead , The Black Mass and Reincarnation were recorded in the band's studio in 1980/81. The sound carrier was only released in 2004. The guitarist Les Moody, who was briefly in the band, had since left the band and the drummer Ivor Harper was replaced by Mark Elliot. Glenn Robinson played the bass. In 1982 Trevor Portch joined the group as bass player after he became aware of them through an advertisement. Portch had also seen the band play in a club in Erith in 1981 . The Israeli John Mizrahi, who had previously lost a finger in a military operation in his home country, joined as drummer . Alan Jones came from Brockley, where the band was based, while Portch came from Slade Green and Terry Jones came from Rotherhithe . A self-titled demo was distributed in 1982 and 1983, including in the United States . The demo was recorded in the band's studio and was just an excerpt from a series of songs the group had written. The band held several concerts. As the organizers booked the band less and less, the group soon began to organize their own concerts. The group was able to play together with Spider , among others . In addition, the band was also offered to tour the USA with Metallica , but such a long journey was not possible for Pagan Altar for financial reasons. The band also recorded a music video at St. Peter's Church in Brockley. Since the mid-1980s, the album Volume 1 has also been in circulation in the form of a bootleg . Towards the end of 1980, Abbey Road Studios , which were also active for the Beatles , released a single for the band. Due to the assassination attempt on John Lennon , however, they switched to the publication of Beatles and Lennon recordings, which is why the single was not published. In 1985 the band split up. In 1998, Volume 1 was officially released through Oracle Records . In 1995, Doom Records released a self-titled bootleg album that had a circulation of about 100 copies. Since these were sold out very quickly, a second pressing was released in 1996 with a white cover, and not a black cover like the previous one. The sound carrier contains the songs Reincarnation , Black Mass and In the Wake of Amadeus , recordings that were made in 1982.

In 2004, the band reunited to record the album Lords of Hypocrisy in July. The recordings no longer took place in the band's own studio, but in Terry Jones' house. The album featured Valery Watson as a background singer. The sound carrier was released in the same year on Oracle Records. In the same year the EP The Time Lord was released for the first time on I Hate Records . In addition, the album Judgment of the Dead was released in 2004 via Oracle Records . In 2006 another album was released on Oracle Records under the name Mythical & Magical . Another guitarist was Vince Hempstead, while William Gallagher played the bass and Dean Alexander played the drums. All releases since the reunification contain old song material that has only been newly recorded. The song Flight of the Witch Queen from the album Mythical & Magical was also included on the 2004 sampler Total Metal Attack by Old School Records . In 2007 the band played on the Keep It True .

style

All of the songs were written by Terry and Alan Jones. Alan usually worked out the songs and then recorded them in rough form. Terry then listened to the songs, usually over several days, and then wrote the appropriate lyrics. For March of the Dead and Judgment of the Dead, he went to a cemetery around midnight to put himself in the right mood. In general, the band tended to work more at night. After the writing of the lyrics was finished, the two of them worked out a song structure together. On stage, the band tried to represent the concept of a satanic church. As props, the band put upside-down crosses, urns decorated with cobwebs, two skulls in which Kyphi was burned, and black candles.

According to Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia , Pagan Altar is a classic band of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The band remained true to the slow speed and the gruesome occultism of their role model Black Sabbath . She was also influenced by groups like Black Widow .

bnrmetal.com wrote that Pagan Altar was one of the few NWoBHM bands that was oriented towards Doom Metal. Only Witchfinder General would have done something similar. The singing is also unique and sounds like a young Bon Scott is singing in a doom metal band.

Martin Popoff wrote in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties in his review of the Bootleg from 1995, which contained recordings from 1978 to 1981, that classical music of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal could be heard on it, which now sounds old-fashioned. The vocals are eccentric and borrowed from Doom Metal and the lyrics deal with topics that Candlemass deals with. The bootleg reminds him of one of the Canadian band Kraken. In addition, one could occasionally see the Obsessed- like features.

Malc Macmillan stated in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia that Pagan Altar was influenced by the early Black Sabbath. The music and the lyrical theme hardly changed in the course of the first eight years of its existence. On the 1995 bootleg, Pagan Altar sounds comparable to groups like Witchfinder General, Phoenix Rising , Requiem , Apocalypse , Black Widow and Hell . The band is also comparable to Witchfynde and Demon in terms of image and the content of the lyrics .

Discography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Eduardo Rivadavia: Pagan Altar. Allmusic , accessed October 18, 2014 .
  2. ^ A b c Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 430 ff .
  3. ↑ a b Biography. (No longer available online.) Paganaltar.co.uk, archived from the original on February 28, 2013 ; Retrieved October 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.paganaltar.co.uk
  4. ↑ Info. Facebook , accessed October 18, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on July 2, 2015 ; Retrieved October 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  6. ↑ KEEP IT TRUE IX - 2007. truemetalfan.org, accessed on October 18, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Pagan Altar. (No longer available online.) Bnrmetal.com, archived from the original on November 8, 2014 ; Retrieved October 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bnrmetal.com
  8. ↑ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2007, ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9 , pp. 333 .