ARKANSAS MUSIC ALERT -Pallbearer -Mind Burns Alive
Pallbearer’s new album, Mind Burns Alive, comes across like an unexpected storm—slow-moving, but devastatingly impactful. Known for balancing crushing heaviness with profound vulnerability, this Arkansas-based band dives deeper than ever before into their signature doom-metal sound, weaving melancholic melodies and dramatic tonal shifts. There’s something borderline funeral doom about this release, a genre typically defined by the combination of somber moods and painfully slow tempos. Yet, unlike the traditional funeral doom, Mind Burns Alive has an almost uplifting energy beneath its dark layers, blurring the lines and setting itself apart.
The album kicks off with "Where the Lights Fade," a song that feels like an emotionally raw power ballad. The clean verses, followed by distorted choruses, reveal Pallbearer’s unique approach. This song is like a bittersweet ode to the fear of change, drawing you into a world where sorrow feels as familiar as sunlight filtering through trees. As you listen, it’s easy to picture yourself seeking shelter beneath a tree, contemplating life’s bittersweet changes. It’s as heavy on the heart as it is on the ears—a track that isn’t afraid to dig into the darker layers of emotion while still pulling you in with a strangely magnetic pull.
Then comes the title track, "Mind Burns Alive," a fitting name for the pounding intensity that unfolds. This song doesn’t just play out; it reverberates, hitting like a sledgehammer with its slow, forceful tempo. Every chord feels like a heavy sigh, a lament that digs deeper with each note. The song’s ending, with a tragic and abrupt melody, is like reaching out for comfort only to feel it slip away, leaving listeners suspended, caught between beauty and despair. By the time the song ends, you’re not just listening; you’re experiencing it, feeling the weight of its loss and loneliness.
“Signals,” the radio-friendly track, offers a moment of relative calm. It starts off clean and almost delicate before growing heavier, exploring the consequences of moving forward, even after everything feels broken. As the breakdown approaches, the energy builds in a way that feels both inevitable and gripping, drawing you further into the album’s introspective depths. Yet, it’s still accessible—something you could almost catch on the radio if you’re lucky enough to stumble upon it. Pallbearer finds a way to make the personal feel universal, and “Signals” is a track that sticks with you, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste.
And then, "Endless Place" surprises with its acoustic intro, deceptively soft before plunging into one of the album’s more powerful progressions. There’s a timeless quality to it, a delicate sadness that’s carried along by distorted chords and resonant vocals. But just when you think you have it figured out, the song throws in a guitar solo, which is rare in this genre, and then—unexpectedly—a saxophone. The sax solo spirals into a chaos that feels both frantic and freeing, almost jazz-like in its abandon, pushing you to the edge before the album takes you through its fastest section. The freight train momentum of this track drives home the album’s theme of navigating lost landscapes, with every note both driving and despairing.
"Daybreak" lures you in with haunting melodies and lyrics, building a tension that’s almost unbearable before crashing into a harmonized guitar breakdown. It’s dynamic and captivating, pulling you into an emotional journey that feels both familiar and raw, like revisiting a painful memory you can’t quite shake. The guitars carry the emotional weight, lifting and sinking as if embodying a heavy, melancholic heartbeat, each beat tied to a moment of introspection.
Finally, there’s “With Disease,” a faster track by Mind Burns Alive standards, though Pallbearer’s “fast” still lingers at a pace that lets each note sink in. The song is hauntingly beautiful, with a melody that swirls through grief, anger, and a strange sense of closure. It’s a heavy farewell, merging the voices and guitar into a harmony that sounds like a final salute to something loved and lost. As the final notes echo out, you’re left with an emotional resonance that lasts long after the music fades.
As a whole, Mind Burns Alive feels like a profound evolution for Pallbearer. It’s an album dense with emotional layers, and each listen reveals more, like peeling back the pages of a novel that keeps offering new meanings. Pallbearer draws from classic doom influences—there are shades of Type O Negative’s dark romance and Anathema’s haunting introspection—but they refine these sounds into something uniquely theirs. With this release, they offer not only music but an invitation into an emotional landscape, where heaviness and vulnerability coexist in a way that feels cathartic.
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