PAGAN ALTAR Never Quite Dead CD + OBI (SEALED)

Dying Victims Productions, jewelcase, obi, sticker

PAGAN ALTAR are the very definition of a CULT band. Formed in 1978, during the early days of the influential NWOBHM movement, they honed their craft onstage with an eerie, dramatic presentation. And yet, the PAGAN ALTAR sound tended more toward doom metal – which, back then, was not quite yet a subgenre with its own aesthetics – but also infused with their native English folk as well as hard rock. Still, the world outside the UK would not know about the band until years after their dissolution, with the 1998 release of Volume 1, PAGAN ALTAR’s debut album recorded in 1982. Thereafter, the cult of PAGAN ALTAR would begin to grow, and a whole new fanbase hungry for old sounds waited for any sign of uncovered gold.

In 2004, treasures aplenty began to appear. First was The Time Lord EP, which dated back to PAGAN ALTAR’s very earliest days, and later that year came the full-length Lords of Hypocrisy, whose material was originally recorded during 1982-1984 but was re-recorded in 2004: past to present, the band was indeed active again! A year later, the full-length Judgement of the Dead arrived, featuring material written between 1978 and 1981 and recorded in 1982 but remastered in 1998; a bonus track recorded in 2004 was added, again bringing past to present. Past and present truly collided on 2006’s monolithic Mythical & Magical – truly, a perfect description of PAGAN ALTAR at the height of their mesmerizing powers – which featured material spanning 1977-1983 but recorded over the course of 2005 and 2006. Thereafter, only two new songs would emerge for a while – one on a split with Jex Thoth in 2007, the other in 2011 – before, tragically, founding vocalist Terry Jones’ death from cancer in 2015. However, before his death and led by his son and co-founding guitarist Alan, the band had been working on another album, which would later be finished and released in 2017 as The Room of Shadows.

Miraculously, The Room of Shadows proved not to be the band’s epitaph, as PAGAN ALTAR defy time and return with Never Quite Dead – a “new” record in theory, but one bearing the imprint of the past, particularly with Terry Jones’ unmistakable touch. On vocals here is Brendan Radigan, who true metallers will know from Magic Circle, Sumerlands, Savage Oath, and tons more. His somber, ever-so-poignant tones pay reverence to the prevailing PAGAN ALTAR sound whilst putting a distinctive touch upon Never Quite Dead. As Alan Jones details within the album’s liner notes, nearly all the songs on the album – barring the closer “Kismet,” which came as a precursor to Alan’s band Malac’s Cross in the early ‘90s – originated while Terry was still alive, and thus does Never Quite Dead remain an authentically PAGAN ALTAR album. From the Rainbow-rocking opener “Saints and Sinners” on to trad-doom juggernauts like “Liston Church” and “The Dead’s Last March” to the emotional climax of the aforementioned “Kismet,” pretty much every aspect of PAGAN ALTAR is covered in incredibly compelling fashion…even the folk instrumental “Westbury Express,” keeping the mythical & magical alive. Never Quite Dead? You better believe it!