Here’s good one for you harking back to the early New Wave of British Heavy Metal days – Pagan Altar. They were/are not unlike the great Witchfinder General in style. Huge crunching riffs, slightly dark in style and tasty soloing. Really heavy stuff. Somewhere between the Witchfinder General/Black Sabbath/Judas Priest combination.
If you are yet to discover Pagan Altar, it’s time you did. Sadly long time vocalist Terry Jones was lost to cancer earlier this year (2015) and it wasn’t until hearing of that unfortunate loss recently which reminded me of the band and how it was time for a post to go up about them.
Terry was a founding member back in 1978 along with Alan Jones. I seem to recall that Terry and Alan were father and so though so stand to be corrected on that if I’ve not remembered correctly. As with many bands in those formative NWOBHM years the competition was fierce with some many bands out there trying to get known and attract a record deal.
Despite a good and loyal live following it didn’t happen for the band back then. They did scrape together some pennies to self-fund a cassette (who remembers cassette tapes – horrible things, am I right?) which has become something of a rare gem if you can find one.
Have a listen to Rising of the Dark Lord via the video below. How good is it? Epic heavy metal with all the required elements.
They did record an album before splitting in the early 1980s but the album did not see the light of day. Well, bizarrely not for some 25 or so years later when it did see a release. That seemed to spark a Pagan Altar revival and the band got back together to both perform and record with a couple of follow-up albums released in the first decade of this century.
Activity continued with the band seeing action along with many of the other NWOBHM bands who continued to reform and carry on the movement. I understand that prior to Terry’s untimely passing the band had a new album in the can though I’m not sure at time of writing if there are plans to release it.
If you liked the video above for Rising of the Dark Lord, why not bag yourself the full album and give your ears a proper treat?
>> PAGAN ALTAR MYTHICAL AND MAGICAL ON AMAZON <<
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