Considering the resounding success of 2017’s ‘Heartless’ and its soaring explorations of more progressive territory, upon first listen, ‘Forgotten Days’ seems like a huge step backwards and doesn’t quite make the impact you’d expect it to. 2020 has been far and away one of the most miserable years for the vast majority of people, so it’s in this climate you’d expect the funereal melancholy of Pallbearer’s sound to really flourish. It’s not until you’ve had the opportunity to sit with this album and give a few more spins that it begins to click into place – the brevity and emotional weight of the music on their newest, fourth opus exudes from the simplicity of the heaviness therein – having stripped away the progressive metal influence and reverting back to the pensive gloominess of their earlier releases they have perfectly encapsulated the collective mood the world over.

The vocals are sombre, yet powerful and while the guitars are not without their customary complex solos and intricate melodies, something feels missing – every Pallbearer album has had a seminal moment (see ‘The Ghost I Used to Be’ on ‘Foundations of Burden’ and ‘Dancing in Madness’ on ‘Heartless’) – ‘Forgotten Days’ seems to be without this. Once the record is finished it becomes tricky to pick a single song that stood out – they all seem to mesh together, especially towards the end of the album. It’s by no means bad, it just doesn’t have the flare that made its predecessors so great.

While Pallbearer seem keen to return to their roots, it’s like they’ve forgotten what made that aspect of their music so good in the first place and the end result feels lacklustre. This is a decent slab of gloomy doom metal and the song writing is solid, however, it’s forgettable and leaves you with a longing to go back and listen to their previous records in an attempt to recapture the magic that’s been lost on ‘Forgotten Days’ – in hindsight, the title is extremely apt.

(6/10 Angela Davey)

https://www.facebook.com/pallbearerdoom

https://pallbearer.bandcamp.com