The "Light And Shade" Of Doom Metal

"You know I really don’t know myself,” laughs Rowland, his distinctive Southern accent still strong despite now residing in NYC. “I think maybe it’s because there are other influences in our music. Sure we’re a doom metal band who plays really slow but if you listen carefully enough you’ll hear it. On the one hand there’s a prog rock influence in the structure and length of our songs. On our last album, Foundations Of Burden, there’s also a real AOR influence. People laugh when I tell them but if you listen to our music it’s definitely there.”

And how does Pallbearer feel about breaking out from your typical doom audience?

“To be honest with you it’s nice doing shows when the audience is more than dudes wearing Black Sabbath shirts,” Rowland admits. “Having different people come and listen to what we do is a real honour. There was a time when we never thought we’d even get to play live, let alone go to places like Australia. So to be able to tour and have a wider audience than we thought is a real honour – it makes everything worthwhile.”

“To be honest with you it’s nice doing shows when the audience is more than dudes wearing Black Sabbath shirts”

Pallbearer may be proud of their Southern roots but even a cursory listen reveals that sonically they’re leagues apart from other sludgy denizens of the South such as Eyehategod, Corrosion Of Conformity, Rwake and Buzzoven. Where these bands offer a jagged and dissonant sound, Pallbearer’s brand of heaviness can almost be described as clean and elegant.

“Yeah we’re a different band from a lot of those guys you mention. We love the Louisiana scene and all those bands are great, but Pallbearer is its own thing. We didn’t directly set out to be different to the slow and heavy bands from the South but I guess we had some different influences and different ideas from them. I guess we’re much closer to the classic doom sound than those bands – but overall we just do our own thing.”

Talking of classic doom Rowland drops another surprise. With Pallbearer’s concrete cinder block sound The Music expected the Pallbearer to cite Ozzy classics like Volume 4 or Master Of Reality. Instead we found fulsome praise for a Ronnie James Dio-led classic.

“The Mob Rules is not only my favourite Black Sabbath record, it’s my favourite metal record of all time. Everything about the record is incredible – the sense of melody, the songwriting, the heaviness. I love when heavy bands are able to do that. Personally, I’m also a fan of bands like My Dying Bride that also had that quality – particularly being able to mix really heavy sections with mellower stuff – light and shade. We try and do that in our music.”