Here’s something really and truly out of the past. Bedemon has been an on and off (mostly off) American doom band with roots going back to the early 70s, thus making them one of the oldest doom acts from these shores. The band was the brainchild of one Randy Palmer, who was closely associated with the members of Pentagram. In fact, he spent several years in Pentagram, and Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling and Geof O’Keefe spent time in Bedemon. Though they churned out a series of crude demos over time, there was nothing officially released until the 2005 demo compilation, Child of Darkness. Apparently, the tracks that would become Symphony of Shadows were written by Palmer as far back as 2002, but tragically, he passed away later that year. To honor Palmer’s memory and music, O’Keefe, bassist Mike Matthews and new vocalist Craig Junghandel set out to complete the album. Clearly a labor of love and a decade in the making, we finally get the first (and I assume last) proper Bedemon album. It was worth the seemingly Herculean effort, since this is an odd but awesome old school doom gem. The sound is unsurprisingly close to the first two Pentagram albums, with elements of Wino-era Saint Vitus and even Danzig, thus making things meaty, heavy and satisfyingly old and moldy. While all the material is of high quality, there are a few monumental doom masterstrokes here that staggered me and made me wish I could expect more in the future. If you love that classic doom sound pioneered by Sabbath, Witchfinder General and Pentagram, this is a no brainer and will likely be one of the big surprises of 2012.
