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Living in the Los Angeles area has it’s up and downs. Counted among the ups for me is the music scene. Los Angeles is certainly a stop that most bands make while touring. But the local scene is just as good. Pendulous is one of the many great local bands L.A. has to offer, and with their second album, A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss they show why.
Their first album, Mirrored Confessions, was among my favorites of 2013. It’s emotionally driven Death/DOOM is the base from which this band works. With the new album they expend on it. This time around adding cello and a second guitarist, Nicholas R. (also in another great local band Deathkings).
A Palpable Sense opens much like the last album. It starts with a spoken word vocal over lightly picked echoey guitar lines. And much like the last one it sets the listener up nicely to what is in store for them and the themes vocalist E.R.M. touches on through out. What I love about them musically is their ability to create such a heavy mood without it being an overbearing distortion-fest. The music reeks of melancholy. It seeps from every note played. The weight of the music is not to crush, but to envelope the listener in it’s sorrowful beauty. Couple this with E.R.M.’s vocal ability (as mentioned in the last review), his clean style reminds me of only one man, Patrick Walker of Warning and 40 Watt Sun fame. Not that it’s a copy in sound. But rather it’s E.R.M.’s ability to convey sorrow that is both beautiful and haunting that makes them similar. He cut’s right to the core. And his death growls are deep and bathed in reverb.
If you have ever read any of my reviews you will know that I am heavy on atmosphere. I don’t care how well you can play, how many notes you can fit in your solo, or what you know about music theory. Can you move me? That is all I care about. Pendulous has moved me from the first time I heard them, and since they are a local band, I have had the opportunity to hear them many times. To see the band grow has been a treat. With this album they continue to move me, and for that I thank them.