PENTAGRAM. Review done. Where’s the beer? Alright, here’s a little more. I could write 500 pages on this subject, or I could give it to you in a nutshell. So here goes, ya nuts. “First Daze Here Too” is a collection of lost/rare/remastered/demo tracks from masters purchased back by the band in ’86 and remixed. All of the tracks here featured the early PENTAGRAM line-up from 1971-1976. This included Vincent McAllister, Greg Mayne, Geof O’Keefe, and the infamous Bobby Liebling. If you are expecting the metallic, doomy PENTAGRAM of the Victor Griffin era, you could be in for a shock. This is the early PENTAGRAM, with blazing guitar, groovy bass, and a very competent Leibling crooning in a 70’s acid-rock way that could have given SABBATH a run for its money if the chips had fallen a little differently. The resounding vibe of the liner notes and these dusty gems all lead to the same conclusion: PENTAGRAM got fucked! These guys had everything working for them to become rock 'n' roll legends, but fate was stacked against them. This CD includes 22 excellent tracks, and explains the entire story in the included 14 page booklet with insight and lots of entertaining yarns from O’Keefe, McCallister, and Mayne, along with lyrics and song by song commentary.

Be forewarned, (a little PENTAGRAM humor there) some of the tracks here sound great for being recorded when Hector was a pup, but some are mastered reel-to-reel recordings from early 70s practices when Bobby had to sing through a guitar amp. I friggin' loved it, but the younger kiddies of the Pro Tools generation may get their dander up on it.

Some of the tracks will be familiar to many fans, these songs have popped up from time to time on other recordings. But these discs appear to be stacked with the very first versions of the anthems you've come to love like "When the Screams Come" and "Be Forewarned" etc. The STONES cover “Under My Thumb” is handled flawlessly, but seems a little out of place with the other creepy material (it is one of two covers featured, the other being the YARDBIRDS “Little Games”). But the placement of the masterpiece “Show ‘em How” as the final song on the second disc is like waiting for a lap dance at a bachelor party, when it finally comes around, it was well worth the wait.

This is a must-have for any fan of the band, and if you like the killer 70’s era stuff like PURPLE, PRIEST and TROWER,. These discs will convince you that PENTAGRAM should have been inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame along with SABBATH this year. It's raw, it's primitive, it's the epitome of unfiltered evil rock 'n' roll from the golden age of analog. Spectacular.

- Murtaugh

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/brokenvows

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Smokescreen

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