JJ Koczan of The Obelisk recently conducted an in-depth interview with Bobby Liebling of Pentagram:  The Voice of the Head ?Ram. An excerpt of the chat follows below:

The Obelisk: Why do you think the appreciation for Pentagram has grown the way it has over the last decade?

Bobby Liebling: I can pinpoint it down to the people my age, who have grown up, have had children who are now 16 and over, and can attend Pentagram shows. Their parents turn them on to Pentagram. I?ve met hundreds of couples who brought their kids worldwide. Every country I?ve been to at least has had two or three couples bringing their children with them and have said, ?I?ve been listening to Pentagram for 30 years, I want you to meet my son, he?s dying to meet you.? I?m covering a generation from 16 to 60.

it's definitely because of that influence, coupled with the fact that I am a dinosaur that made it through the ice age and the retro movement, and stoner rock movement, as they call it by coined phrase ? I just say we play real, real, REAL heavy hard rock. I don?t call it heavy metal anymore. They still say ?The godfathers of doom? when we come on stage, and it is downtrodden ? I?ll put it that way ? in mood. I write all minor stuff, bum outs (laughs). Pretty depressing, kill-yourself music, which a thousand people around the world has told me has saved their life, which blows my mind. Especially Sub-Basement, which is my absolute, hands-down baby, for production, and for the most sick, demented pile of songs. I can only listen to it once every two or three months. I absolutely can?t listen to it, it's so entirely bummed out from first note to last (laughs). it's very sick in the head. I call Show ?em How the sister album to that album.

Show ?em How is very clean production, and it redid some of the Pentagram classics like ?20 Buck Spin,? as opposed to Sub-Basement, let?s say ?Target,? is the typical Pentagram, bluesy-influence with Blue Cheer mixed into it, and on Show ?em How, ?Show ?em How? is, the changes and a barrage of feedback at the end, uncontrolled like ?Doctor Please? by Blue Cheer, but instead of all the dementia that?s on Sub-Basement, the other group of song moods on Show ?em How, instead of demented, is sad.

it's pathetic and sad and very close to my heart and toned down, dear to me. Like ?If the Winds Would Change,? ?Last Days Here,? it's the only ballad Pentagram?s ever done, really. it's a ?Gimme Danger? I?ve-got-nothing, Iggy-type of thing. Up that alley, completely, compared to Keith Richards and Kurt Cobain in one article, which, my god, I couldn?t believe they?re putting me in that kind of company (laughs). Like, what?s wrong with this picture? I should be licking their balls (laughs).

?Last Days Here? ? the first rehearsal version is on First Daze Here ? when that came out, they said, ?This guy Bobby Liebling sounds like he?s so truthfully depressed, and so honestly, totally suicidal that we wonder if 10 minutes after the recording session did he jump off the studio roof and commit suicide.? it's the hopeless despair of it. There?s no glimmer of light anywhere in sight. Of course, Jim Osterberg being a close friend of mine for many years ? I followed The Stooges in the early days ? I met him by cleaning the peanut butter off his body in a bathroom in 1970 (laughs). ?But I think it's the retro movement, to answer your question.

Continue reading:  The Obelisk: Interview with Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling