Relentless Pentagram

It has been an amazing year for my record collection. I've knocked some true heavy hitters from my list, and over the Summer, I had the opportunity to cross off another big ticket item.

I had a great experience buying The Effigies record through Discogs. The record was in great shape, it arrived quickly, and the seller seemed like a good dude and we exchanged a few messages back and forth...also, it turned out that the seller was Rob Moss, who was a member of Artificial Peace and Government Issue. He seemed like a good dude, and when he sent me a message saying that he listed some more records on Discogs, I decided to browse his list and see if he had anything else that caught my attention.

Right there at the top of his list was an original first pressing of the debut Pentagram album.

This record is a straight up Doom classic, and for those in the know, it is held in the same high regard as the early Sabbath records. I've wanted an original pressing of this album for a while now, but they don't come around very often, and with the high price tag it usually carries, I haven't really actively pursued it. Seeing it there, available through this Discogs seller, made it incredibly tempting...regardless of the price that he had listed it for.

Initially, there was some inner conflict if I should really go for it, so I turned to Doug's old posts over at We Will Bury You, looking for some guidance. In these times of turmoil, I can count on my record collector friends to show me the light, and there it was, right in Doug's blog post. "Fuck it, when would be the next chance to get one?" So let it be written...so let it be done. Guided by his divine hand, I clicked the Add To Cart button and made it mine.

There were times when I questioned my decision, and wondered if maybe I shouldn't have spent so much for this record. Any feelings of buyer remorse were erased when the record arrived and took it out of the box. Holy shit, this thing was nearly dead mint, and as the needle on my turntable hit those first notes of Relentless, I knew that I'd made the right choice.

I was surprised to find this record in such great shape, but according to Rob, he got it direct from his bandmate in Government Issue, Tom Lyle, who as it turns out, also produced this Pentagram record...and between the two of them, they knew how to take care of their records.