Pentagram

Several lineup changes, some arrests, separate botched meetings with Columbia Records and Kiss in the ’70s—all this, in one way or another, has kept Pentagram out of the majors and the mainstream. But almost four decades in and the group has instead achieved an exalted cult status as the forefathers of doom-metal. Tracks like “Petrified” and “Wolf’s Blood” exemplify this; others such as “Vampire Love” and “When The Scream Comes” play up the act’s slight theatrics. Black Sabbath may have made gloomy rock accessible, but it was Pentagram that made it heavy. 

Updated 03/03/2010