25 Best Metal Albums Of The Decade
7. Pallbearer - Sorrow And Extinction (2012)
Taking influence from bands as diverse as their doom metal forebearers Warning and revered folk/slowcore heroes Red House Painters, Pallbearer first unleashed their melodic, melancholic dirges upon the world with 2012's Sorrow and Extinction, catapulting themselves to prominence in the process.
Though thinly-produced, the vocals are where Warning's influence shines through the most. Frontman Brett Campbell howls and wails his way through 49 minutes of traditional doom in a manner similar enough to Patrick Walker to conjure fond memories, but without sounding like a tribute act. Campbell is pained here. He sounds like forcing out these lines is the hardest thing in the world, as the weight of the music crashes down upon him, leaving the listener in a dull, depressed ache.
"An Offering of Grief" provides Sorrow and Extinction's most spectacular moment, with spacious acoustic guitar chords giving way to a beautiful, beautiful lead dripping with the titular grief. It's a gorgeous climax towards the end of this soul-scraping journey and, like the rest of the album, so full of heart and soul that it conveys more emotional weight than anything else the subgenre has yielded all decade.