2024, what a time to be alive! A brand-new Taylor Swift record, and a new Pallbearer record on the way! Both records tap into the mellower, atmospheric side of their respective artists, and both are introspective (and in a perfect world, the boys in Pallbearer would have 1/1000th of Tay Sway’s money). All of that aside, ‘Mind Burns Alive’ is Pallbearer’s difficult record. That is not to say that it’s bad, it’s actually quite good and rewards multiple listens. Finding the sweet spot between My Bloody Valentine and My Dying Bride, Pallbearer have created an emotionally dense record that finds catharsis in wrestling beauty out of leaden tunes dragged through the murk by detuned guitars, sorrowful vocals, bittersweet guitar melodies, and the occasional saxophone solo.

Opening track “When the Light Fades” finds the Little Rock, Arkansas quartet in earnest indie rock mode. Brett Campbell’s fragile, fractured vocals are front and center over lush, clean guitar strum and thrum, a sturdy rock beat, and gentle synth washes, as the song builds towards a bombastic, emotional release that never completely materializes (at least not in the classic Pallbearer way). Hypnotic and restrained, this is the sound of a band following their muse, expectations be damned.

The compact title track is epic, slow-burn heavy rock of the highest order. A record standout, it blends the best parts of the opening track with classic Pallbearer to profound effect. The whispered, Pink Floyd-ish vocals and sparse hazy instrumentation of the verses build into slightly more upbeat melodic choruses before an epic, melodic lead-guitar breaks the still and rips the song wide-open riding it to a satisfying conclusion that makes you wish it went on a little longer. 

Elsewhere, “Signals” with its excellent understated middle section and harmonized vocals is capped off by another memorable lead-break. Campbell and co-guitarist Devon Holt clearly prize songcraft over shred with solos that elevate the compositions throughout. “Signals” and its kissing cousin “Daybreak,” the latter containing a rare lead-vocal by bassist Joseph Rowland are prime examples of Pallbearer tapping into a mystical, shoegaze sound. Much like their doom-dealing contemporaries in YOB these tendencies find the mesmerizing calm in crushing heaviness both instrumentally and emotionally. Production-wise, the record sounds fantastic, finding the right balance in dynamics, instrumental separation, and open space.

The tranquil acoustic guitars that kick-off “Endless Place” are decimated by the abrupt introduction of thunderously heavy-psych-doom. The soft-loud dynamics heavily used here and on most tracks on the record are an essential part of the band’s calling card as established early in their career via “Foreigner,” the excellent first track from their debut record ‘Sorrow and Extinction’. Like that track, Campbell’s Ozzy meets Geddy voice cuts through the fog, building to climactic, sonorous heights while a wash of sound adorned by the ebbs and flows of Rowland’s heavy AF bass tone, Mark Lierly’s anchoring drums, and the dulcet tones of Campbell and Holt’s serpentine leads fills the void. Mid-way through, spiritual jazz saxophone enters the din in a move that sounds out of place on paper but is the perfect accoutrement to drive the song to mind-bending nirvana.

The lengthy “With Disease” closes out the record on a maudlin high point. Campbell’s plaintive world-weary vocals decry “liars filled with empty pursuits of faith that keeps us on our knees” as the band shifts from spare chordal passages to a pummeling, Orange-amplifiers-on-11, medicated-elegy awash with grinding bass, pounding drums, and languid, harmonized guitars.

Mind Burns Alive is the sound of Pallbearer following their muse into a lusher, more-nuanced sound that wrestles beauty out of a set of layered, emotive tunes that run the gamut from placid alt-rock to psych-doom.