Pallbearer Release Majestically Crushing New Song “Rite of Passage”

Doom metal band and Little Rock, Arkansas-natives Pallbearer have released a dark, rolling new song called “Rite of Passage.” The track arrives as the second single off the group’s upcoming full-length studio album Forgotten Days, which is set to arrive October 23 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The new song begins with a heavy groove of thundering guitar and bass before singer Brett Campbell comes in with his signature brooding, heavy vocals. “’Rite of Passage’ is both a reflection and a confessional,” says Joseph Rowland, Pallbearer bassist and songwriter. “The toll that loss has taken on my life often finds ways to remind me that I may never feel whole, and the song’s purpose is to express and embody that emptiness. It felt totally appropriate to wrap it in reimagined trappings of our earliest doom-leaning material.”

Last month, the group released the title track and accompanying video from the new Forgotten Days album, including a black and white “Cinema Edition.” That song debuted to much praise throughout the music industry with Stereogum labeling it as both “hammering” and “comforting.” In speaking about the overlaying themes behind the group’s new nine-track effort, frontman and guitarist Campbell says, “Memory is a big aspect of the new record. The passage of time. How things change as perspective changes. Was the past truly the way that you remember it at all?”

Pallbearer was originally formed in 2008 when Campbell and Rowland met as students at the University of Central Arkansas. The metal band’s current lineup consists of Campbell (vocals, guitar, synthesizer), Rowland (bass, backing vocals, piano, synthesizer), Devin Holt (guitar, backing vocals) and Mark Lierly (drums).

Forgotten Days will mark the group’s fourth studio release and first on the Nuclear Blast Records label following Sorrow and Extinction (2012), Foundations of Burden (2014) and Heartless (2017), all three of which were released on Profound Lore Records. Forgotten Days is currently available for pre-order on the band’s website.