Pagan Altar

BIOGRAPHY

[Dashboard] [Referred Artists] [Search Options]

Pagan Altar (1978-1985, 2004-present): a Doom Metal band from London, UK.

nglish doom metal Pagan Altar was formed by Terry Jones and his son Alan in 1978 in the borough of Brockley in London.

Alongside Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar are one of the few new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) bands to play doom metal. The band's concerts are characterized by moody, epic and heavy music, blended with stage effects which accentuate their interest in occult themes.

Pagan Altar's only release from the NWOBHM era was an independent, self-released, self-titled demo album (which was heavily bootlegged in later years). The album would be re-released as an official full-length on 'Oracle Records' in 1998, retitled Volume 1 tp subsequently become their debut album under the membership of Alan Jones (guitars), Trevor Portch (bass), John Mizrahi (drums) and Terry Jones (R.I.P. 2015; vocals).

The group reformed in 2004 to re-record an album of previously unreleased material which had been written during their original tenure as a band but featuring Mark Elliot on drums. The resulting album, Lords of Hypocrisy, met with a positive reception from fans, and a further albums duly followed in 2005 and 2006 respectively in the form of Judgement of the Dead and Mythical and Magical released after their previous EP The Time Lord (2004) , a sort of out-pf place recording at least membership wise as it deviated from the original crew to feature Terry Jones (R.I.P. 2015; vocals), Alan Jones (guitars/vocals (backing)), Les Moody (guitars; tracks 1-2), Glenn Robinson (bass), Ivor Harper (drums; tracks 1-3) and Mark Elliot (drums; tracks 4-5).

Read All... ⏬

In 2008, Pagan Altar engaged in touring starting off by co-headlining the Metal Brew Festival in Mill Hill, alongside Cloven Hoof. Both bands also performed at the British Steel IV Festival at the Camden Underworld in 2009. Pagan Altar returned to headline the British Steel V Festival in April 2011 and the Live Evil Festival in October 2011.

In 2012, Pagan Altar began work on their next album in a purpose-built recording studio in the back garden of vocalist Terry Jones's home. On 15 May 2015, Terry Jones, however, died of cancer. The band had finished recording their upcoming album, which was in its final mastering stage. In 2017, Alan Jones announced that he intended to partially re-record the album as neither he nor the late Terry Jones were happy with the finished product. The resulting album, The Room of Shadows, emerged later that year under the membership of Alan Jones (guitars/vocals (backing)), Diccon Harper (bass), Andy Green (drums) and Terry Jones (R.I.P. 2015; vocals (lead)). Brendan Radigan would soon after assume vocals.