I don’t know what this does to the release schedule for the new Place of Skulls album, but it’s been announced that legendary guitarist Victor Griffin (also of Death Row) has rejoined Pentagram for their tour dates later this month leading to their performance at the Maryland Deathfest at the Sonar in Baltimore. Hey, at least he’ll know the songs, which, from what I understand, will put him miles ahead of the replacement the band had for the departed Russ Strahan on their last string of shows.

By a bit of luck, I caught Griffin with Pentagram when he joined them on stage at last year’s Planet Caravan festival in North Carolina, and it fucking ruled, so I would think with a week-long tour’s worth of tightness behind the performance it could only get better. Support for the shows comes courtesy of the oh-so-hot-right-now Black Tusk. The announcement kind of flew under the radar, but here it is, courtesy of The Pentagram Archives‘ MySpace page:

Pentagram in association with Barley & Hops Management, The Pantheon Agency, and The Pentagram Archives announce:

The May 2010 Spring Tour of Pentagram will feature the following musicians performing:

Bobby Liebling: Vocals
Victor Griffin: Guitars
Greg Turley: Bass
Gary Isom: Drums

I’m hitting the road in about an hour — holiday travels — but I wanted to take a quick second and wish everyone a happy Xmas and say I hope you get some time off work, school or whathaveyou, and a chance to relax and the rest of it. The music industry at large shuts down next week, but I’ll be here. We’ll finish up the top 10 of the year and maybe talk about some shows and other stuff to wind down 2009. Meantime, be safe, be well, be merry. Enjoy Victor Griffin and Place of Skulls doing “Silver Cord Breaks” from With Vision — one of the best traditional doom records of the decade.

Cheers.

A family semi-emergency means I’ve been in Connecticut since yesterday afternoon. Everything’s cool. The inevitable heartburn that followed a delicious pasta dinner means I’ve been up since 4:50 this morning. And last but not least, the fact that there’s nothing on except for the shitty 2002 made-for-tv?remake of Carrie (as if anyone could top Sissy Spacek) means I’ve got time to kill before The Patient Mrs. and the little dog Dio get up.

All of the above being the case — I being of relatively sound mind and quickly decaying body swear to them as the truth — here are two videos of underrated doom masters Place of Skulls, who released one of the best doom records of this decade in the form of the Wino-fied With Vision. An absolute classic. The show is from Washington D.C. in 2004 and the band is joined on stage by Pentagram‘s legendary frontman, Bobby Liebling. Rock. Hope your day starts later than mine.