Doom-metal pioneers Pentagram played San Antonio’s Paper Tiger Tuesday night, demonstrating why the group continues to have such staying power even though it formed in 1971 and contains only one original member.
Speaking with the Current after the show, frontman and sole survivor Bobby Liebling — often referred to as the American Ozzy Osbourne — said it was the band’s first time playing San Antonio, though it’s played Dallas, Houston and Austin many times.
“We’ll come back here,” Liebling told the Current. “There’s good folks here. They were really into it.”
Liebling added that he was pleasantly surprised at the energy of the crowd, members of which stage dove constantly throughout the high-intensity set. The result was all-out melee that knocked over sweaty, tattooed metalheads like bowling pins and left them entangled on the sticky floor.
A couple days ago, Liebling revealed in an interview with music site Altars of Metal that he’s seen a noticeable increase in attention ever since a clip of him doing his trademark ghoulish stare on stage recently went viral on TikTok.
When talking with the Current, Liebling said that the group needed police escorts on its recent South America tour, where they were mobbed by fans.
However, security wasn’t so tight in San Antonio, where the members of Pentagram were accessible to fans while enjoying post-show drinks at Lonesome Rose.
Still, the TikTok effect seemed apparent with a scan of the Paper Tiger crowd, which was full of Gen Z kids.
“It’s kinda neat, because now we span three generations,” Liebling told the Current. “It’s kinda freaky. I’m old.”
Liebling — who somehow outlasted many of his peers despite his best efforts to live fast and die young — is 71 now and seems to have mellowed in his golden years. He admitted over drinks after the show that he’s cheated death several times over.
“I should not be here,” he said.
Though they’re considered “godfathers of doom,” Liebling told the Current that he eschews the label, instead preferring “heavy hard rock.”
“I don’t listen to doom metal. It’s pretentious as hell,” Liebling said. “It’s so repetitive. I’m sorry but it is.”
Like a lot of genre categorizations, the term “doom metal” came about long after Liebling had formed the band and started singing about Satanism and other dark subjects in the ‘70s.
During its Paper Tiger set, the band delivered plenty of the classics drawn from a career spanning more than half a century. These included “Starlady,” “The Ghoul,” “When the Screams Come” and “Sign of the Wolf.”
However, new material blended in seamlessly throughout the set, including tracks from the 2025 album Lightning in a Bottle. Songs from the release included “Solve the Puzzle,” “I Spoke to Death,” “Walk the Sociopath,” “Dull Pain,” and “Thundercrest.”
“It’s my favorite Pentagram album,” Liebling told the Current in the green room. “It’s got a lot of hooks. It’s got a lot of ‘70s flavor to it.”
He had help delivering a new take on a 70s sound thanks to a band consisting of doom stalwarts. Guitarist Tony Reed is known as the frontman of Seattle’s Mos Generator and a producer on releases by Electric Wizard. Bassist John “Scooter” Haslip, also of Mos Generator, held down the rhythm section with drummer Henry Vasquez of Saint Vitus.
The legendary band shared the bill with openers Dallas band Smokey Mirror, who delivered advanced, proggy jams with boogie interludes and complicated time signatures. San Antonio sludge band Eternal Witch opened the night.
