Panopticon's self-titled debut is one of my all-time favorite atmospheric black metal albums, not only because the music is well-written and well-crafted, but also for what it brought to metal culture. Until Panopticon showed up, anarchism was a subject rarely touched upon in metal. They were too afraid to express anarchist views because they thought they would get beaten up by Nazi assholes if they did so. Then Panopticon released their debut album, and soon thereafter, a whole bunch of anarchist black metal bands came out to unleash their fury.
The band's only member, Lundr, is a drummer at heart, and that means the drums are absolutely suberb. The album is packed full of powerful blast beats and intricate fills. Although they play black metal, the blast beats sound more similar to crust punk. The drums are excellent, but my only problem is that the snare sounds a bit too high in the mix.
Although he's mainly a drummer, this doesn't mean he neglects the other instruments. The guitars are equally amazing. They're quite different from most black metal guitars in that they're less focused on aggression and more focused on creating an atmospheric landscape. They will often play these really high-pitched riffs that embody the urge to be free. (This can best be seen on the songs “Flag Burner, Torch Bearer” and “I, Hedonist”.) Black metal isn't really known for solos, but there is one solo on this album that is absolutely enchanting, and it's on “The Lay of Grimnir”.
The vocals implement both rasps and growls, and as far as I know, he doesn't use any reverb, which is strange because they sound great without the reverb. Normally, you can't have black metal vocals without reverb, but Lundr does just fine without them.
Although I haven't really done this on any of my other reviews, allow me some time to talk about the lyrics. Lyrics aren't really important in extreme metal (as Nathan Explosion once said, “No one can understand what I'm saying anyway.”), but if you don't read Panopticon's lyrics, then you're missing out on something truly substantial and insightful.
I don't want to take up a lot of your time, so I'll just cover the first song, “Flag Burner, Torch Bearer”. This song is essentially a call to action. By using such language as “Their slaves labor into nothingness / lost in the abyss of factories” and “The master I've served will never repay me / There's poison in the communion wine / In this theocracy we will all die”, this song tells people to rise up and destroy the three tyrants that control this world: big religion, big government, and big business. There's also this line: “Tonight, all flags must burn, in place of steeples / Autonomy must return into the hands of the people.” Here, he's basically telling black metal fans that instead of burning churches, they should burn down the monuments of the state.
With their self-titled debut, Panopticon broke American black metal away from its Norwegian roots and turned it into something completely unique, something genuinely American. This is an incredible album and you need to go get it now.
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