Cicatrice

Whats up? Shawn here. I'm going to be using this journal as an outlet for my musical musings. I'm not a skilled writer by any means, and I'm well aware of that.

I'll be making entries about many different genres throughout this journal. I'm going to try to keep the updates coming regularly. I'll be writing reviews for albums, bands, and just random musings about anything and everything music related.

This post will be used as a table of contents.

Cicatrice

Panopticon is a one man, Austin Lunn, black metal project from the state of.. Kentucky. Yup, black metal from Kentucky. And like so many things from Kentucky its influenced by coal mining, and bluegrass! Yes, black metal influenced by bluegrass! This album uses banjos and violins, and has tracks that are straight forward folk/bluegrass! The album incorporates these elements along with post-rock elements. Which blend masterfully!

Generally, I'm not much on caring about lyrics but this album makes you care. The lyrics to the songs, along with the samples used, tell you about the labor struggles and history of coal miners. The usage of these samples are absolutely masterfully done. Lunn uses them to tell a story, and tell a story they do! Giving us insight into whats going on throughout the album.

This is the first Panopticon album we've heard that Austin uses clean vocals, and they are done surprisingly well. The opening track here is actually a very good introduction. Its completely different from the cliched acoustic strumming that much of the black metal genre is now incorporating in their albums. This album opens with a little bit of a banjo and violin jig. And yes, its cool! Suddenly though as the intro ends you're thrown abruptly right into the ferocious black metal! And I do mean abruptly! The black metal on the album is a mix of this ferocious black metal, post-rock, and of course the folk and bluegrass elements found throughout. It works very well though. There's only three black metal tracks on this album, and they are divided up by the traditional folk songs that Lunn decided to include. "Come All Ye Coalminers", "Which Side Are You On?", and "Black Water" are all traditional folk songs that Lunn decided to record and add to this album. And I must say, I'm surprised by the results.



Killing the Giants as they Sleep is probably the heaviest track on the album.


And one of the traditional folk pieces.


OVERALL: 8/10

I'll be improving on my reviews. I can assure everyone of that. Sorry for a bit of a let down on this one. Album really deserves a better review, honestly.

Goofle

I really like that album too. Should give it another spin soon actually.

Good review and as I don't remember saying "Hi" before, welcome to the forum

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Trollheart

Welcome to the music journals! Great review. I listened to that album on a recommendation and given that I do not like Black Metal nor death vocals I was mightily impressed. You're right that the samples make the album much deeper and make you care about the struggle of the coal miners. As they say, a metal album for the thinking man, or woman.

I'll be watching with interest.
Great first effort.
TH

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Cicatrice

What do we have here? Occult-themed, female fronted, Sabbath riffing, flute playing, retro-doom metal/rock. That is most certainly a mouthful, and an earful, but its an enjoyable sound!

This band sounds like Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull had a one night stand and 38 years later had a bastard child. Yeah, maybe that sounds a little weird, but you know, its what this is. The flute here though, for me, works better than it did for Jethro Tull. Alias vocals actually work quite well for the band, and I'm not normally big on female vocalists at all. And if a flute playing, occult theme loving, singing, lady isn't good enough for you, she also plays an organ on the first track of the album! The bass playing on this album is actually very solid too, and the drumming, which can sometimes on these type of albums be an after thought is very well done with some very good fills. The band has a certain eerie sound, and I love that!

This album reaches out, grabs you, and makes you appreciate this whole psych-doom revival. One of the bands in this scene who REALLY stand out in my eyes. There's other good bands, but they don't do much new. This band, while playing 70s style music masterfully, stand out and do it convincingly!

So, if you enjoy retro-doom, or you're looking to give something new a try, I highly, highly recommend this album.

OVERALL: 8.5/10.

Deviouz

Nice, dig the review and the album. Keep it up, man!

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Cicatrice

Okay, I've been getting a bit ahead of myself when it comes to writing this blog. I'm not very good with reviewing albums in detail as anyone who's read the previous entries can tell. So rather than try and write overly detailed, and drawn out reviews, I'm going to simply type as if I was speaking to you face-to-face, except I'm not nearly as shy online, and won't use nearly as many sentence enhancers as I do when I'm really talking. Anyway, I'm mainly going to focus on telling you what I've been listening to lately, and rather than review it just give a simply paragraph or so on it, and move on. In time I will hopefully get better at writing reviews and being more descriptive with my writing.


I'm currently addicted to the Meat Puppets second album, Meat Puppets II. I've been giving it a good listen this morning. I know many people really like the following album, Up on the Sun, I really like Meat Puppets II, a lot. Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of the first three albums. Something about Meat Puppets II though; Possibly the variety found on the album, along with the fact it was the album that introduced me to the Meat Puppets a number of years ago has simply caused it to stick with me as my favorite album.

Meat Puppets II has that country and western influence, and everything about the album is "wrong" yet.. its all RIGHT. It works perfectly, somehow. I've listened to the album only God knows how many times since I was first introduced to it a number of years ago, around 6 or 7, and it still sounds as fresh and fun as the first time I picked it up. And I truly believe it will in another 6 or 7 years. In reality, as much as I love the debut Meat Puppets album for what it is, without this slab of tunes right here, we probably wouldn't even care that the Meat Puppets existed. Like I said before how many places this album takes you is whats made me fall in love with it, and not be able to walk away from it.

In closing, this album belongs in my top 20 and most likely my top 10 of all time. It has had a huge impact on me in terms of my taste, because back in my early days of listening to these guys for the first time, I was primarily into metal, true hardcore punk, country, and that was about it. Anything outside of the "norm" such as this was basically ignored by me. So in reality, I owe a ton to this band, and specifically this particular album.

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Cicatrice

Last night upon listening to the new Eyehategod, which I really liked, I decided to check out a new band that I had slept on for a while, Satan Satyrs. I'm not sure why I have danced around checking these guys out for so long. They released their debut album, Wild Beyond Belief!, in 2012, but of course I never bothered checking it out. However, they just released their second album, Die Screaming, and I decided to download both albums and I've actually listened to them as much as the new Eyehategod album. Very fun listen, a bit hard to explain the exact sound. Both albums are good; Musically the second album is better but the vocals are a bit different and get on my nerves a little. I think after a couple of listens this album will grow, and I'll like it more than the first one. Anyway, these guys are kinduva my addiction at the moment.

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