LIVE REVIEW: Panopticon @ Stereo, Glasgow
Three years have elapsed since atmospheric black/folk metallers PANOPTICON last played live in Glasgow. It’s only right that the Americans return to Stereo and dispense another high-quality slab of meditative, nature-venerating extreme sounds. The band is set to release their new album in May, so we can anticipate some previews of these fresh songs tonight. Unusually for Scotland, the Laurentian Echoes European tour kicks off here, meaning the Scots could be first to hear these tracks live.
Sole support is from Denmark’s SUNKEN, a fellow atmospheric black metal act formed in 2013 and with three albums. The queue to get into Stereo‘s main room is snaking all the way up the stairs from the basement. The band commences playing while the room is still filling up. Immediately, it’s a challenge to even just see them as they’re bathed in thick, opaque dry ice. If you’re not within a couple of metres from the stage, you’re seeing nothing but the outlines of human forms. It comes across as frustrating more than mysterious.
Their atmospheric black metal is a victim of this subgenre’s popularity in the previous decade. Extended, mournful atmospheric riffs are layered in shoegaze influences, employing heavy reverberation and delays. Arrangements are predictable and bolt through a checklist of the genre’s clichés. This pedestrian and hollow writing renders SUNKEN as little more than an echo chamber act. Vocalist Martin Skyum Thomasen embodies a range of vocal styles from black metal snarls to somewhat clumsy shouts. His performance is impassioned, which is more than could be said of the music. Overall, this is yet another atmospheric black metal band that stagnates the genre rather than propels it forward.
Rating: 6/10
Rightfully, Stereo is tightly packed for headliners PANOPTICON. This tour sees sole member Austin Lunn and his hired guns perform songs from his Laurentian trilogy of albums: And Again into the Light, The Rime of Memory and the upcoming new album Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet. The show starts with Winter’s Ghost Part II: Hjemløs. This portion of the song is a pure folk number with no metal elements. Lunn utilises almost foreboding clean guitars, Americana folk singing and Charlie Anderson‘s mesmerising violin to produce tender but haunting, candle-lit soundscapes. Unfortunately, some technical difficulties lead the band to wrap up the song dissatisfied with its end. Dead Loons takes over but is also mired in issues; the intro sample of recorded loons is played twice while problems are addressed. When it does get going, this introspective track bathes the venue in dense atmospherics as well as complex, active lead guitars and bold keyboards. This merger infuses PANOPTICON with so many more layers and expressions than their peers. There’s another concern when the keyboard suddenly rises to ear-piercing volume but thankfully only lasts a couple of seconds.
Glasgow gets lucky tonight. Those present do become the first to hear the live debut of songs from Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet. The first of these is The Great Silence, Extinct, followed by Blood and Fur Upon the Melting Snow and later in the set, Woodland Caribou. These songs are garnished in PANOPTICON‘s mellifluous welding of folk and atmospheric black metal, yet contain new galloping rhythms, marking Lunn‘s style as fresh and evolving. The Blue Against the White takes an organic stroll into post-rock territory leading to a roaring crescendo of intricate drumming, savage riffs and zealous black metal growls. There’s a three-pronged vocal attack throughout the night. Live guitarist Arron Charles provides supplementary growls and bassist Andy Klokow provides clean vocals. These Americans can’t drop the energy, and the fans are devouring every note, transfixed by these rare anthems.
There’s time for just one shorter song, so the final track is Into the North Woods from Autumn Eternal. It’s grittier and rawer than the other songs, but that translates even better live. One final burst of grateful headbanging follows the band to its end. After nearly a generous hour and a half, PANOPTICON defies technical problems to lay out a jaw-detaching spectacle. They are still undisputed royalty of the well-trodden domain of atmospheric black metal, and tonight is another reminder of that.
Rating: 8/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:
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