Panopticon – The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness

• Country: USA
• Style: Atmospheric black metal / Folk
• Label: Bindrune Recordings / Nordvis
• Release date: 6 April 2018

Two discs, two halves, one man. Austin Lunn has always pulled Panopticon between black metal and the music of rural America, and here he simply splits the difference into separate records that belong together. The first part is the metal side, and it is some of the most gripping music he has made. “En Hvit Ravns Død” surges forward on blast beats and a melody that feels like cold wind through pines, while “The Singing Wilderness” and the epic closer “Snow Burdened Branches” build and collapse in long, emotional arcs.

The second part swaps distortion for acoustic instruments and a weathered, close-up voice. “The Moss Beneath the Snow” bridges the two worlds, and songs like “Four Walls of Bone” and “The Itch” sit closer to Americana and country than anything you would expect on a metal list. It is honest and often beautiful, though a few tracks in the back stretch feel more like sketches than finished songs.

The whole thing draws on Sigurd Olson’s writing and the fight to preserve Minnesota’s northwoods, and you can hear the respect for that landscape in every note. Taken as one work, it is overlong and occasionally self-indulgent. Taken in the right mood, on a long walk or by a fire, it is hard to beat.

Best tracks:

En Hvit Ravns Død
Snow Burdened Branches
The Singing Wilderness
The Moss Beneath the Snow

Author’s rating: 8.8/10