Panopticon - Kentucky (2012) Review

Kentucky, Panopticon's fifth full length album, is nothing short of magnificent. Throughout this project's evolution, main-man Austin Lunn has shown many hints of unique greatness, but all his strongpoints wonderfully align in this record, the perfect combination between atmospheric black metal and blue grass. A rather personal record, discussing the musician's home state and touching upon real struggles of land and people, it is a treat starting from the lyrics, which should be no means be skipped this time. Kentucky breathes through heavy emotions and expresses its worldview, while being capable of taking the listener by hand and along all the different scenes of the tracks, which are also musically perfect. Lunn is an extremely creative and efficient composer, and this is obvious with both the folk and the metal parts of this album. His guitar style endorses melody through riff and solo, on top of fast-paced atmospheric black metal foundations with added flutes for the more epic feels, yet his non-metal tracks are separate entities of well-delivered blue grass. At the same time, all content is connected and one, for conveying the message, which is a loud one. The vocals in Kentucky are also wonderful, when singing with a clean voice or the raspy, worn out screams of the black metal parts of the album. There's several interesting samples to be heard during the listen as well, just making the story even richer. In terms of black metal, Panopticon diverge significantly not only lyrically but also in terms of music, yet works like Kentucky stand as absolute sincere works of the artist that will put a lot of self-proclaimed devil worshippers out there to the test. I fully appreciate this album's lyrical content, its topics, the top-notch quality of the music and the truthful vision of the creator, who hit a smashed the mark with this work. Don't skip any track, enjoy all the nuances and absorb what it has to say. Releases like these are quite rare in extreme metal. [4.5/5 - Brilliant]

Μαύρο Δεντρί - Μαύρο Δεντρί

1. Κανελόριζα

2. Ο Γάμος

3. Μαύρο Δεντρί

4. Πουλί

5. Μυρτιές

6. Ρεματιά

Στους στίχους των “Μαύρο Δεντρί”, "Πουλί" και “Μυρτιές” έχουν ενσωματωθεί κάποιες παλιές μαντινάδες. Η “Ρεματιά” έχει πρωτότυπα λόγια. “Ο Γάμος” βασίζεται στο σύνολό του σε παραδοσιακές μαντινάδες. Η “Κανελόριζα” είναι ένα παλιό κομμάτι από τα Μικρασιατικά παράλια.

Ο Ηλίας και ο Ορέστης έπαιξαν κιθάρες, ούτι, μπουλγαρί, σάζι, μαντολίνο, βιολί, τζουρά, μπεντίρ, μπάσο, στάμνα, μεταλόφωνο, μελόντικα, μπαγλαμά, φλογέρα, μπουζούκι, καχόν, μαντούρα ... και μια δεξαμενή για κρασί.

Οι περισσότερες ηχογραφήσεις έγιναν στο σπίτι του Ηλία τον Ιούνιο του '12, ενώ κάποιες συμπληρωματικές εγγραφές έγιναν στο κινητό στούντιο του Ορέστη σε διάφορα σπίτια. Οι μίξεις δουλεύτηκαν στο Μπόρνμουθ της Αγγλίας μέσα στο '14 και έμειναν θαμμένες σ' ένα σκληρό δίσκο για αρκετό διάστημα.

Venus Volcanism - Rizitiko

1. Our Beautiful Peacock

2. Red Little Rose

3. The Prudent One

4. The Eagle

5. The Dream

Venus Volcanism is the musician and electronic artist Rena Rasouli. She presents her first solo mini-album “Rizitiko’ on Optimo’s sub-label, Weaponise Your Sound, using traditional folk songs of her native island Crete as a basis for this work.

‘Rizitiko’ evolved from Rasouli’s thesis titled “the music performances based in traditional dialect focuses on the healing ability of sound”. The songs were created and sung by folk troubadours. Expanding on these oeuvres, Rasouli seized on the idea that the melodic use of voice is the oldest form of therapy in human culture. This primary and ritualistic material was intertwined with electronic and natural ambient soundscapes. The resulting compositions express the omnipresent sensations and emotions that play a key role in the healing process whilst communicating an intense connection to the collective unconscious. Traditionally sung by men there are numerous reasons to believe that many of the songs were initially created by women. To sing them in a female voice projects a different approach to the traditional rendition – one closer to that of a lullaby.

Necromantia - Ancient Pride (EP, 1997)

Country: Greece
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Osmose Productions
Website: Myspace

What makes this band different is the fact that they have dual basses and they use an 8 string bass, some albums have been recorded without any guitars at all. They are a colossal band for the greek underground, im not amused by most of their early stuff even though they were well placed ideologically, still this EP is, for some reason, my favourite release.

They have added guitars with woderful riffs, they even have solos, there are some ambient parts, there is a flute, there are keys, there is a classic guitar, it creates a wonderful almost pagan black metal scence that i personally love in that music.

I strongly believe that the self-titled song "Ancient Pride" is one of the most beautiful black metal songs done by greek bands. I might be overtalking, but you should listen yourself. The copy i own is a reissue by the greek zine Metal Invader, and it contains a fifth bonus song.