In the pantheon of American black metal bands that have cropped up over the past 15-20 years, there’s one band that rises above all others in my mind. Austin Lunn himself would be the first to say “no gods, no masters,” but if there’s one artist that’s demonstrated a mastery of black metal (and beyond), it would be Panopticon. Incorporating bluegrass and Americana into such a genre might come across as a gimmick, but as Austin has demonstrated time and again the banjo, fiddle, and slide guitar are just as genuine as the blistering trem picking, ferocious blast beats, and those roaring vocals — the result is black metal that’s uniquely American, unparalleled in the genre (besides contemporaries Wayfarer, perhaps). These elements are all brought together by an unbridled sense of honesty and dedication by a musician who is by all accounts (my own included) a dude just as genuine as his music. In anticipation of the upcoming full-length The Rime of Memory tomorrow(!), Ian and I have teamed up to revisit the discography of one of metal’s finest. Grab a beer (undoubtedly not as good as anything that came from Hammerheart) and enjoy.

—

“Merkstave” — Collapse (2009)

I’ll never forget the one sentence item description for the beat-up CD copy of the self-titled debut Panopticon full-length that I bought from the official merch site a while back: “I hate this record.” It’s certainly not the best Panopticon album, but that’s a little harsh! Nevertheless we can’t fit everything here, so let’s jump ahead to sophomore album Collapse. Like the next two albums we’ll be highlighting, this got a remaster (released just last year) that really brings the album to life and is more palatable for someone like me who prefers Kentucky-to-present Panopticon. This album may have been recorded in 2008, but the opening news samples concerning economic woes and the end of America are just an example of the fact that shit really hasn’t changed in 15 years! There’s at least some comfort in that. I gotta give special commendation to opener “The Death of Baldr and the Coming War” for reframing Ragnarok in the context of class war as well.

Musically Collapse has a lot more straightforward black metal and is less technical than what we would hear in later releases, but is no less powerful for it. This release features the first entrance of bluegrass elements into the Panopticon sound, and as we all know it wouldn’t be the last. As great as the opening track is, I think “Merkstave” represents the best this release has to offer. The main chord progression feels like a hint towards the grand scale we would see in later albums like Roads to the North, and the interplay between acoustic guitar sections and ferocious blast beats is performed with all the confidence of a veteran act. And how can you not love that folk-drenched conclusion?

— Colin

—

“…Seeing…” – On the Subject of Mortality (2010)

On the Subject of Mortality is another release that took me a long time to get around to, but its 2016 remix, remaster and reissue reminded me that it’s about time to dive in to one of the first Panopticon releases, and perhaps the one that began the rapid upward trajectory of the project.  “…Seeing…” is still one of the most-played songs on their Spotify profile (if that shit means anything to you), and for good reason.  The post-rock inspired opening is deeply moving, peaceful but sorrowful, and it builds for just the right amount of time before launching into what I would consider the trademark Panopticon sound of a dreamy wall of guitar strums, layered melodies and Austin’s trademark anguished howl.  It’s no wonder this album laid the foundation for everything up to, and including, The Rime of Memory.

Humble as he is, I don’t know that Austin would ever consider himself a musician of extreme talent, but I’ll say it: not only does he play almost every instrument on every release, he does so incredibly well.  His guitar work is subtle but inspired, his drumming is outrageously fluid, and his range of instruments are virtuosic.  Mortality is, to me, the first glimpse of the fire and passion that is a hallmark of the albums to come.  Unpolished as it may be at times, it is still a labor of love, and that love and dedication comes through in spades.  It’s a small wonder why so many people are so enamored with Panopticon.  There is something deeply human about this music that cuts right to the core.

— Ian

—

“Client” – Social Disservices (2011)

Social Disservices is an album that I avoided listening to when I started digging into Panopticon’s back catalog.  To say that it touches on heavy subject matter is putting it mildly, but then again, most of Austin’s albums touch on one bummer or another.  This one just happens to be something that is a little close and personal to me.  It is suffocatingly aggressive and unapologetically malicious in its critique of the double edged sword of social services and how they can other individuals and let them down, and the more raw, less melodic and definitely more forlorn black metal helps sell that almost instantly.  “Client” begins with samples of crying children, wailing sirens, fuzzy static and eerie ambience before launching into somber and sorrowful black metal that hints at what is to come in the future of the band and then briefly taking a detour into straight ahead death metal.

Almost all of Panopticon’s music is built around processing trauma, whether it’s personal trauma, environmental trauma, generational trauma or the social trauma expounded here, and Social Disservices gives you a deeper look into one of the pivotal moments in the life of the person behind the music.  Also, it’s worth noting the 2016 remix and remaster help bring this album to new life, especially concerning the drum sound.  It was a painful process to basically redo everything, but you get a much better feel for the scope of this album.

— Ian

—

“Bodies Under the Falls” – Kentucky (2012)

You never forget your first taste of Panopticon.  Mine was actually Roads to the North, but since Colin’s going to talk about that one, I’ll begin with the album that really sealed it for me: Kentucky.  By the time it found its way to me, I was acquainted with Panopticon, but not yet ready to call myself the die-hard fan I am now.  Kentucky is the album that, at least for this time period in Austin’s discography, is the most overtly bluegrass inspired, which very very few (if any) other bands were combining with black metal, and certainly none to the degree that Panopticon were and are.  So of course, this made them unique, and I really like black metal that is unique.  But beyond a unique aesthetic, there is something that is intangibly different about Panopticon.  There always has been, but this is the album that separated Austin from the pack.

Kentucky is the beginning of a trilogy of albums based on his various homes over the years, it’s a love letter to the communities he used to serve and be a part of, it’s a scathing indictment of the coal mining industry that wreaks havoc on the land and on people’s lives, and it’s a goddamn gorgeous work of art that, to this day, still sounds like nothing else.  Listening to Kentucky for the first time was the eye-opening “oh shit” moment where I knew everything was going to be different after the album was over.  If you want a single song that gives the broadest overview of what Panopticon is all about, look no further than “Bodies Under the Falls”.  It literally has everything: blast beats, roaring vocals, soaring melodies, acoustic bluegrass interludes, violin, banjo, flute.  And Austin plays almost every single instrument himself, which is an even bigger reason to appreciate how hard he works.

— Ian

—

“The Long Road” — Roads to the North (2014)

It’s hard to put into words how important this album is to me. Not only was Roads to the North my introduction to Panopticon, but it remains both my favorite Panopticon album and one of my favorite albums of all time (perhaps even #1 on a given day). Austin’s phenomenal drumming that had me hooked from the opening fill, the twin guitar harmonies, the shredding solos, the crushing melodeath riffs… and all this against a backdrop of top-tier atmospheric black metal. Grand in scale yet still grounded and authentic, Roads is a perfect example of the heights metal is capable of reaching in terms of both beauty and anger in the way it details Lunn’s move from Kentucky to Minnesota, and all the emotions associated with it (he gave a great five-year retrospective interview about the context behind the album here).

I could write at length about basically every song here, so I’ll cheat and go with the three-parter — “The Long Road” distills everything that makes Panopticon great into one track. The energetic banjo-driven bluegrass of “One Last Fire,” the meditative bass and keys-led softer section on “Capricious Miles,” and the pulse-pounding finale of “The Sigh of Summer.” The thunderous bass break that signals the finale of this track is pure metallic joy, a standout amongst an album filled to the brim with standout moments, and those amongst an entire discography replete with the same. At this time of writing, 10th anniversary show(s) for Roads to the North have been teased for 2024, and I can’t properly articulate how excited I am for the prospect of seeing this masterpiece performed live; I will surely be making the trek no matter how long the road is (I personally have my hopes staked on the SoCal high desert’s premier western music venue and restaurant, Pappy & Harriet’s).

— Colin

—

“The Wind’s Farewell” — Autumn Eternal (2015)

If Roads to the North is the Mount Everest of Panopticon for me, then Autumn Eternal is K2. It was the first new Panopticon release after I discovered the band, and I was absolutely buzzing with anticipation in the months up to its release. And boy, did it not disappoint. I was hit with (and still feel) a great sense of childhood nostalgia just from the opening loon call and instrumentation on “Tamarack’s Gold Returns.” Not because I was raised in the north woods of Minnesota (I was born in the shadow of the Colorado Rockies), but because I had an encyclopedia CD-ROM that could play that haunting call in the “bird” entry, and I was enthralled by it as a child. The soothing guitar and violin also remind me of a Rocky Mountain-themed music CD (the kind you get in national park gift shops, I’m guessing) my mom would play in the car every time we made a family trip up to that stunning environment. Autumn Eternal is the less technical, perhaps more drawn out and moody sibling to Roads, but it loses none of the beauty and atmosphere — if the album cover and title didn’t make it apparent, it truly is the perfect fall album. The keys, choirs, and melodic leads perfectly convey the essence of cascading autumn rain.

Just like the previous album I could go on for ages about each individual song, so to finish out the trilogy that started with Kentucky I’ll go with the epic closing instrumental “The Wind’s Farewell.” Just like I was blown away the first time I listened to Roads opener “The Echoes of a Disharmonic Evensong,” so too was I floored by the Autumn Eternal closer (largely in part to the realization that it was instrumental). It’s certainly not the most complex Panopticon song in either riffs or songwriting, yet the way it follows up the tremendous “A Superior Lament” by slowly building upon a single melody from clean guitar to distorted leads to a triumphant blast beat-driven climax is nothing short of awe-inspiring. It still gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it, without fail. The “Kentucky trilogy” represents three of the finest albums in not just the Panopticon discography, or even just American black metal, but metal (and beyond) as an entire genre. We’re truly blessed for being around at this time and place to get to experience these albums.

— Colin

—

“En hvit ravns død” / “The Itch” — The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness (2018)

Is it fair to call The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness Panopticon’s magnum opus?  I feel like that’s up to the individual; there are probably many ways one could argue each Panopticon album is the pinnacle, but Scars is certainly the most ambitious of his works.  It very much is a capital-C Choice to split the bluegrass and black metal into separate (although still not completely unattached) sides of a double album, but it is one that pays off and allows each component of the sound of Panopticon to shine.  Austin may not be completely comfortable with his clean singing and his bluegrass chops, but there is an alluring honesty in the way he strips everything down to The Basics (DO YOU GET IT) and bares his soul to the world without frills or drenching it in reverb.

“The Itch” is one of my most replayed Panopticon songs because it is so acerbic while being disarmingly simple.  Lunn cuts right to the heart of the fear and anxiety surrounding the Trump presidency without leaning on tired clichés about skin color and hand size.  Meanwhile, the black metal side becomes both angrier and more aggressive, with a lot more bite, while also bringing in more post-rock influences to the fold.  And, as is always the case, the profound, nearly overwhelming sense of majesty conveyed when the crescendos pay off is what keeps people sticking around.  The end of “En hvit ravns død” will never not leave me speechless with my jaw on the floor.

— Ian

—

“The Crescendo of Dusk” — The Crescendo of Dusk (2019)

For me there are few greater moments of excitement than seeing the “Panopticon just released a new album” Bandcamp notification appear on my phone, especially when it comes totally out of the blue. This was exactly what happened in early 2019 with The Crescendo of Dusk EP, one metal and one folk song left over from the Scars of Man… and Autumn Eternal sessions respectively. I was always a little perplexed at the title track being described a leftover from Scars as the mournful guitar leads, keys and closing choir seem to fit in a lot more with the Autumn material, but I guess that just means that there’s more of a connecting thread between these two albums than I first thought. With a blistering black metal intro, post-rock inspired middle, and heavy/epic finale “Crescendo” doesn’t do much out of the ordinary for Panopticon, but that just means you’ve still got a damn fine song here. I have yet to see the otherworldly beauty of the northern lights firsthand, but when I do I’ll be sure to have this song playing in my ears to give them the deserved soundtrack.

This is just one of many splits and EPs that Panopticon has released, so if for some reason you’ve missed out on any of those the time to begin listening to those is now. Undoubtedly the splits with Waldgeflüster and Nechochwen and their accompanying songs about Lunn’s sons would be the best place to start, especially the latter given the context behind “Rune’s Heart” — there’s no way your soul won’t be touched reading the liner notes along with the music.

— Colin

—

“The Embers at Dawn” – …And Again into the Light (2021)

…And Again Into the Light was an album that snuck up on me.  At this point in my life, enjoying, appreciating and even loving a new Panopticon release was a given.  I was already sold, nobody had to do anything other than just keep putting out release after release.  But that’s not really what Austin does.  He has this magical way of having his music find you at exactly the moment you need it to find you that is uncanny, and that is exactly what happened with Into the Light.  Into the Light is an album about failing and feeling like a failure, feeling like you have let people in your life down and sitting in that feeling, but most importantly, it is about what you do with that.  All of us have felt like that at some point in our lives, and I am no exception.  Into the Light gave me a lot of hope about how to move past the feelings that I had been sitting in for years.  It helped me feel less alone in what I was dealing with and it showed me the power in trying again and again and again in the face of the fear of failure.  

The one-two punch of “Her Golden Laughter Echoes” into “The Embers of Dawn” perfectly encapsulates everything I love about this band.  The climax of the latter track made me ugly cry on my way home from work the first time I heard it.  Plus, every album needs an Erik Moggridge guest feature.  It’s just the law now.

— Ian

—

It might not seem like it, but it’s difficult to put into words how special of a band Panopticon is.  Continually full of surprises, constantly impressive and full of beguiling passion, it’s really hard to imagine a world without these songs.  It would certainly be a much darker and less hopeful place.  I guess there really is only one appropriate way to end this: don’t let the fire burn out.

— Ian & Colin