Album Review : Panopticon - The Rime of Memory (2023)
For all the noise it created about rejecting society and whatnot, the black metal scene has ironically turned into quite the conformist space over time. The definitions for what black metal should be, what musicians should look like and what anyone who enjoys the genre needs to reject have become quite rigid. Whoever still gets the ethos of black metal just walks to the sound of their own drums. Austin Lunn and his bluegrass influenced project Panopticon that walks a tightrope between tradition and iconoclasm is one of them.
Panopticon has a new album out. It's called The Rime of Memory, it's different and challenging, but it's fucking amazing and it successfully challenges the ideas black metal was built upon.
The Rime of Memory features six songs and a whopping 75 minutes of music. That includes a two minutes long instrumental intro I erindringens høstlige dysterhet of desolate, elegiac strings that set the tone for the onslaught of wintertime melancholy you're about to experience. The follow-up Winter's Ghost is the longest song on the record at almost twenty minutes and, it good Panopticon fashion, it features this patient, obsessive build up of acoustic guitar, violin and choir that's exactly eights minutes long.
When Winter's Ghost shapeshifts into a a black metal long in the way only Austin Lunn is capable of pulling off, one name came up to my mind: Paysage d’Hiver. The harsh, stormlike guitar riffs, the blastbeats, the scorching, pained gutturals oozing with emotion through the walls of reverb. Winter's Ghost is definitely haunted by the old master (who's ironically only five years older than Austin). Of course, it is adapted to Panopticon style with melancholic synths, violins and even bells that shape its emotional landscape.
In my opinion, the showstopper on The Rime of Memory really is Cedar Skeletons, though. Holy fuck, that song is awesome. Lead by eerie synths, a more melodic, old school heavy metal-inspired guitar riffing and an absolutely fucking stellar drumming performance, it is so fucking beautiful and hard that it makes me question my life choices every time I fucking hear it. Every time it gives me a breathes and I go like "OK, maybe it's not the best song I ever heard", it hits me with something beautiful.
Cedar Skeletons features these samples, which I believe is a new concept in Panopticon's creative paradigm, but they give this feeling of an old radio playing in a desolate shack through a snow storm or an isolated person immersed in their memories. It's such a simple, yet game-changing idea. I think I heard mandolin at some point too, but it might just be a violin played with fingers. This song is such an onslaught of feelings and textures, it's difficult to circumvent. It's a journey that renews itself with every listen.
To me, it achieves the emotional intensity that a band like Lorna Shore was trying to convey with Pain Remains, but failed at by wanting to provoke this emotional experience more than they actually go through it. Cedar Skeletons comes from a genuine place. It is driven through and through by painful, intermixed feelings of wonder and misery. It really is a special song. I’m going to shut up about it now, but know that I could talk your ear off about Cedar Skeletons. It probably is my favourite Panopticon song.
Of course, it's kind of difficult to follow up such a masterpiece. An Autumn Storm comes off like a more conventional black metal song even if it’s lead by these cool, otherworldly synths. It has accordion on a bridge, which I throughly enjoyed, but it lacks the creative and emotional depth of the two skull crushing monsters than came prior. I believe that it's most because of the pervasive presence of blast beats. I love them as much as the next guy, but they kind of limit what you can do in such a singular creative paradigm.
Enduring the Snow Drought starts off with these cool, old school heavy metal-inspired guitars that made such a number on me on Cedar Skeletons. It has this rich, squealing tone that I love so much and that is more traditionally used at the end of songs, but Austin build the entire song around it, which is so fucking cool and creative. At some point is layers it with violin to transition into one of these blueegrass inspired segments he’s so fucking good at. It embodies hope and pain as well as anything on The Rime of Memory.
The closer The Blue Against the White is the closest thing on The Rime of Memory that resembles what you know from previous Panopticon released. It has this quieter, amorphous, almost shoegaze quality to it. The prior Panopticon releases were really about levelling the feelings evoked by bluegrass and black metal, but The Rime of Memory I feel is a reappropriation of black metal history. It operates within a less original paradigm, but it challenges it criticizes and questions its aesthetic foundations.
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Well, The Rime of Memory is a different record. It remains true to Panopticon's nature, but it explores different thematic possibilities within the breadth and scope of the enormous creative paradigm Austin Lunn has created for himself. As a Paysage d’Hiver fan, I was overjoyed to hear something echo and respond to such iconic ideas that went unchallenged for so many years. The Rime of Memory is one of the best albums I heard this year. It’s one of the best I heard in Panopticon's discography period.
