Panopticon - "Autumn Eternal" (2015)

Panopticon - "Autumn Eternal"

Year: 2015
Genre: Folk Metal, Black Metal
Country: United States

Track List:

1. Tamarack's Gold Returns
2. Into the North Woods
3. Autumn Eternal
4. Oaks Ablaze
5.  Sleep To The Sound of the Waves Crashing
6. Pale Ghosts
7. A Superior Lament
8. The Wind's Farewell

bandcamp

In what begins in the first track as a folk country song with slight metal influences, titled Tamarack's Gold Returns, harkens to bluegrass and folk more then metal. However, it is beautifully and slowly played. It's very descriptive of their location which is Kentucky. Their second track, Into the North Woods is full of raw black metal energy that tells you the band absolutely belongs within the genre and on this blog and is enjoyable and just as well recorded as the first track. Their third track Autumn takes that raw black metal energy and puts it on a super fast speed course destined for beauty! Their fourth track Oaks Ablaze is the "on the fritz" serenade of a forest wildfire, which is unfortunate only because of so few forests left in the world for what was originally a natural act.

Then their fifth track, Sleep To The Sound of the Waves Crashing, speeds back up with relatively slow, screaming vocals which maintains the beauty of the album. Halfway through the song the band harkens back to folk metal and maintains that beauty before returning back to raw black metal energy. Their sixth track, Pale Ghosts, continues the song's melody with slower vocals and slower speed. Then comes their seventh track, A Superior Lament that carries with it the sound of melancholy and black metal. The singer mixes throughout the song a much, much lower voice akin to GWAR (non-anarchist metal band) mixed with periods of lighter voices with clear and distinct dark lyrics that are lovable. Their last song for the album, The Wind's Farewell, has a mix of folk metal and black metal for the introduction of the song, but the composition of the song is mostly black metal and finishes with dark ambience. Altogether a beautiful album from a very skilled metal band. I definitely recommend them!