Band:	Panzerfaust
Album:	The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion
Style:	Black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	November 22, 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. The Hesychasm Unchained
02. When Even The Ground is Hostile
03. The Damascene Conversions
04. Occam's Fucking Razor
05. To Shadow Zion (No Sanctuary)

This album contains the final sounds of a doomed world, at the terminus of all paradises lost. At Shadow Zion.

I spent a bit of time waffling in my review of The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter III: The Astral Drain about how fantastic Panzerfaust’s The Suns Of Perdition trilogy was, but it turns out I spoke too soon, as the completed project is in fact as quadrilogy. This apocalyptic series evidently inspired a glut of creativity on the part of the Canadian black metal band, who have now released more albums in the past 5 years than they managed in the preceding decade-plus going back to their formation. Whether this prolific activity is sustained in the project’s aftermath remains to be seen, but The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion is a truly fitting conclusion to an epic saga.

The band’s musical trajectory across the first three chapters of The Suns Of Perdition was one going in an increasingly atmospheric direction, transforming from dissonance-tinged black metal on Chapter I: War, Horrid War to something verging on blackened post-metal at times during Chapter III: The Astral Drain. In some ways, Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion represents a reversal of this trend (and an abandonment of the interludes introduced in the last chapter), as there is a much greater ferocity overall, but in other ways it is arguably a summation of the preceding chapters and simultaneously an evolution forward.

After both The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter II: Render Unto Eden and The Astral Drain opened with slow-burners, To Shadow Zion opts for a more direct strategy, steadily building a sinister atmosphere in its opening couple of minutes through dissonant guitar layers, busy drumwork and harsh vocals trading off with one another, before shifting gears with an onslaught of rapid tremolo riffs and relentless double bass drumming. Across the song (and album), drummer Alexander Kartashov underlines his MVP status in Panzerfaust, unleashing some exhilarating fills and rhythms during “The Hesychasm Unchained” (I especially enjoy the liberal ride cymbal use), but the pinch harmonics, triumphant tremolo riffing and hoarse roars are also exciting features of this opening song.

The heightened aggression of To Shadow Zion is further demonstrated by “When Even The Ground Is Hostile”, comfortably the album’s shortest song at a spritely 6 minutes, and one that is fairly rampant throughout, relying mainly on Kartashov’s varying drumming patterns to depict minor shifts in tone. While this fierce blackened assault is thrilling in its execution, it would have been a shame for Panzerfaust to shy away entirely from the more understated atmospherics that made Chapters II and III so captivating, and as such it is a relief to hear this other side of the band’s style during “The Damascene Conversions”. This track features baglama from guest musician Ahmet Ihvani, and the evolution across the first few minutes of this song as first clean guitar and then baglama are brought into the fray, along with the exemplary accompaniment by Kartashov, is outstanding – so outstanding, in fact, that it is mostly repeated after a brief vocal outburst, after which the group finally let loose with more sustained heaviness.

Pretty much whatever Panzerfaust set their mind to on To Shadow Zion is executed in style, and its two strongest songs are arguably the final pair. “Occam’s Fucking Razor” is quite a patient song, holding itself back a tad in the first few minutes while still letting a fantastically memorable riff plant its hooks in you, but it gradually ratchets up the aggression, percussive intensity and dissonance, becoming almost hellish, before kicking into a fast-paced punky groove that makes for good old-fashioned headbanging fare. The song eventually de-escalates, culminating in a sound that is more ominous than apocalyptic; it is instead the title track that is given the responsibility of reading humanity’s last rites, and after a similar trajectory of intensification to “Occam’s Razor”, “To Shadow Zion (No Sanctuary)” unleashes an awesome rapid-speed melodic blackened tremolo riff. However, it is the grandstand climax, steady in tempo and accentuated by almost euphoric post-rock tremolos, that offers perhaps the most striking sounds heard across the whole album.

Given the almost uniformly excellent standard of quality across all 4 records, I imagine most people’s rankings of the four chapters of The Suns Of Perdition will be influenced in large part by personal genre preferences. When all is said and done, I think Chapter II: Render Unto Eden perhaps edges it for me due to finding that sweet spot between the black metal and post-metal, but Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion follows not far behind, and is an excellent final component of what is one of the outstanding achievements in modern black metal.