Pantheïst - Pantheist review
| Band: | Pantheïst |
| Album: | Pantheist |
| Style: | Funeral doom metal |
| Release date: | April 08, 2011 |
| A review by: | KwonVerge |
01. One Of These Funerals
02. Broken Statue
03. The Storm
04. Be Here
05. 4:59
06. Brighter Days
07. Live Through Me
I'm pretty sure you remember Pantheist, one of the most upcoming names in the world of funeral doom back in the 00s. The basics remained, but still, they had a personal approach on the sound of this very special scene. There was will for something different, but there were the boundaries of funeral doom keeping them chained. The big breakthrough came with Journey Through Lands Unknown and everything you knew concerning this band suddenly came to a different level. There were attachments to the past, but still, Pantheist were not the same. The only trademark you can rely on have to be Kostas' vocals and the piano/keyboard curtain.
Three years later, the time came for their self-titled work, the one expanding their sound territory even more, making their approach on music harder to categorize. Less is more, more is less and that's what the cover artwork propagandizes, a minimalistic approach on the cover, a title that depicts the band itself and as for the... more... it's all about music.
Imagine a generic doom approach in terms of composing but even more like a lurking sense, something like the spirit from the past that has been entombed deep within the sound chambers of this band. And then you lose yourself in the vast abyss of musical interpretation. The keyboards, the effects and the vocal lines play the most important role in this experimenting attempt. But still, you wouldn't consider the guitars and the rhythm section as secondary intruders, they're more like the king's relatives rather than his humble servants. There are enough times you will witness both the guitars and the drumming (even the bass) present a hallucinating part of immense beauty or creative intensity equally that you will start wondering what the hell is going on. And that's the fact, hell is going on and you're following unaware of what will come next. The keyboard ambiance brings forth memories of Amartia and not only, the vocals rely on their chanting or even clean singing aspect with few but to the point grunting moments, whereas the guitars in perfect combination with the rhythm section vary from time to time, according to where hell is going on. And remember, you're following.
Doom metal, ecclesiastic atmosphere, jazzy moments, 80s dark/new wave additions (The Cure mid-era musical background meets Bauhaus' Peter Murphy's aura), progressive rock injections from Pink Floyd and anything you might imagine (or not) is apparent from the very generic term "atmospheric". Proceed at your own risk, Pantheist (the album) refers to an audience whose identity cannot be identified, just like the band itself (nowadays), either you will like it or it will pass you by and there will be no hard feelings, it's one of those cases experimentation doesn't hurt. Either you "get it" or you just don't get it, as simple as that, as complex as the album and the band itself. Oh well.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 9 |
 | Written on 04.06.2011 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind." |
Comments page 2 / 2
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Comments: 48
Visited by: 211 users
| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18384  |
Written by Merchant of Doom on 05.06.2011 at 01:15 Like I said before : true... But it's still a good enough start. Why? because it has enough elements of that genre to tell the newbie what the genre is about. A pure funeral doom album might be a turn off for the completely umprepared. That's why a "transicion album" is good. It's not like they are completely death/doom either 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Ag Fox Angel No More Elite Posts: 4774  |
Nice review. I'm very curious about it now
---- loves 小巫
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702  |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 05.06.2011 at 01:43 Id' like to try some pasta... no, have some pizza, instead, it's close enough... 
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18384 |
Written by Merchant of Doom on 05.06.2011 at 23:55 Meh, really don't see how "faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar" is Ahab from Funeral Doom as you seem to put it with your food analogy since it's far from being that radical... In terms of basic riff sound and production it is funeral. It's just the composition itself isn't natural from the genre and a bit closer to death/doom. For me it's more like Funeral doom with death/doom influences rather than the other way around. Although I do accept that their second album is much less funeral and closer to death/doom, I can give you that but not the debut I won't go over this again, not here anyway since we're going way too offtopic now. I'm just going to agree we disagree. Cheers.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Quote: Ironically enough, this album did in fact leave me with a taste of disappointment. It's not bad, but at the same time I was thinking "what the hell" throughout the entire thing.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 06.06.2011 at 00:20 Looks like it...  Maybe a bit of funeral riffing in "The Call"... but that's just about it.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18384 |
Written by Merchant of Doom on 06.06.2011 at 14:05 You like to push me don't ya XD Nah, won't work now... The band is good and that's the only important thing to me.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 06.06.2011 at 14:08 I'm actually listening to "The Call..." right now, just to refresh my memory. The first track starts with some nice funeral riffage, but then it speeds up and all the funeral ambiance disappears. All the other tracks are pretty much death/doom. BTW, I'm not trying to push anybody, but it's interesting to see how we can all have different sensibilities regarding musical matters.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18384 |
Written by Merchant of Doom on 06.06.2011 at 15:38 The second track is far more funeral-like than the first, same for the last song. I know you were'nt pushing anybody, just kiddin
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| SoulScarred Posts: 45  |
I like this album, it's very refreshing and original, agree totally with the review and the rating btw, isn't it strange that some of the songs like "Be here" and "Live through me" gave me like.. a "hopeful" feeling, doesn't that contradict what funeral doom should be about xD and for Impeckable, I think you should start with Shape of Despair just like I did, I think they will give you a true idea about the genre.. 
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by SoulScarred on 09.06.2011 at 19:50 It's not strange to find hope in doom, or funeral doom for that matter, but just for the record this album isn't anywhere close to funeral doom.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 09.06.2011 at 20:11 Just wanted to type the exact same thing 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 09.06.2011 at 20:15 Nothing gets by us.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Kosst Amojan Posts: 10  |
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| R'Vannith ghedengi Elite Posts: 3099  |
Written by SoulScarred on 09.06.2011 at 19:50 Thanks for mentioning Shape of Despair, they sound fantastic! 
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| IronAngel Posts: 4883  |
Finally this album is available on Spotify so I get to hear it. I really like it, rarely is this melodic, goth-influenced doomy stuff done so tastefully. Too bad 40 Watt Sun trumps everything else, I would love to vote for this, Argus and Ixion, and probably Black Oath if I could hear the entire album.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by IronAngel on 11.02.2012 at 18:29 If I remember correctly all the tracks can be found on Youtube.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| IronAngel Posts: 4883 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 11.02.2012 at 18:32 Cool, I'll look around. Not that I'll probably vote for it anyway, it sounded good but not as distinct as a few candidates by the few tracks I listened to.
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