Band:	Panopticon
Album:	Social Disservices
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	November 2011
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Resident
02. Client
03. Subject
04. Patient

Black metal has its very own aesthetic and way of creating images and ambiance with the potential to transfer you to a hostile or oppressive environment willing to welcome you with open arms. And that magic is omnipresent through the whole duration of an album you stumble upon all of a sudden and it manages to captivate your interest without trying hard. That's what happened to me when I came across Panopticon's third full-length, Social Disservices.

A. Lundr, the figure behind the band, hails from the US and performs everything on Social Disservices. There are two types of one-man bands, either they will overwhelm you with their phenomenal inspiration or they are too rotten to be exposed to the outside world. Panopticon are part of the first category and I'm really glad. The band moves in atmospheric black metal soundscapes with a massive sound and drowned melody that rises from internal depths struggling to come to the surface. Even the cover artwork depicts this asphyxiating aesthetic with the tormented figure with the face on the ground and the daggers all around. And the lyrics could only be like-minded, there's a sense of discomfort and pain, an agony of what will follow and how much longer one may endure to the scars, interior or concrete.

Social Disservices consists of four compositions and will accompany you for about 50 minutes. I really like the structure of the album, it climaxes backwards and the more time passes the more the anchor reaches for unfound depths on a journey to locate the centre of your heart and turn it to smithereens. "Resident" opens the curtain with childish bliss and laughter to burst into a distressing massive assault of dissonance filled with circular riffing, upbeat drumming and horrifying howls. Children's cries and an unearthly vibe supersede all laughter leading to "Client" that follows the same pathway, massive still but in a more fragile vein with a more weeping guitar tone. "Subject" succumbs to more industrial undertones and unveils a more chaotic face that explodes into a torrent of intense emotive melody. The time is right, the compass lies broken, nowhere to hide, nowhere to go, you're just another "Patient" which happens to be the closing 20-minute magnum opus of Social Disservices. A heart-rending lasting whisper of all that is blurry, hiding the sun, lying among fragile chords, sharp riffing and melodious ideas, pounding bass lines, petrified screams and the violin, if my ears have shown me the right direction.

Everything's accomplished, from the inspirational factor to the instrumentation and from the atmosphere to the production that caresses every single moment with the same interest yet through the prism it deserves. Panopticon managed to compose a sincere work of atmospheric black metal that flows like a waterfall, with one difference, the few seconds before the impact last 20 minutes.