Pantheist are now on their third album, having renewed their contract with Firebox Records although it must be said that this is the first album I have heard by them. It took a good number of listens for me to get my head around this release, but it was worth it with the end result. This really does ingrain a farrago of elements within the drawn out, funereal sound and while there is an overall feeling of misery projected throughout the album, there is so much more to the piece than such a tag would allow you to believe.
The keyboard lines bombard the ears with a psychedelic flavour that bursts out with an alarming sense of histrionics that is a bit haunting in places, and at other times just downright strange. They sweep through passages leaving behind a trail of dread filled ambience across the soundscape. The Paganic wails slice through the thick, blackened walls that hold it all in place, before arriving with a chaotic burst of dirty guitars, as the drums charge ahead while the vocals evolve into a guttural growl.
‘The Loss Of Innocence’ sounds much more desolate as the dramatic vocal lines give a presence of melancholy that feels like a mournful requiem; the downhearted piano playing out into the next track. ‘Oblivion’ drags along at snail pace giving the track a rather beautiful solitary feel as the cosmic sprinkling of synths collide with the dread filled vocals until it thins out as the ocean waves sweep cover them allowing the hymnal humming to flatly seep through to the fore. The clean vocals on ‘Eternal Sorrow’ fit the song beautifully, and this has an entrancingly sorrowful melody with its low key bottom end that bumbles along as the guitars gradually pick up heaviness. ‘Mourning The Passing Of Certainty’ takes us out with a Gregorian chant that plays out against a backdrop of minimalist drum beats that gives a surreal ambience that ebbs and flows.
This album actually feels a bit like a long journey through lands unknown, as it does seem to finish in a different place to where it starts off, taking the listener through plenty of twists and turns along the way. At times, there is the tendency for the tracks to drag on longer than my attention can handle, but on the whole this is a well structured album that adds something a bit unique to my collection.
http://pantheist.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/pantheistuk
