Review Summary: The Laurentian Trilogy roars, soars, and sings to a close with another discography highlight from Panopticon.
Panopticon has been churning out quality albums for years and at this point have comfortably carved out their own niche amongst the increasingly homogenized landscape of the modern day black metal scene. While early albums were very much the sum of their influences, in the intervening years, bandleader and primary songwriter Austin Lunn has expanded into his own space where black metal comfortably cohabitates with Appalachian folk, ethereal post rock focused on serene string compositions, and an ever present focus on nature and how we as the human populace connect to it. Over the years and releases, this genre melding has led Panopticon to its own sound unique to them that can’t be pigeonholed as a product of something else, and released some damn fine albums in the process.
Rounding out a trilogy that started with …And Again Into the Light and bridged with other discography highlight The Rime of Memory, Det Hjemsokte Hjertet (The Haunted Heart) brings the narrative journey to a fittingly cathartic and, perish the word, “epic” end. While blast beats and distorted tremolo riffs accented with flourishes of the ethereal have always formed the backbone of the project’s sound, the trilogy thus far has embraced a more optimistic and post rock forward approach, and here that sound has been brought to its most dramatic conclusion, tipping the scales to an album of post rock accented by black metal.
Strings, keys, and shimmering melodies take the forefront on this batch of songs, sonically cohesive and best experienced as a whole. Much like The Rime of Memory, there isn’t one song that stands head and shoulders above the rest, instead there is a constant stream of moments that grab the attention and work their way into the consciousness of the listener: The swelling, ebbing, flowing, melancholic opener “Woodland Caribou” morphs from its string heavy opening progression while adding layers of distortion and shrieking vocals until it seamlessly becomes a black metal behemoth over its 12 minute runtime. The track starts us off strong, and sets something of a template moving forward.
The way that single “The Great Silence, Extinct” pulls off almost the diametric opposite is a case study in Panopticon’s mastery of dynamics. Starting as the album’s most ferociously heavy number, a seamless and triumphant transition halfway in takes it from black metal heater to guitar led major key post rock that soars above the tree tops Lunn pays homage to in the lyrics. The production is also worth mentioning here, as it shines throughout the album, and it really lets the compositions breathe in an organic space that a lot of modern production simply doesn’t afford. It might not exactly be hi-fi, but the sonic space this album exists in services it perfectly.
The album follows this template of juxtaposing Panopticon’s typical cacophony of heaviness with a heretofore unseen level of beauty navigated via strings and post rock embellishments, occasionally bringing to mind some influences outside of the usual suspects. “Blood and Fur Upon the Snow” shimmers with almost American Football-esque bells and whistles (very literally), and the climaxes tend to evoke more obscure genre straddlers like Mono and The Evpatoria Report, as opposed to the staples usually called upon such as Explosions or Godspeed.
The closing track Ghost Eyes in the Firelight brings the album, and in fact the whole trilogy full circle, encompassing the best soundscapes of both into an impressive culmination of fittingly grandiose proportions. The less said on specifics the better, this track is truly an all timer for both the band and the genre. Suffice it to say, if you like Panopticon, you will like this track and this album.
If a criticism can be leveled at Det Hjemsokte Hjertet, it’s that the album’s entire hour plus runtime treads the same waters for the most part… but when the waters are this warm and inviting though, it’s hardly an issue. Take a trip with this album. Literally. Walk through the woods. Drive through the mountains. Or just curl up with good headphones and a pet, going on your own journey in your mind.
However you experience it, just don’t let the fire burn out.
