...AND AGAIN INTO THE LIGHT

Despite playing more or less the same style for over a decade now, Panopticon are a bit hit or miss with me. The combination of cascadian atmospheric black metal with traditional American folk music, country and bluegrass sure is interesting, but only at a few points has Austin Lunn's melancholic longing completely captivated me. Fortunately, this is one of them, and I'm glad to be firmly back on the wagon this time around. It's the flirtations with post-metal that lock me in here - not just the usual blackgaze bits and pieces, but glimpses of the new scene of melancholic, heavy shoegaze in the vein of Holy Fawn, totally detached from black metal. Erik Moggridge's feature absolutely lights this one up (although when does he not), bringing some slowcore melancholy to the already bleak mix of genres. It definitely still has long sections of relatively uneventful atmoblack, but when it's on song this is truly some of the most passionate music in the genre.

7.2 (4th listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction