DAWN OF DREAMS

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Dawn of Dreams is the debut studio album from Progressive Swedish death metal act Pan.Thy.Monium. Pan.Thy.Monium is yet another of the bands/ projects that prolific Swedish musician/composer/Producer Dan Swanö has been involved in. Just to mention a few of the bands/ projects that he has been a part of in some way I could mention: Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Maceration, Katatonia, Bloodbath, Unicorn, Second Sky. But the list is longer than that. Dan Swanö is without a doubt one of the most important musicians on the Swedish progressive metal and rock scene. Pan.Thy.Monium is definitely in the heavy end of his musical output and people not used to listening to death metal will probably not by converted to a fan of the genre by Dawn of Dreams as it´s not the most easily accessible album in that genre ( Try Crimson by Edge of Sanity instead).

The music is progressive in structure and especially the 21:49 opening track is interesting. Lots of different sections. The other six songs are more basic death metal tracks but still hold progressive elements. All songs are named Untitled. No real names have been given. The metal style is Swedish old school death metal and you´re instantly reminded of early releases from other Swedish death metal bands like Entombed, Dismember, Carnage, Grave and Unleashed. Just add more complex song structures and progressive elements like occasional free jazz sax and spacy synths and you´re just about there. The mood is very sinister and the deep growling vocals sound dark and angry.

All musicians on the album use pseudonyms and it´s only because I know that Dan Swanö used the Day Disyraah monicker on the sole album from the Danish/ Swedish death metal project band Maceration called A Serenade of Agony (1992), that I realised that he was the one responsible for bass and keyboards on Dawn of Dreams. The growling vocals are handled by Derelict aka Roberth Karlsson (also vocalist on the Cryptic album from Edge of Sanity). Winter aka Benny Larsson ( Edge of Sanity) plays the drums while Aag aka Tom Nouga ( Dan Swanö´s brother and later member of Nightingale) plays Lead guitars, organ and barytone saxophone. Mourning aka Robert Ivarsson (Ophthalamia, Ashes, Incapacity) handles the rythm guitars.

The musicianship is excellent and I found myself enjoying more than one odd rythm and spacy synth part here and there. A really well playing band. The compositions are generally very strong too. One of the greatest assets to Pan.Thy.Monium´s sound is the saxophone. It´s not that it is used very often, but when it is used it sounds great and really gives the music some of it´s originality.

The production is pretty old school and sounds very good and raw to my ears but I´ve always enjoyed those early nineties Swedish death metal productions and this is no exception.

Dawn of Dreams is a very unusual death metal release even though there are many recognisable elements on the album. They are just put together in an unconventional way that works wonders IMO. Dawn of Dreams is one of the better albums Dan Swanö has participated on and deserves much more attention than it´s underground status provides it. Recommended to anyone interested in Swedish death metal with added unusual ( slightly avant garde at times) elements. The album deserves somewhere between 3 and 4 stars but I´m gonna go for a 4 star rating. An excellent album.