PAN.THY.MONIUM

The music style is sombre and sinister death metal with lots of atmospheric keyboards. The vocals are brutal growls and this is probably not for the faint at heart. The songs are not as experimental as later output from the band but this is not ordinary old school Swedish death metal either allthough the music is certainly rooted in that genre. Aag aka Tom Nouga (Lead guitars, organ, barytone saxophone) has not entered the band yet and his future contributions on saxophone are especially missed on Dream II. The three first songs ( named I, II and III) on the EP are in experimental death metal style while the fourth track called Vvoiiccheeces is a short atmospheric keyboard track. The bonus track IV is in the same style as the first three.

The musicianship is good and the sound quality is actually pretty good if you compare it to the standard of those days. Raw and unpolished but still enjoyable.

Dream II is a must for the fans of the band and it should also hold some interest to fans of early experimental Swedish death metal. I find later releases more interesting but Dream II is certainly a worthwhile purchase. A 3 star rating but actually close to a 4.

...Dawn consists of four songs in sinister and dark death metal style. As on the debut album from Pan.Thy.Monium called Dawn of Dreams (1992) all musicians are working under pseudonyms and Dan Swanö calls himself Day Disyraah. Dan plays bass and keyboards on the demo and if you know his later work with bands like Edge of Sanity, Nightingale and his solo album Moontower (1998) his style is easily recognisable. The motifs he plays on ...Dawn is just a bit darker and weirder than his usual keyboard style. Aag aka Tom Nouga (Lead guitars, organ, barytone saxophone) has not entered the band yet and his contributions which helped to make the debut album such a great experience are missed even though the music is still interesting and experimental. The vocals are really deep and brutal. Very powerful IMO.

The musicianship is good but it is obvious that ...Dawn is a demo and you should not expect vacuum tight musicianship.

The production is raw and rather primitive. You can easily make out everything that´s happening though and as far as early nineties extreme metal demo productions go this one is one of the best I´ve heard.

...Dawn has been a pleasant surprise for me. When I saw that the demo was released in 1990 I didn´t expect much from the sound quality, the musicianship or the compositions but ...Dawn proved me wrong. If you like any other of Dan Swanö´s extreme metal releases you should most definitely seek this one out as well. A bit more brutal and primitive than most of his output but very enjoyable anyway. 3 stars is well deserved. I even considered a 4 star rating for a while but that´s what I gave Dawn of Dreams and that album is superiour to ...Dawn so a 3 star rating will do.

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.