| Rehearsal Tracks (Reh. CD.) | 2001 | No Label |
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Pantheïst's lengthy Rehearsal Tracks album consists of two demo's (of which the first '1000 years' is just a raw version), songs for an upcoming concept album and 2 additional covers. While just in their beginning stages, this young Belgian band shows the potential to challenge the mighty Finland one day!
This potpourri of Funeral Doom starts out with an organ intro that would turn the Phantom of the Opera green with envy. This intro and the other first 4 songs are raw versions of the upcoming demo '1000 years'. Slow, brooding funeral doom with some creative touches like dual vocals. Overall very impressive and definitely something for anybody into Skepticism or Thergothon. The keyboards make the whole sound more accessible.
However, a clear give away that these tracks are still in a very raw, unprocessed form, is the guitar sound. It suffers due to the lack of production (this is a rehearsal CD after all), making it sound rather thin. Really nice is a track in Dutch called 'Liefde voor niemand'. It is nice to see a band daring to also write lyrics in their mother tongue.
Tracks 6 to 8 are, according to the band, destined for an upcoming concept album. Musically however they are in the line of the previous tracks. The keyboard sound is lusher and overall these songs sound better worked out and more finished than the '1000 years' tracks.
The ninth track is a cover of Katatonia's 'For Funerals to Come'. Pantheïst must have been aware of my personal taste here, as I think this is one of the best tracks Katatonia ever recorded. The band recorded this for the mp3.com Katatonia cover contest. Given the high quality of this work it's an outrage they didn't win it. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that they created a darkwavish epos without any metal traces? Or perhaps because most modern-day Katatonia fans are not familiar with this ageing track?
Next comes the, as the band themselves put it, "mediocre Anathema cover (just for fun)", 'Destiny'. If you ask me it is a lot better than mediocre. However the haunting and brooding atmosphere of the original song has mostly been lost. And that was exactly the thing that made the original track so strong. So a bit of a shame here.
The last 3 songs on the album have been taken from the first Pantheïst demo 'Dying Millennium'. While the funeral element is present, the metal element is not. As such I am edging towards labelling this as dark ambient or darkwave. The rather dark spacey sounds and drums remind me of a band like Pazuzu. Perhaps a little more than it should. You can easily float away on this music, lie on your bed and just doze off. Only to wake up again bathing in sweat due to some horrible nightmare taken straight out of a gothic novel. The last track 'exit' however should have been just that: exit. Kostas, in a review elsewhere on this site, complained about the unnecessary noise track on Katatonia's 'For Funerals to come', but that is exactly what 'Exit' is, an unnecessary noise track.
All in all, this rehearsal recording gives us an overview of a very promising young funeral doom band from Belgium. They still sound a little ruff around the edges and need to work on perfecting their material, but when they do I am sure they will become one of the bigger and better names within the Funeral Doom genre. And I'm not just saying that because Kostas works for Doom-metal.com, this is really good. For more information E-mail Kostas at pan@doom-metal.com.
1. 1000 years (intro)
2. Time
3. Lust
4. Liefde voor niemand
5. 1000 years
6. Apologeia
7. Envy
8. Pride
9. For Funerals to Come
10. Destiny
11. Praeludium
12. Descendance
13. Exit
Approx. 67 minutes
| 1000 years (Demo) | 2001 | No Label |
Running at half the length of 66 minutes, this demo offers us, probably, the best that Belgium has to offer in the field of Funeral Doom. Ultra slow distorted doom, with vocals straight from the pits of hell go hand in hand with sweet but nihilistic sounding piano riddles, or a blood-chilling organ. Monotone spoken-word, and distant wheeping vocals complete the picture. In short, a true feast for the fans of pure solid depression.
While I'd class this Funeral Doom, Pantheïst's style is not a copy of any of the Finnish masters. They do not sound as cold the way, for example, Skepticism or Dolorian do. Pantheïst's music is more mournful. They truly do the name funeral doom the most credit, as I can really imagine this music going well at an actual funeral, enhancing the feelings of loss and dread with the assembled mourners. I am especially charmed by the piano piece 'Liefde voor niemand' (love for nobody). My guess is that this sad work can bring down the positive atmosphere at any party. The song contains just a piano, organ and spoken word (in Dutch), creating a truly haunting and blood chilling atmosphere.
Compared to their rehearsal recordings, the songs now sound finished, and the production is also a lot better. All in all this is great demo, that I think would appeal to any fan of Skepticism, Shape of Despair or other Funeral Doom acts. Also for any of you who visit the forum on doom-metal.com and are not aware of this, you can say hello to the entire band behind this dark act, from Kostas and Nicolas to their session basist Lawrence.
1. Intro
2. Time
3. Lust
4. Envy Us
5. Liefde voor niemand
6. 1000 years
Approx. 33 minutes
| O Solitude (CD) | 2003 | Firebox |
It begins with a sudden crushing wave of guitars and plush double bass (the huge, low-pitched string instrument), with Kostas Panagiotou’s wretched, tormented bark following shortly afterward, and continues this way for the next 58 minutes or so...this album could no better be described than as a series of requiems - funeral music. And it is of such good quality, and displays such rich emotion, that I wonder whether or not these four men are perhaps not humans, but some far supreme race. It’s THAT good.
And It’s not as if I’m some kind of funeral doom fanatic either, as I’m simply not (although this band have inspired me to research the genre further). Because, although most describe Pantheïst as a funeral doom band, they are far above the limitations this or any other genres provide...so don’t let this categorization restrain you from giving the band a listen. Hell, if a fussy, pre-pubescent My Dying Bride obsessed nerd can fall madly in love with Pantheïst, anyone can.
Another remark numerous critics have taken to is that the band is heavily influenced by classical music, which, to a point, is true. For starters, the monolithic fan-favourite ‘Envy Us’, which also features a superb vocal contribution from deep-growling multi-project/instrumentalist Stijn Van Cauter (who also sometimes aids the band as live rhythm guitarist), is directly influenced by, and includes re-arranged music courtesy of the great classical composers Beethoven and Chopin. And there are several other direct classical influences also...the afore-mentioned double bass as well as lots of other interesting acoustic instrumentation, the heavy usage of synth, keys and piano, the general song structures etc., however, I think this is definitely still a metal release. The music also features its fair share of (reasonably) speedy, aggressive moments, with rampant drum-bashing, frenzied vocals and potent guitars (at one point, at the near-end of ‘Time’, there is even a solo guitar improvisation, which one cannot resist air-guitaring devotedly to), however, these are few and far between. No, for a majority of the time, the music is downbeat, slow and arduous, deeply dark, depressing and mournful, and crushingly heavy, but still very tense, emotive and atmospheric. Besides the growls and screams of pain, the vocals are also often sombrely chanted or crooned, and there is the occasional empathic yet miserable spoken word also. The second track, ‘Don’t Mourn’ seems to have been proving to be especially popular and discussed thus far, being extra slow, mellow and atmospheric. It’s also incredibly emotional, and by the time it reaches the climax of the song, represented by the high-pitched, sweet-sounding baglama at roughly the 10 minute mark, you desperately want to burst into tears and wallow in misery forevermore.
This is...one of the doomiest, greatest pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time (if not ever), and I cannot stress enough how much I think anyone remotely interested in sad, heavy, emotive music should at least check this amazing band out. You can do so via their official website; www.pantheist.co.uk. These young fellows really have work to be proud of with this masterpiece, and have a massively promising future ahead of them...okay, so perhaps it won’t be wrought with ‘chicks, booze and money’, but success within the doom-metal scene for sure.
1. O Solitude
2. Don't Mourn
3. Time
4. Envy us
5. Curse the Morning Light
Approx. 58 minutes
| Amartia (CD) | 2005 | Firedoom |
Since 2000, when Kostas Panagiotou started Pantheist as a solo project, their main goal has been to create deep, sorrowful, dark and melancholic music. The band went through various changes (Kostas moving from Belgium to the United Kingdom, different line-ups etc.) but they remained strong and alive creating surely their best album.
The strongest feature of Pantheist is that they have managed to re-enforce their funeral doom metal with lots of emotion, mournful, yet melodic musical themes and deep atmospheres, which has nothing to do with the credo “our goal is to be the slowest band on earth” that many similar funeral doom bands have. The band’s music and their art in general is what count here and not how slow or extreme they may sound. By realizing this, the listener can enjoy one of the deepest and darker funeral doom metal albums released lately.
Ten tracks combine together into a religious concept. Strong attention should be paid to Kostas Panagiotou's lyrics as they are pieces of poetic art, fitting perfectly into the total musical background of the band. Listening to the music, I would like to point that Mark and Andy from Esoteric have brought some pieces of Esoteric’s heaviness and darkness to Pantheist, so expect the heavy parts to be even heavier.
If you ask me to pick some favorite tunes from this release I would surely choose 'Apologeia' and 'Lust' –which, in my opinion, are the best songs on this release. The production is good and the artwork is perfect for such a release.
To round up this review I must say that 'Amartia' is the ideal album for all funeral doomsters out there. Being strongly selective as far as the funeral doom releases that I finally choose to hear, I can strongly recommend this one. After all, 'Lust' will continue to haunt me.
Chapter I
1. Apologeia
Chapter II
2. Gluttony
3. Envy
4. Lust
5. First Prayer
6. Pride
7. Greed
8. Sloth
9. Wrath
Chapter III
10. Metanoia
Approx. 77 minutes