Panopticon- Roads To The North
When I first heard about Panopticon a couple years ago, I was enamored with the fusion of what I at first considered two very different genres of music. The idea of combining folk and metal seems like a ground breaking and crazy idea on the surface, but when its really looked at, it makes sense to morph the two genres together. Both genres are really just trying to tell stories. Folk music is the basis of all story telling through song and metal is just a louder, more harsh way of continuing that trend. The story telling aspects of folk must have influenced many metal musicians but Panopticon is just taking it a step further by adding in the actual music that normally accompanies those folk stories. The transitions between songs are also some of the most captivating parts of the album and it is truly extraordinary the way “One Last Fire (The Long Road Pt. 1)” can focus so much on the sound of a banjo when only minutes after the crushing noise of death metal is all that can be comprehended, from the pounding drums, to the unintelligible lyrics, a 180 in the music has taken place.
