Pantheon I - Worlds I Create
Candlelight Records
Black Metal
8 songs (47:30)
Release year: 2009
Pantheon I, Candlelight Records
Reviewed by Thomas

Pantheon I caught my attention with some fairly interesting moments on their previous release The Wanderer and His Shadow. With female celloist Live Julianne Kostøl’s somewhat creative contribution to a rather generic death-influenced black metal band, they spawned some moments of true and magic black melodies. However, the great deal of inconsistency that cursed that album made it nothing more than a regular black metal release that, except the mentioned moments, was nothing but a weak breath in a raging hurricane. Now, two cold and black winters later, Pantheon I return with Worlds I Create which is basically more of the same, perhaps with a little more defined direction. With the ever so strong focus on melody still in an important position here, the band is definitely trying to pin the listener down from the first moment on. This is some intense black metal, and Myself Above All blazes out of your speakers with a surprising speed that reminds me first and foremost of Keep of Kalessin. The ultra-fast yet interesting tremolo-riffing and even faster drumming transforms into a death metal-riff that is both creative and furious, before everything is broken down to a melodic and mellow chorus firmly backed by Kostøl’s cello. Though this formula seems pretty interesting at first, they tend to rely on this scheme for the first three-four songs, and it gets pretty boring rather fast even though the song-writing may be of slightly higher quality than their previous album.

To be perfectly honest, and even though the songs have some admittedly enjoyable passages, the first song that instantly grabs me is the only song sung in Norwegian Bannlyst. Where the other songs fail on keeping stuff interesting for the majority of the time spent, this tune sets the powerful mood from the start with the distinct presence of guitarist and vocalist Andre Kvebek and of course the mentioned Kostøl’s magically atmospheric string strokes. This song is reminiscent of The Wanderer and His Shadow’s Shedim among others, and in my humblest of opinions, I feel that this is the way the band should be going rather than the fast, non-compromising way, where they come off as a little lackluster and average. With a focus on combining atmosphere and melody as well as a heavy bunch of aggression and pure evil, this band could reach their full potential as they clearly have talent to create some truly capturing moments. This record is again a proof of the potential lying within these black ravens’ hearts, however, three records with potential and hardly any improvement is well, not very impressive. This band is going in circles, and as of now, they never seem to find their way around the generic and expression-less brand of deadly black metal they have chosen, and potential fans that are eagerly waiting will be nothing but frustrated at another half-assed attempt from these Norwegian warriors.

Even though they are trying to add new elements, like clean Vortex-like vocals and more technical and fast musicianship, the improvement is very thin, and even though the songwriting is some inches better, they once again fail to make a complete impression on the enormous black metal underground. This is in no way bad as they are enjoyable enough as a band with some heart-touching moments and a lot of uninteresting ones. The number of standout tracks is fewer than on their last one, however, their consistency has improved at least which leave this in the same spot as The Wanderer….. Turn on your direction-finder guys! You’re going the wrong way!

MySpace
Killing Songs :
Myself Above All, Bannlyst
Thomas quoted 70 / 100
Other albums by Pantheon I that we have reviewed:
Pantheon I - The Wanderer and His Shadow reviewed by Thomas and quoted 70 / 100
0 readers voted
Average:
 0
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are 0 replies to this review. Last one on Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:12 pm
View and Post comments