PAN.THY.MONIUM Dawn Of Dreams music review by sagichim

Pan.Thy.Monium is maybe the most obscure project out of the many projects headed by Dan Swano. The band keeps falling into obscurity even more since they haven't released any album in the past 16 years, but still remains a minor classic in the underground scene of avant-metal. Released in 1992 this album is one of the pioneers to mix extreme metal with clear jazzy influences and other avant-garde elements. I remember hearing two songs from it on the radio in a metal program in 1992, and thought "This i never heard before", not only the music was special but one of the songs was 22 minutes long!. At that time nobody knew it was a Dan Swano project, the musicians listed here are with...well you can say avant-garde names as well. The band has a very interesting sound, and what appears to be clear at first is the contrast between the instruments. Rhythm guitars and the riffing has a very low sludgy tone, it's like the strings are about to fall, guitar sound when it solos does not have your typical extreme metal sound but has a very clear sound with a very jazzy touch, it's like all of a sudden Alan Holdsworth joined the band. Vocals, like the guitars are very low and heavy growls but are not in your face, they are like low quiet growls almost whispering at times, heavy but pleasant. Keys are a nice addition and are done with great taste, always gives the perfect atmosphere to that doomy feel. Saxophone is another unexpected addition and gives that final avant-garde touch, with all kinds of shrieks and avant playing. Bass is groovy, making his way between the riffs, and is not just there under the music, What i like the most are the guitars, the riffs are impressive and the solos are just right, hitting all the right notes with fast playing and great jazzy feel.

The first part of the album contains a 22 minutes long piece of superb progressive extreme metal. The music goes from one idea to the next easily without being repetitive at all. Great riff after great riff, the music builts it self, and goes from slow doomy stuff to faster breaks which keeps the listener on his toes all the time, not knowing where they are going to be in the next minute, this is really progressive in the most classic sense of the word. Again keys gives the perfect mood and suites the music perfectly with a very good sound, perfectly mixed. After about 14 minutes of ever-changing music going in several direction the band is calming down, and the music changes to some latin language like spoken vocals, when in the back clean guitar and bass are babbling, and are actually very good. It then goes back to the heavy music and as it approaches the end it slows down and some piano notes are joining in along with the sax to finish the piece in the most beautiful way, giving it a very good closure feel. Amazing! This is one of those music pieces that goes by so quickly that makes you wonder "Was that 20 minutes now??" This track is worth having the album alone.

The second part includes six tracks ranging from 3 to 4 minutes songs, all contains interesting and unusual riffing or instrumentation but still are less progressive and exciting than the first piece, they do not bring the album down although at first listen can be considered as more straight forward, which they are definitely not. All songs are untitled BTW, so another highlight is the sixth track, which starts with something that sounds like a saxophone under water, bass plays the main riff and as the heavy distortion bang comes it reveals a beautiful clarinet line, than all joining in the riff as it switches time signatures few times changing the main riff slightly, superb, superb, superb!!

In conclusion even after 20 years after it's release and as evolving as this genre is, the music still is refreshing, exciting and full of ideas. Extreme prog metal lovers that don't mind heavy growls in their music, will lick their fingers on this one, secondly this would appeal to fans of bands like Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Mr. Bungle and other avant extreme bands. As it may seem weird at the begining, it's really rewarding at the end. If the rest of the album would have been as interesting as the first track i would rate it with 5 stars without hesitating, but being slightly inferior this is a 4 stars minimum. Highly Recommended!

sagichim | 4/5 | 2012-5-22

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