Review Summary: Watching the mountains sleep
The fact that
Roads to the North is Panopticon’s most refined release since 2009’s
Collapse is a telling argument toward the pure simplicity that once drove the band’s first two albums. Since then, things became a bit muddled by grandiose thematic ambitions that had trouble translating into a single, cohesive album. Sure,
Social Disservices was effective in conveying its unabated aggression and heartfelt anger through near-constant, bombastic heaviness, but that album was more brute force than it was finesse. Both
Panopticon and
Collapse were more adept at incorporating a contrasting shade to Austin Lunn’s tumultuous drumming and thunderous riffing, while
Kentucky and the compilation
…On the Subject of Mortality tended to distance the two elements rather than let them intermingle with each other.
Roads to the North allows tracks like “Where Mountains Pierce the Sky” to explore both facets whose meeting and melting is vital to the success of Panopticon’s overall atmosphere, as the band’s sound is more layered than it may first appear to be. Similarly, soft ballads like the serene “Norwegian Nights” have a massive presence that simply would not exist had it not been slotted directly alongside the impossibly heavy black metal that laces every aspect of “In Silence”. It’s a stunning example that musical depth is more than just paying homage to a variety of sounds, ideas, and structures. It is instead having the talent and vision to make all of these divergent attributes come alive and actually converge into a single, cohesive piece, and
Roads to the North does that.
This success is due in no small part to the inspiration behind the album, and it is clearly apparent that Lunn’s move from Kentucky to Minnesota and also his time in Norway left a lasting, tangible impact on his attitude towards life and music, as shown by the relative softness that courses through the heart of each track. The melodies that shine through the often abrasive riffing give an aura of beauty to the otherwise crushing barrage of instruments, allowing complexities like the downright brilliant drumming to shine where it might otherwise be lost in a wall of reverb. “The Long Road Part 2: Capricious Miles” shows off an impressive array of layers as it ventures through screaming guitars to a mid-tempo bridge where the gentle bass swells and retreats, doing so with a warm fluidity that bleeds into the equally comforting intro of the trilogy’s conclusion “The Long Road Part 3: The Sigh of Summer”, giving the track’s name true substance through its radiant composition. It is all so finely crafted that it makes you wonder why it took over 5 years for Panopticon to have another release of this caliber, as Austin Lunn clearly has the songwriting talent to so expertly turn an idea or an experience into aural form. The pieces have been there all along, as Lunn has always incorporated these elements into his music, it just took the right creative spark to make them come together so cleanly and with such conviction like they did when the project first began. So, the record takes no risks, and journeys no roads that Panopticon hasn’t been down before, yet through an almost virtuosic ability to take a powerful experience and translate the feelings it invokes into music
Roads to the North stands head and shoulders above most of the band’s discography.
