PAN.THY.MONIUM — Dream II (review)

PAN.THY.MONIUM — Dream II album cover EP · 1995 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
DREAM II is a short EP and the first official release of PAN.THY.MONIUM led by Dan Swanö better known for his involvement in Edge Of Sanity. This short EP of four track debuts much of the stylistic approach that the band would further develop on the three full-length albums that followed.

The band was formed by Dan Swanö (aka Day DiSyraah on bass, keyboards, effects) and his brother Dag Swanö (aka Äag aka Tom Nouga on lead guitar, organ and baritone sax) along with Edge Of Sanity member Benny Larsson (aka Winter on drums) and lead vocalist Robert Karlsson aka Derelict and Robert Ivarsson aka Mourning on rhythm guitar.

The band already showed promise on the demo “…Dawn” and really start to evolve their progressively tinged death doom metal sound on DREAM II. Many of the riffs and ideas on this EP were recycled and appear liberally on the debut album DAWN OF DREAMS which is obvious by the ticking clock effect that begins both this EP and the first album

DREAM II displays the signature sound that would carry the band all throughout their brief 90s existence. PAN.THY.MONIUM was totally an anonymous band at this point and no one had any idea that Dan Swanö was the mastermind behind the project when this came out. All four tracks are also untitled which made this band a bizarre mysterious addition to the expanding extreme metal world of the early 90s.

Graced by heavily distorted death doom metal riffs and indecipherable gutturally growled vocals, the tempos are faster than the dirge-like contemporaries and also implements spooky spectral atmospheres through the stellar work of the keyboards. While the death doom aspects are dominant, there are also thrashy chugging riffage as well as progressive outbursts of time signature rich angularities.

It’s not too difficult to understand how albums like “Crimson” evolved as Edge Of Sanity’s magnum opus when listening to PAN.THY.MONIUM. Even at this early stage a young Swanö was already heavily influenced by not only the most extreme aspects of the metal universe but equally at home with the progressive rock influences of the 70s.

This album displays all the metal madness accompanied by the avant-garde extras which include call and response monster vocalizations, ethereal electronic intermissions, various guitar riffing styles, keyboard attacks more at home on an Emerson, Lake and Palmer album and outstanding compositional fortitude. This band was light years ahead of the pack in terms of complexity. Whereas most doom based metal plodded along, PAN.THY.MONIUM was very much about variations. A spectacular and brilliant first offering.
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