Pantheon I – The Wanderer and His Shadow (Candlelight)
Part of the reason I like metal (and all the sub-genres of it) is because it
is one of the most changing and growing genres of music. I am a fan of many
many different types of music but I continually come back to metal because
it is so diverse and has a huge amount of depth. That being said, I find
"The Wanderer and His Shadow" to be a fairly mediocre album. I am not saying
that the album is completely without merit, in fact there are a couple of
tracks that I find to be quite good, but as a whole "The Wanderer and His
Shadow" doesn't stand out all that much.
Musically speaking Pantheon I is about what you would expect from a Black
metal band. Grating vocals contrast with a pounding base line and quickly
executed drum runs. Some of the guitar sequences can get repetitive but the
guitar work itself is done well.
What bothers me most about "The Wanderer and His Shadow" is the vocals. It's
not that they are horrible, I just cannot find much of a unique element in
them. Fans are more fickle than ever because of the volume of music which
gets released onto the market everyday, the last thing they want is more of
the same.
The bottom line is this, if you want a Black metal album that sounds fairly
similar to many Black metal albums that have been released in the past, then
I encourage you to check out Pantheon I and "The Wanderer and His Shadow.
You will probably enjoy it. However, if you are looking for something that
is fresh, new, or musically innovative then I suggest you search elsewhere.
-Brian Emery
