Panopticon streaming 'The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness'

Panopticon
Panopticon – The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness Part I artwork

Panopticon‘s new two-hour-long double album The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness is due out this Friday (4/6) via Bindrune Recordings (North America) and Nordvis (Europe), but they decided to release it digitally today. Panopticon said the first half of the album is atmospheric black metal and the second half is country/folk, and they weren’t exaggerating. If you didn’t know any better, you might think the two halves were by entirely different bands.

Austin Lunn, the multi-instrumentalist mastermind behind Panopticon, recorded the album in the woods of Minnesota between 2015 and 2017, and he brought in a few guests, including Johan Becker (violin), A. Petterson (Nordvis Produktionen mastermind, also of Saiva, ex-Lönndom, ex-Armagedda — lead vocals on “En Generell Avsky”), William Seay (guest vocals on “The Singing Wilderness” and additional choir vocals on “A Ridge Where The Tall Pines Once Stood”), Joe Berez (reading of a passage of a Sigurd Olson Lecture on “A Ridge where the Tall Pines Once Stood”), Tanner Anderson (of Obsequiae fame — hurdy gurdy and hammered dulcimer), and Ben Smith (backing vocals on “Snow Burdened Branches”). You can hear the whole album below.

Panopticon is also playing festival dates this year.

Categories: