Panopticon - Kentucky

[Duncan Glenday]

A weird and interesting recommendation from my son-in-law: Panopticon, Kentucky

Cookie-monster alert - if you can't handle black metal vocals, that's fine
Feel free to move on to the next thread

Imagine bluegrass banjo, miners' folk songs, and black metal blended into one eclectic, emotional, politically-charged piece.

As I understand it Panopticon is a 1-man-band, which I usually dislike, but this works very well. Pity about the so-so production quality - you have to assume that aspect and some of the instrumentals would be improved with a broader collaboration - but it's a very interesting listen anyway. The diversity of sound, the intensity of the message, and the general idea make it worth the very reasonable cost ... besides, the profits are being donated to a cause that's fighting the "mountain-top removal" coal mining method in Kentucky.





It's available here for just $3:
http://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/album/kentucky

Two good reviews (not mine) here:

http://www.metal-archives.com/review...ntucky/343550/

http://www.metal-observer.com/articl...sid=1&id=19558

[JKL2000]

Sounds like a really interesting album. I'm trying to listen to one of the YouTube clips at work, and I'm not really set up for sound here. I'm using an old pair of headset someone left lying around. Is it just me, or are the vocals REALLY hard to hear and make out? I know they're cookie monster vocals, which I don't have a problem with. But there's no way I can make out a single word. Just not sure if the set up with these headphones or the album itself? The guitar is really nice.

[Duncan Glenday]

Sounds like a really interesting album. I'm trying to listen to one of the YouTube clips at work, and I'm not really set up for sound here. I'm using an old pair of headset someone left lying around. Is it just me, or are the vocals REALLY hard to hear and make out? I know they're cookie monster vocals, which I don't have a problem with. But there's no way I can make out a single word. Just not sure if the set up with these headphones or the album itself? The guitar is really nice.

Yah - that's one of the criticisms, Jed. The lyrics are fuzzed-out by bad production, IMO. But that's only true in parts of the album.

[JKL2000]

Ol, well I'll check this out and probably download it. Thanks.

[playbass]

This is great! Being a native Kentuckian I am all for prog + saying no to mountain top removal.

[Just Eric]

Good pick Duncan.

The black metal is top notch and for metal musicians their bluegrass ain't bad at all.