This is an all - around beautiful closer to an album. From the instrumentation to the atmosphere, everything comes together perfectly.

Metal archives lists him as doing drums as opposed to just "drum programming". Austin Lunn: Bass (4 strings, 12 strings), Drums, Guitars (electric, acoustic, lap steel, pedal steel, square neck resonator), Keyboards, Flute, Whistles, Samples, Vocals, Accordion, Percussion, Singing bowls, Strings arrangements

You should check out one of Panopticon’s bluegrass jams! Great song though, felt like a constant evolution to me as an enjoyer of the genres you talked about. I meed to give this album a good spin.

That transition at the 2/3 point around 11:00 felt like being inside a raging storm of chaos that suddenly blew you out the top into the calm sun above the clouds and your just......floating in bliss....and then slowly starting to sink back into the storm below, but rejuvenated to do the cycle all over again. ps: that drummer is a beeeeeast

Really enjoyed this reaction. Something about the track gave me a very similar vibe to an older song by Hopesfall (The Far Pavillions). I think length, the slow build, the wall of sounds and the quality of the scream going on...despite the pretty glaring genre difference, ha. - Chris

What a great song! Personally I didn't feel like it was too long and the ending (which felt very cathartic BTW) came sooner than I expected. 😎

Re around 19minutes: Harmony and Melody for me are the primary things I listen to black metal for, be it dissonant harmonies ala thantifaxath or more tonal harmonies of Ungfell. Though atmospheric and rhytmic black metal definitely has its place especially with something like Paysage D'Hiver I think it's mire relegated to the subgenre of atmospheric black metal. Also I think the band you were thinking of in the end might be Agriculture!

Right now this is a contender for my favourite Panopticon song. The whole new album is neat but perhaps a little bloated, 75 minutes and 6 songs haha. Still Austin Lunn uses tension and release so well and the music feels kinda maximal and more grand than ever before. I can definitely see that some parts of this song drag, but I feel like they find good ways to make it fresh. The double pedal groove at the 7 minute mark is such an imporant part for me as it adds nice momentum and energy. Constant blast beats would have gotten monotonous. There's also a lot of surprisingly happy, uplifting melodies. Also I like the string work that from time to time rise from the chaos of the metal. Duality between the calming melodies and strings and the oppressive chaotic metal is a big part of my enjoyment of the song. I like to have the crushing metal but at the center of it there these meditative elements that bring some kind of internal calm to it all. Also works with the lyrical themes. I still have to admit that the intro and the outro are the best parts. Gooooooorgeous vocals. One of my 'problems' of the song is that I thought the intro could have been longer :D also some of the screams during the last 2 minutes are so primal and cathartic after all the build up. A last great release after all we have been through. At the end of it, with the final scream and the tremolo picking, I often have to take a deep breath as the song, warts and all, was so powerful and surprisingly life affirming. (Plus Austin Lunn is the drummer here and I think he talked about originially being a punk drummer :))

great reaction! no, drumming is not programmed! Austin is a very good and creative drummer

Lol i always wondered if the song lengths of this project were due to it being a solo project, need someone else to reel him in