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Pantheist: Amartia

03/09/07 || Daemonomania

Being new to the doom genre in general, and a virgin to the ravaging meatflute that is funeral doom, I’m pretty pleased and impressed by this disc. As another reviewer noted though, when you first start listening to this genre every album sounds new and different, but after awhile it all starts sounding exactly the same. Well, I ain’t jaded yet and Pantheist’s “Amartia” has been getting a relentless number of spins. It doesn’t hurt that the little lady enjoys the tunes either, and makes frequent requests for Pantheist immediately followed by requests for epic pantheistic lovemaking. I’m going to use the word pantheistic as much as possible in this review, since I’m so pleased to discover it is in fact a real word.

The dudes from Pantheist (which I thought meant belief in many gods, but apparently means “someone who believes that God and the universe are the same”) all have got some serious doom metal experience under their collective Belgian belts, and look suitably bummed out sitting in a patch of shitty woods on their Metal Archives page. What they do a great job of is creating atmosphere – throughout “Amartia” you feel like you’re inside an evil monastery, where evil monks are busy cooking children, thinking about how to be more pantheistic, and eating the children they previously cooked. Synthesized brooding organs, vocals that alternate between a growl, a Benedictine-monk style chant (at times unintentionally hilarious), and spoken word sections (also hilarious, more on these later), and last but not least the slow but meaty guitar and rhythm section that adds the epic, depressive, heavy, insert overused metal adjective here riffs and drumming that rock in a most funeral manner. Or a most pantheistic manner. I’m not sure.

So let’s talk about the songs themselves. “Amartia” starts out on an awful note with “Apologeia”, a song so-chock full of attempted Benedictineness that laughter is the only possible response. I require a written apologia for this nonsense. At this point, I was nervous that malarkey of this stripe would fill my pantheistic listening experience, but lo and behold, “Gluttony” kicked in. Ahhh, growls. I’m not yet sure what it is about the doom genre, but weak growls seem par for course and are acceptable here. This guy’s vocals actually beat a lot of the admittedly small number of deathdoomsters I’ve heard – he’s got a little gargle in there that adds evoool points. Anyhoo, “Gluttony” is a fat slice of rad – there’s your slow buildup, your quiet, spooky middle section, and then your bizarre but awesome electronica-sounding bits coupled with heavy as fuck guitarwork. “Envy” is also sinfully good (I kill me), with some of the soaring leads that are also prevalent in the genre but remind me of Amon Amarth, the shocking appearance of some double bass, and the requisite keyboard-pretending-to-be-a-pipe-organ. As I recall, “Lust” starts out with an annoying minute or two of the same three notes being played over and over on ye olde Casio, which thankfully gives way to a real song. “First Prayer” is a ridiculous spoken-word type deal, one of many funny spoken parts throughout “Amartia.” A sample of lyrics from “First Prayer”…

Ancient goddess, deity of forgiveness
Please, hear my prayer
Allow me to cleanse my sins
In the pure waters of your sacred river

I suggest replacing these with…

Ancient goddess, deity of deliciousness,
Please, hear my prayer,
Allow me to dip my nacho chips,
In the flowing cheese of your cheddar river.

And so it goes for the rest of the album, except for “Wrath” where they make an attempt at black metal. It sounds a little goofy, but does change up the pace for a funeral doom disc. That’s all there is to say – a good album that may or may not be typical of the style. Fucked if I know. It’s good, go out and get it and think deep and pantheistic thoughts about the death of god and being slothful and shit like that. Did I mention this is a concept album about the seven deadly sins? Guess not. It is, and some of the language comes dangerously close to sounding pro-religion here and there. But wipe the sweat from your brows, faithful worshippers of Baal – they wrap things up with the death of Jeebus’ papa. Pick up “Amartia,” and commit the eighth deadly sin of owning metal albums.

8 pantheistic Belgian waffles out of 10.

Information
Released: 2005
Label: Firedoom Music
Website: www.pantheist.co.uk/
Band
Kostas Panagiotou: vocals, keyboards
Andy Semmens: vocals, choirs, drums
Daniel Myhr: keyboards
Mark Bodossian: vocals, bass
Nicolas: guitars

Tracklist
01. Apolegia
02. Gluttony
03. Envy
04. Lust
05. First Prayer
06. Pride
07. Greed
08. Sloth
09. Wrath
10. Metanoia

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