While he remains the driving creative force, Panopticon has since expanded to include a lineup of musicians for live performances. The common theme that runs throughout this record is nature’s beauty yet also it’s eradication by powerful people with political interests. While Stalin was a dangerous and murderous authoritarian dictator, Guthrie was living in the working-class dust bowl of America during the Great Depression. The album's central concept is that of its namesake, the panopticon: a form of prison envisioned by utilitarian Jeremy Benthamin 1785; a central observation tower surrounded by windowless cells. Prepare for a magnificent journey in the double album experience that is,... Michael Pementel April 12, 2018 Going back to Marx, even he understood the violence that unrestrained capitalism dolls out on the environment, writing that: “Capitalism tends to destroy its two sources of wealth: Nature and human beings”. At least, not in an immediate, do-or-die sort of way. But the truth of the matter is that politics are very personal to me and very emotional to me. This scene has embraced a kind of deep ecology, which acknowledges humans’ place in nature and the Earth’s various ecosystems. The album has a bleak style informed by punk bands; at the same time, it features lengthy, complex compositions (the longest, "Patient", tops the twenty-minute mark), and it is his first of many releases to feature guest violinist John Becker (sometimes credited as Johan Becker), whose contributions have since become a distinct fixture of Panopticon's sound. The watchtower is of central importance here. The name of the album is …and again into the light.It consists of eight songs encompassing 70 minutes of music. Well, I think that’s a really good quote to end on, don’t you? More recently, black metal has ditched the kitschy paganism and adopted a more varied set of beliefs about nature. Emma's Song AL: Panopticon will always be an ideological band. Kentucky, Panopticon's fifth album, is sometimes regarded as its commercial breakthrough. As an FYI, “The Wolf in Man” is the animal that comes out of humanity when it enters a forest. The song takes that comparison even further in its lyrics, written about the Bloody Harlan mining conflict between mistreated coal miners and their operating overlords. All instruments,lyrics and compositions by A.Lunn unless otherwise noted. For example, in ‘Bodies Under the Falls‘, the lyrics depict serene waterfalls and forests, but also describe how these forests and waterfalls were ancestral Native American lands – before those people were murdered and driven away from it. I’m instead here to talk about how the album synthesises the themes and histories of country and black metal to elaborate upon them both; relating environmental concerns with anti-capitalism, two issues that are rarely handled this explicitly. The music features many familiar elements of black metal, but additionally incorporates bluegrass and Appalachian folk. Snow Burdened Branches - long sleeve shirt $ 25.00 25.00. Panopticon is a one-man Folk/Black Metal band, formed 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky. Bulldog gravy and corn bread”. It also incorporates a lengthy three-part suite inspired by progressive rock. Just like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA‘, funnily enough. To date, Panopticon has released eight full-length albums, one a double-CD (or four-LP) set, and eight split albums, plus a compilation containing remixed and remastered versions of Panopticon's third and fourth albums. Their second album, 2007’s ‘The Hunt‘, is comprised of one 80-minute song about a human returning to nature after being alienated from it for so long by the greyness of the city. There are plenty of apolitical bands as well; Necromantia, Rotting Christ, Whoredom Rife, Fin, etc. The record even highlights the everlasting struggle between the two by using covers of decades old protest songs. I’d argue that ‘Kentucky‘ is a Marxist album, particularly when it comes to the existence of the historical class struggle. The multi-instrumentalist and sole member of Louisville, Kentucky’s Panopticon doesn’t employ obscurity for the purpose of long-tired black metal shtick or to earn the underground metal merit badge for mystique. In a new year that has already brought an over-sized share of awfulness in very short order, we bring you good tidings: By the coming spring, Panopticon will release a new album, through its steadfast partner Bindrune Recordings. You’ll either be a union man Rank #3 for Metal Genre in Bogotá - In 2008 I start my underground musical process. Autumn Eternal incorporates somewhat shorter songs than the band's usual fare, but otherwise continues in a familiar fashion. A similar lyrical idea about human’s place in an ecosystem is the premise of ‘I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots‘ by Wolves in the Throne Room. Flag Burner, Torch Bearer 3. There are two different people named Austin Lunn involved in the project. “No neutrals” frames the worker’s struggle as “you’re either with us, or against us”, which is a core tenet of Marxism. That People’s World article I mentioned before also quotes Wolves in the Throne Room’s Aaron Weaver saying precisely that. Stalin and the USSR didn’t affect him, but rampant capitalism did, and radical communism provided a road map out of that extreme poverty. On Panopticon’s ‘Kentucky‘, lyrics depicting the beauty of nature and our place within it are usually complicated by political issues. Even in the 50’s, he wasn’t one of those sexy anarcho-communists that got invited to all of the fun parties. Panopticon was call to be a band with a social political critics about human condition, the humanity selfcondemed inside a mediatic panoptical structure. Marketplace 385 For Sale. Meaning that references to coal miners could be a metaphor for ALL workers while references to mine owners and operators can be a metaphor for the bourgeoisie and capitalists swine. Panopticon’s subject matter varies including political issues, history, pagan spirituality, environmental issues and … As the project has gone on it has become more than that to me. Varg Vikernes (Burzum) has basically dedicated his entire Youtube channel to doing just that; espousing his wack and extreme political views in the process. The project began as a studio-only effort with Lunn writing and performing all parts. Panopticon’s sixth release, 2012’s ‘Kentucky’, was my first introduction to the black metal sub-genre, RABM. The Lay Of Grimnir 6. More of the album than ever before consists of bluegrass music, though the three longer compositions are metal and the song "Black Waters" is closer to ambient music. In 2009, Lunn released Collapse and two splits, one with Los Angeles-based black metal band Lake of Blood and another with Louisville, Kentucky-based avant-garde metal act Wheels Within Wheels. While a lot of folk and country music is nostalgic towards the past, and argues that it was a simpler time, Guthrie’s music was intensely critical of the present and looked to the future, which many people have forgotten. There’s even a reference to these rougher old days in Panopticon’s ‘Come All Ye Coal Miners‘, in the third verse: “I was born in old Kentucky It focuses on both the environment and workers to criticise capitalism and its inherent consequences. Black metal has had a long appreciation for nature. This on the theme of identity that plays so heavily in neofolk, but takes it decisively back from the far-right, who tries to essentialize it with race and gender. Panopticon is an atmospheric, one-man black metal/folk band from Louisville, Kentucky, USA, started in 2007, now located in Minnesota, USA. Lunn attempted a do-it-yourself production here, to his eventual dissatisfaction; as a result, it was entirely remixed and remastered in 2016, alongside Social Disservices, for a collection entitled Revisions of the Past. The songs composition and the escenic part as a solist gives a sound that reflects myself and posses the germ of my artistic concient. Staying true to this breakneck creative pace, Austin Lunn is mere weeks away from dropping Panopticon's sixth LP, the enthralling and resonant Autumn Eternal. the politics of women's body images and practices: foucault, the panopticon, and shape magazine Margaret Carlisle Duncan Journal of Sport and Social Issues 1994 18 : 1 , 48-65 Yet the message is also present in song names and themes too. The album is a thematic companion to his two previous LPs, but musically, it eschews the "blackened bluegrass" approach in favor of emotionally charged, mournfully melodic black metal (think Winterfylleth meets early Katatonia). The Panopticon is an architectural design for a prison. Panopticon by Panopticon, released 01 May 2008 1. In addition to sounds typical to heavy metal music, such as distorted guitars and rapid drumming, Panopticon also incorporates a diverse range of additional instrumentation, such as banjos, fiddles, bells, synthesizers and acoustic guitars. As much as country music is associated with right-wing conservative politics that wants you to support the troops, praise Jesus, drive big cars, and eat your goddamn cereal, it has a history full of figures who rebelled against the government in numerous ways. Woody Guthrie was a folk/country musician, active from the 1930’s through to the 50’s, and was a pretty hardcore communist too. All packaging in the initial release was self-created, and the songs were accompanied by lengthy essays Lunn had written describing their content. The albums often vary widely in style, in many cases influenced by the subject matter. In the late 80’s and 90’s, death metal’s weirder cousin was dominated by a sort of kitschy paganism, where it was basically a rite of passage to have your band dress up in medieval combat gear and take promo photos out in the woods. You must be registered and logged in to comment on this post. Speaking 5. And also something that Marxists and postmodernists disagree about constantly. An important event in country music history was when Dixie Chicks called out George W. Bush for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as well as the overall negative reaction from their fans afterwards. Especially because like Austin, Bookchin is a green anarchist, the best kind of anarchist, and is most known for penning an idea called “social ecology”. And that’s pretty rad in my book. Panopticon is a black metal band created by Austin Lunn. So, let’s talk about all of that because why the hell not? The very first verse goes as follows: “They say in Harlan County The use of protest songs and references to being the son of a coal miner take on much broader meanings if the despair and weariness of these songs are focused on the miner’s social position as an oppressed worker, rather than an oppressed coal miner specifically. All of Panopticon's albums apart from the first are concept albums. Intro 2. Lunn donates some of the proceeds from the album to the Listening Point Foundation, a group dedicated to preserving Olson's legacy. 2005 trafen die 4 Mitglieder Thomas Muche (git./voc. 117 likes. The main argument of Marxism is that all of history is a class struggle between two groups: the hard-working proletariat (the workers), and the blue-blooded bourgeoisie, (the capitalists). The Panopticon Effect by Foucault refers to a thesis of the French philosopher on power, control, and domination. The second part features mostly acoustic music; though occasional passages with electric guitar appear, the album is mostly bluegrass, folk, and country music with occasional influence from post-rock. For now, an important figure in discussing anti-authoritarianism in country music is a dude by the name of Woody Guthrie. I listen to a lot of sketchy bands, but it's simple to just look around them. This means that anyone on the watch can observe everything that goes on in that place. The album includes a lengthy bluegrass interlude at the end of its first track, and it incorporates substantial post-rock influence throughout the album. While printed lyrics still don't appear in the packaging, there are explanations for the concept behind the album and every song. Edit Artist ; Share. A debate platform on political issues run by two flatmates and friends. Think James Cameron’s Avatar, just with zero tall blue people and way more grim riffs and blast beats. Subjects of their lyrics are History, Nature, left-leaning politics and philosophy and spirituality. In a strict sense, a panopticon is a building in which there’s a surveillance post you can watch the entire place from. Standing for “Red Anarchist Black Metal” for the uninitiated, other notable bands in this far-left genre are Iskra and American black metal legends, Wolves In The Throne Room. Panopticon’s sixth release, 2012’s ‘Kentucky’, was my first introduction to the black metal sub-genre, RABM. Just like Woody Guthrie’s music that I mentioned earlier, these songs have not lost their importance. We'd be able to--even expected to--document everything around us. Or a thug for J. H. Blair.”. Panopticon. [3][4], Lunn is an avid outdoorsman,[5] and some listeners have noted the influence of the natural world on Panopticon's music; for example, in a review of the album Autumn Eternal on Pitchfork.com, one music critic noted, "one can easily imagine a Henry David Thoreau-like figure retreating to the woods to contemplate personal, spiritual, and environmental concerns. Bentham's intention was that the prisoners be placated through the fear of constant surveillance, which he described as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.” While the design did not come to fruition during Bentham's time, it has been seen as an impor… The Panopticon consists of a large … So why is this important when I’m not talking about war? Take Fauna, for instance. For example, take the ‘Black Soot and Red Blood‘. The Dixie Chicks were thus labelled as traitors for not wanting a military response to the events of 9/11, and the band’s popularity soon plummeted, never to recover. That lyric also suggests the struggle for workers’ rights is on-going, and unlikely to change soon. Reading the struggle of coal miners – some who he may well know or may even be related to – as a broader metaphor does risk ignoring the personal stake that Kentuckians and West Virginians have in fighting for rights against their bosses. Panopticon's self-titled debut album was originally self-released in 2008 on Lunn's own Lundr Records (Lundr is the Nordic form of Lunn's name; his family is of Norwegian descent). The Lake of Blood split included a metal song about the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti and a moody acoustic piece with samples discussing the genocide of American Indians. As that approach seems to forget about the violent histories of each state in conflicts like Bloody Harlan and the Battle of Blair Mountain. This is where Panopticon, and country music more broadly, comes in to the picture. This is his first of several releases not to feature printed lyrics, as Lunn felt they were too personal; he suggested in the liner notes that listeners could believe the songs were about whatever they wished. Three songs on the album are covers of old labor standards. ), Johannes Petereit (voc. Around this time, Panopticon released a second split with Wheels Within Wheels. Another reference to social ecology is in an interview during the documentary, Harlan County USA, in which a man states that mine operators treat workers as disposable; treating the landscape itself as disposable too. One of black metal’s more recent approaches is with a very niche genre called ‘space black metal’ or ‘cosmic black metal’, but the more important movement for this piece – if you could even call it a movement – is the Pacific North-West scene centred around Washington and Oregon. The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness is a two-hour double album with two distinct parts. However, I’m not here today to wax-lyrical about the quality of the music itself. The album is themed around death and religion, and it incorporates substantial samples from the Swedish film The Seventh Seal. While he remains the driving creative force, Panopticon has since expanded to include a lineup of musicians for live performances. In ‘Which Side Are You On?’, the lyric “My daddy was a miner” references how a lot of these miners grew up in full families of miners, who then end up passing their profession on to their children as well. And Panopticon has always been kind of thrown into the “political band” bucket because Panopticon has been expressly political in the past. The first part features metal inspired by Nordic bands like Bathory and Windir (the third song is directed to Windir's Valfar). Lunn donates a substantial portion of his profits from the album to the charity Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, which stands in opposition to the environmentally destructive mining practice of mountaintop removal. Well, even if their actual meanings and radical politics may be ignored or unfortunately lost in time. On a different note, another theorist who helps us understand the politics of this record is Murray Bookchin. Although, Wolves and Fauna don’t really make music that’s explicitly political. I had initially started this band in a very reactionary way, as a vehicle for my politics and a creative outlet. It’s an important album if we want to think about the dredging and mining of the Great Barrier Reef, or the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, or even current conversations about the treatment of coal miners in states like Kentucky or West Virginia. The album was later reissued as a two-LP set. No, he supported Stalin. Panopticon’s main figure, Austin Lunn, is open about his anarchist politics, the way that regionalism plays into his worldview, and how it is connected to struggle. The album is Lunn's lament for the decline of wilderness and the difficulty of obtaining silence, inspired by the writings of environmentalist Sigurd Olson. This split also features a blackgaze style and incorporates a large amount of clean singing. A more recent Guardian piece briefly touches on how some Americans have bulldozed over Guthrie’s hardcore politics in order to enjoy his music apolitically while maintaining the image of a free capitalist country, as does this article from Monthly Review, which is a little more in-depth. Collapse is a concept album themed around what Lunn regards as the inevitable ecological collapse of modern civilization. Austin P. Lunn "Skallehammeren" (from New Jersey) recorded and mixed the first two full-lengths and the split with Lake of Blood.The two adopted pseudonyms to avoid confusion. Panopticon is a black metal band created by Austin Lunn. Guthrie’s anti-authoritarian politics may have been overlooked over the years, but his politics are exactly the sort of thing that invigorates albums like ‘Kentucky‘ and provides important historical context. For a real-life example of romanticising hardship, pay close attention when politicians start throwing around phrases like “hard-working Australians” as a bastion of good citizenry. Even the name, ‘Which Side Are You On?‘ is another example, presenting workers’ rights as a struggle between two clear opposing parties, but the lyrics back that up. Panopticon's next split releases were with the Washington, D.C.-based band Vestiges and the Maine-based band Falls of Rauros (entitled Brotherhood; Lunn had contributed drums to Falls of Rauros' 2011 release The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood, recorded when the band did not have a permanent drummer). This article from People’s World references all sorts of song names, like Satyricon’s ‘My Tribute to the Winterland‘ and Behemoth’s ‘My Winter Kingdom‘. "[4] Lunn's music has also been described as "natural, organic, and methodical, masterful in its writing, fiery and alive in its execution."[6]. According to the liner notes, "A portion of the profits from this record go to families in crisis and abuse victims.". The exemplar of this is the name of Ulver’s 1997 third album, which when translated from Norwegian, is called ‘Madrigal of the Night – Eight Hymns to the Wolf in Man‘. Another way that Guthrie’s politics became watered-down was by being an object of nostalgia. Wolf shirt $ 17.00 Ideals that are now romanticised as hard, simple meals for hard, simple people before all these avocado-lovers and their quinoa and turmeric lattes became so popular with the kids. Standing for “Red Anarchist Black Metal” for the uninitiated, other notable bands in this far-left genre are Iskra and American black metal legends, Wolves In The Throne Room. In the liner notes, Lunn encourages listeners to watch the film. But Guthrie’s radical politics have been watered-down over time. Their fans back in America were fucking livid! You’re right, I’m not talking about war, but I am talking about anti-authority. Where our labour goes will make a lot more sense in this next part, so buckle up. All suggesting a sort of fetishization of the natural world, imagining it as a realm of the earth where people can be animalistic and free; unbound by society’s restrictions, kinda like a musical Henry David Thoreau. As for our subject, the old protest songs on ‘Kentucky‘, like ‘Which Side Are You On?‘ and ‘Come All Ye Coal Miners‘, are all good examples of this, but I’ll get to those in more detail later on.