Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion

Adorn the mind with the bile of man, let the scythe become the pendulum above the crown, and anoint the temple from the head to the sole of the feet with mud and ash of despair, let the nostrils be filled with the rancor of decay, let the flesh be caressed by that which rots the mind…constrict the air of purity and fill the lungs with the blackened aura of the venom that blots out the white light…

Panzerfaust’s ‘The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion’ sounds the trumpets of Black Metal to crumble the walls of a feeble body, ravaging and desecrating to infect the mind with its stench, for within its assault, the soul becomes drunk with splendor, for the vehemence that is spat from the maw of this beast is ingested and that which is ingested satiates the appetite of malediction. Panzerfaust places their art upon the altar stained by such acts like Svartidaudi, Mgla and Death Spell Omega, where the atrament of hate fills the chalice for the mind to relish in its exultation.

Dissonance factors in as the zenith of this album, for the majority is built upon the bones of these transcendental morphing sounds that coils into various shapes. ‘The Hesychasm Unchained’ is a track which takes these moments and contorts it into an esoteric journey, for the language spoken forth from the strings are naught just baleful in its tone, but it is like the smoke of an incense stick during a ceremony, for it fills the atmosphere and the lungs inducing the mind into trance betwixt hate and spite. ‘Devilry’ by Funeral Mist can be used as a reference point where the dissonance transmission is used to churn a still lake into that of a weapon that lashes and bruises the body, for it is the same vigor displayed by Panzerfaust.

The clarity manifested through these recordings adds another layer to the listening experience, for even though the production lends itself to a pristine and polished quality, it ceases naught to sever the tongue of acrimony in its speech, rather, it makes the atmosphere denser, bestowing a tangible quality to the senses. ‘The Damascene Conversions’ is an example where the strings display a duality to its melodies, for upon this track and other, the energy transfigures itself into various patterns whether it be a maelstrom or a crawling motion, what gifts lift unto these chords is the production which magnifies its ambience and experience. The percussions on the other hand compliment the sepulchral tone of the strings by accentuating the textures and depth, where its resonance feels cataclysmic in nature, such as on ‘When Even the Ground is Hostile’ which adds a destructive-like cadence to its sound, as though the war drums have been summoned. The vocals, for instance on, ‘The Hesychasm Unchained’, becomes the very core of this weapon, the nucleus when it is detonated, for if the musical aspects represented a world decaying ‘pon the back of Atlas, the serpentine tongue released from this throat is the whip that welts the skin with its orphic flow, becoming the catalyst for everything to crumble under its might.

In the book of Genesis, it is foretold that when Lot’s wife laid eyes upon the horrors of Sodom and Gomorrah, her very body was transformed into a pillar of salt, in the same breath, the same ruinous energy invoked through the litany of Panzerfaust can be discovered within the notes of this album. For its musical construct is broken down and transfigured into darkened pits of asphalt and sulfur that blackens and chokes the heavens. What now remains is the inversion of a sacrilegious gospel, where sound becomes eucharist for the mind to devour.