The softer side of funeral-doom? Definitely. Pantheism is an interesting philosophical belief, to which one could find references in other theories and hypothesis, some more scientific than other: the 'Gaia Theory' for instance. Pantheism assumes nature is not the product of some godly creation, but rather it is god itself, while anything natural - a stone, a tree, an animal, humans - are all part of nature thus all are divine. This belief cancels the concept of a single, mysterious god ("who art in heaven..."), and while people turn their gaze to the skies when mentioning the godly being, instead they should look to the sides and all around them (and maybe even into their inner-self as well). A pantheist, therefore, is a person who holds similar beliefs, which are, as I understand, no different than any other 'natural' belief: Paganism, Atheism etc...Kostas, one half of Pantheist, the band, elaborates on that matter: "Since we are all part of godhood, we are somehow interconnected. We strive to experience this connection through the practice of arts, religion, rites, music...However, this 'unity' is never perfect, due to the fact our own individuality interferes with the completion of that aspiration...Life and death are the only true 'common ground' to which everybody and everything succumbs...This realization generates in us certain feelings of despair, sadness, solitude...However, we aspire to the disintegration of that interfering individuality, what actually happens in the end, when death comes, the only single moment when we are really united with the universe and its elements...These two contradicting tendencies are the basis to the sound of Pantheist: We try to manifest these feelings of the inevitable despair, sadness and loneliness, as means to an end, the end which is catharsis, that may help us experience the concept of unity of nature's elements and other beings, unity we extremely long for, throughout our daily lives..."...Quite interesting ideas, I have to admit, even though I do not think this philosophy can be understood immediately and intuitively as a derivative (and quite an important one, I might add, for the band...) of the music nor the texts. Like so many other different styles in the realms of dark/underground music that are constantly being interpreted differently by different artists, each lending their music a singular explanation, each see this or that style in a unique way, so is the case with the funeral-doom style, or sub-genre, or whatever the hell you wish to call this esoteric musical school...The only problem I find in it, lies in the sometimes very farfetched interpretation of this style, in such a manner that occasionally there is no strict and obvious line between the so-called "metallic" aspects of the music and the "ambient" ones, that evidently are by far different than the basic, classic elements at the core of 'extreme metal', whatever genre it may be...The first and most striking translation of the doom-death style, into a more ethereal, mysterious and thus - darker a style, is of course the funeral-doom style, and as this evolutionary development appeared, we have discovered the most crushing musical expression in the universe...I am not sure whether every band who plays torturously-slow paced music is entitled to be thrown into the funeral-doom realm, by in any case, definitions have always been and always will be, totally subjective and biased towards the listener's preferences, knowledge and experience...What Pantheist try to accomplish, and succeed, is not your 'classical' funeral-doom type of music, in my opinion. Pantheist's music is much more accessible than your average cup of bitter funeral-doom (if there ever was an 'average' album in the first place...) and it has this classical music affinity and apparently it is yet another step in the development of the style towards the ultimate in celestial sounds...While other bands; Evoken, Esoteric, Shape Of Despair, and the ultimate in funeral-doom i.e., Skepticism and Hierophant - are bands that in their core are metal and so is the framework of their musical manifestation, while the funeral-ist value is only interwoven, by masterful hands into the bleak but nevertheless metallic sounds, thus creating a suffocating, dense and almost infinitely dark atmosphere, Pantheist equally explore these two extremities, therefore the music is less thick and a notch less 'dark', but one that bares more spiritual dimensions than the aforementioned groups...This observation is manifested through the massive use of church organs, giving new and exciting interpretations to Johan Sebastian Bach's compositions, via clean and mournful vocals that actually emphasize the religious rites drawn by the all-encompassing gothic sounds, maybe even some Christian hints to some extent, and to be more precise: suggestions of the morbid and sinister rituals of the Roman-Catholic Church, I would risk and say (in the sense of their gothic rituals of the afterlife and sanctification of death as the embodiment of salvation)...Pantheist's overall sound is quite melancholic, but instead of being a slit-the-wrist melancholia, it is rather a sweet and reflective sadness, one which makes the eye-lids feel heavy, and while closing on their on volition, succumbing to the music's weight, the body enters a state of slumber while awake, and reflect: to dream while not asleep...Yet another interesting fact, though totally not originally mine (actually read about it in Erebus Magazine) but totally agreed upon, is that when Pantheist start playing, one never knows where the music will take him to, how the track will develop and how it will end. In contrast to other funeral-doom bands (again, Skepticism is mentioned here due to the fact this technique is practiced by the band in the most obvious manner) that start every track with a constant loop of sounds and rhythms that are used as a backbone to the whole song, repeating itself again and again in a perpetual vicious circle, giving the music the famous monotonous sense the doom genre is so familiar with, Pantheist never incorporate that monotony-generating loop into their music; with Pantheist, the listener actually does not have a clue about the continuation and development of a song and what surprises are hidden with every passing moment of the musical journey, nor can he conduct any sort of extrapolation by judging the first few seconds of each song, because the music here is far from being linear, and is ever developing, and bewitching in the process...This only adds to the band's remoteness from other funeral-doom acts: it is much less monotonous and it lacks the minimalism shown in the above mentioned bands...The lyricism Pantheist deal with is very personal and based exclusively on feelings and sentiments rather than anything else, ideas of great pain and disappointment reflect from the white words and sentences, and I would even call them 'poetic masochism' due to the fact they deal with self-inflicting suffering and the wish for punishment...Thirty three minutes of quasi-religious masterpiece, both exquisite and gentle on one hand, crushingly heavy, both in musical and emotional terms - on the other. A lamenting piano occasionally opens and closes the tracks, adds to the music a floating classical aura, and in combining the pseudo-monkish vocals it is indeed a religious experience, religious in the way this extremely talented and original duo sees to express their beliefs, the magnificent duo which are Pantheist. Although this demo album overshadows many others in terms of extreme originality and talent, I would definitely like to hear many good things coming from this band's direction in the future. Highly recommended to those intelligent and non-conventional people who seek a musical soothing balm for their troubled souls, and think a combination between funeral-doom and classical music is something that could interest them. Personally speaking, long a period has passed from the last time I heard such an angelic beauty...

© 2002 c. drishner