Panopticon: Kentucky (2012)

Come All You Poor Workers

Much of the best black metal reflects a sense of place. Whether it evokes the feel of the environment, or pulls in folk melodies of the culture, you should be able to tell something about where it comes from simply by hearing it. With Kentucky, Panopticon has put it right there in the title. But Kentucky isn't just in the title. It's in every note.

The record begins on a folk song, which isn't all that unusual these days. What is a bit more rare--at least outside Europe--is just how thoroughly the folk has taken over the album. Over half the tracks are pure folk, and the black metal cuts (over half the runtime) all have a folk infusion. Which is great, because Appalachian folk is a style that I've really come to love.

Pinkish Black: Pinkish Black (2012)

Deathrock, I Guess?

A lot of different things led me to check out Pinkish Black's self-titled debut. I've had a renewed interest in the areas where punk and metal overlap--specifically Killing Joke, Samhain, Amebix. The Alaric/Atriarch split introduced me to the sound of deathrock. And the record is on Handmade Birds, a label that gets a lot of underground attention for its adventurousness, but which I've sadly neglected.

I am definitely not disappointed. From the two deathrock bands I've heard, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it sounds like the goth/punk equivalent of doom metal. But this band's sound has been categorized a lot of different ways, including krautrock, doom metal, avant-garde, and many more.