Now this is an album I’ve been looking forward to hearing. I first discovered Pantheist a couple of years ago with their demo ‘1000 Years’, and shortly thereafter I heard their brilliant debut album, ‘O Solitude’. Personally I thought this album was one of the very best metal releases of 2003. Pantheist’s new album ‘Amarthia’ is a concept album based on the 7 deadly sins. The lyrics are well-written and tell of a man that commits the 7 deadly sins, one by one. The set-up for the theme is best explained through a line in the very first song:

“That's why my Lord, in Your eyes I'll commit One by one the seven gravest sins Until your righteous punishment shall rid me Of every doubt about your existence”

By looking at the lyrical themes and album cover it doesn’t take long to figure out that it’s doom metal we’re dealing with here. Those familiar with Pantheist from before might get a bit surprised at first with their new sound. I know I did.

The first track ‘Apologeia’ opens with dark monk-like vocals chanting the word “Amarthia” several times. The song continues with majestic clean vocals while the music marches on at a slow tempo. The song has an almost “religious” feeling and reminds me a bit of Gregorian, only much more depressing and obviously more distorted guitars. It was not what I had expected but once I got used to it I started to like it more and more. Sure, there were some clean vocals on O Solitude as well but not as prominent as here. An excellent album-opener nonetheless.

In the second track ‘Gluttony’ the band takes a more minimalistic approach with just growls, keyboards and a plodding guitar playing for several minutes. Quite a repetive story but luckily that’s not the case with any other song here. I thought it was a bit odd that the first two tracks were the longest here (both 11mins long). But maybe it just turned out that way by pure coincidence with the concept story and all. Normally bands tend to put the longest track as the album closer.

The next two songs ‘Envy’ & ‘Lust’ are more in the vein of the material found on O Solitude except with a more atmospheric touch. Some good growls here as well. ‘First Prayer’ begins with a simple but haunting keyboard line followed by a distorted guitar and some spoken lines. The song picks up pace with the monk-like vocals again chanting the lines “A death in each second. A slow death in every moment”. This part will surely send shivers down your spine. Very simple but yet so powerful and effective.

The keyboards on this album are of great importance; more important than they were on O Solitude. The track ‘Greed’ is a perfect example of how the band manages to use them efficiently both as a background instrument and for playing eerie and beautiful melodies up-front. A wonderful track with great musicianship. The next track ‘Sloth’ is my favorite track of the album. Pantheist has managed to do everything right here. The clean vocals are great and depressing, the growls sound tortured and ugly and the whole song is very well composed. The chord-progressions even remind me at times of something that could have been on Reclusiam’s s/t demo. Let me clarify one thing here: O Solitude vol. 2 this is not. Pantheist has expanded their funeral doom sound to new heights and added fresh new elements. They seem to have drifted slightly away from their funeral doom roots and instead show a more experimental side.

‘Wrath’ is the most out-of-place track to be found here. Instead of making another song in funeral tempo they created a fast up-tempo track. Yes, this track even has blast-beats. It’s not a bad track by any means – it’s nice to hear a band that doesn’t limit themselves to just playing music within one genre. Especially in the doom metal scene where many of these outbreaks often result in something killer (see Disembowelment for instance).

So what we have here is a strong second offering from one of the best new doom metal acts around. The album’s strongest side lies in the diversity of the songs. The production is quite good but it could have been heavier and darker, especially the guitars. The conceptual story is a nice touch and they pulled it off easily. My favorite tracks are ‘First Prayer’, ‘Greed’ & ‘Sloth’. I found myself liking these tracks the most due to the impressive clean vocals. I think the band has found their own thing here and should further develop this sound on the next album. I sense great things for Pantheist in the future and I recommend this album to every fan of doom metal. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the genre I think you would like it.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]