{"id":44852,"date":"2025-04-23T21:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44852\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T21:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:21:09","slug":"panthalassan-from-the-shallows-of-the-mantle-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44852\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthalassan – From the Shallows of the Mantle Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Angry Metal Guy is an institution, and not just a mental one. Artists often dip into our comment section to express a fondness for our site specifically, and the review requests that land in our contact form are even more devoted (or attempting to ingratiate themselves by pretending to be; politics plays a part too!). The case of Panthalassan<\/strong> is a step further, though. It\u2019s a one-man band inspired by bands we have hawked relentlessly: L\u00f6r<\/strong> and Wilderun<\/strong>. After playing guitar for Viathyn<\/strong> and Ravenous<\/strong>, Jake Wright sought to carve his own path, striking out on his own with only the drums of session musician and Viathyn<\/strong> bandmate Dave Crnkovi\u0107 to accompany him. Have the AMG classics steered him true?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s clear that one has had more pull than the other, because From the Shallows of the Mantle will sound fairly familiar for anyone who\u2019s heard L\u00f6r<\/strong>\u2019s In Forgotten Sleep. Lithe, winding guitars dish out multi-layered riffs and whirling solos alike, largely at dazzling speeds. The compositions are progressive, and though they don\u2019t eschew choruses altogether, the tracks are arranged in a free-flowing form, prioritizing a musical narrative thread over rigid structure. And it must be said, Wright is a crack at the axe. There are enough great solos dotted across the running time to supply 3 albums, and the rapid and evolving melodic riffs thrill without fail. Just check the triumphant ascending chords that kick off \u201cCoral Throne\u201d or the Fellowship<\/strong>-worthy \u201cBy Shank\u2019s Mare.\u201d Cheesy? Sure. But it is some of the catchiest riffing I\u2019ve heard yet this year.<\/p>\n

From the Shallows of the Mantle by Panthalassan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Which is why it\u2019s such a shame that both vocals and lyrics weigh on the album like an anchor. It\u2019s not a technical disaster. Wright does glance off pitch on occasion, but he doesn\u2019t veer completely wild. But sometimes I wish he would, because as adventurous as the guitars are, so safe and consequently flat is the vocal performance, leaving little room for emotional involvement. Exacerbating this issue are the lyrics. The text itself is not awful when read on paper; the problem is the near-total lack of flow, which is ironic considering its oceanic themes. I\u2019m of the opinion that a good flow is the most important and oft-overlooked element of lyrics in music. You can sing about utter nonsense and I\u2019ll suck it up like a sponge if you get your cadance and prosody right. But Panthalassan<\/strong> sounds stilted and awkward across most of the album, with \u2018The gasp that slips my lips\u2019 the tongue-twisting nadir. The difference it makes when it does fall into place, in the closer\u2019s chorus, is downright startling. It makes me wonder how much better From the Shallows of the Mantle could have been with this issue resolved.<\/p>\n

\"\"The quality of the instrumentation might have been enough to overcome the above issue, and it almost does. Besides the sweet guitars, Crnkovi\u0107 does a solid job keeping up the pace on the drums, and the tracks weave enough variation and supplementary instruments into the compositions to stay reasonably fresh. Even so, more than an hour is a long sit, and most of the tracks that push past 7 minutes should not. \u201cWorth My Salt\u201d overuses the title phrase, and the extended outro on the back of the otherwise excellent \u201cEmbers on our Shore\u201d drags it out even further. On the bright side, I do enjoy the production, which is light but doesn\u2019t lack in power. The guitars are crystalline and the bass gets enough space; the only unfortunate consequence of the mix is the attention the vocals get, putting more emphasis on the shortcomings there.<\/p>\n

Still, From the Shallows of the Mantle is a very promising debut for Panthalassan<\/strong>. Most of the issues with the album are surface-level, not fundamental. A re-examination of how to write vocal parts that flow well is in order, and that might in turn help entice a more passionate performance. I\u2019m also curious to hear how Wright would fare trying to move away from the trappings of L\u00f6r<\/strong>\u2019s fairly specific sound, something I\u2019m convinced he has the chops to. That, as well as keeping the album more concise, would be more than enough to make the next installment of this oceanic saga a smash hit, because the bones are all there: solid songcraft, virtuoso play on every instrument, and a knack for a good hook.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 2.5\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 7 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> PCM
Label:<\/strong> Self-released<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> panthalassan.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/panthalassan<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> March 28th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angry Metal Guy is an institution, and not just a mental one. Artists often dip into our comment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[20843,743,16282,77,6982,24757,24758,4258,269,24759,24760,24761,24762,6080,6082,12938,16,15,24763,24764],"class_list":{"0":"post-44852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-2-5","9":"tag-743","10":"tag-canadian-metal","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fellowship","13":"tag-from-the-shallows-of-the-mantle","14":"tag-lor","15":"tag-mar25","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-panthalassan","18":"tag-power-metal","19":"tag-progressive-metal","20":"tag-ravenous","21":"tag-review","22":"tag-reviews","23":"tag-self-released","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-viathyn","27":"tag-wilderun"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}