{"id":888903,"date":"2026-04-12T11:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/888903\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T11:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:19:15","slug":"live-review-panopticon-stereo-glasgow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/888903\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVE REVIEW: Panopticon @ Stereo, Glasgow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years have elapsed since atmospheric black\/folk metallers\u00a0PANOPTICON\u00a0<\/strong>last played live in Glasgow. It\u2019s only right that the Americans return to\u00a0Stereo\u00a0<\/strong>and dispense another high-quality slab of meditative, nature-venerating extreme sounds. The band is set to release their new album in May, so we can anticipate some previews of these fresh songs tonight. Unusually for Scotland, the Laurentian<\/strong> Echoes<\/strong> European tour kicks off here, meaning the Scots could be first to hear these tracks live.<\/p>\n

\"SunkenSunken live @ Stereo, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall<\/p>\n

Sole support is from Denmark\u2019s\u00a0SUNKEN<\/strong>, a fellow atmospheric black metal act formed in 2013 and with three albums. The queue to get into Stereo<\/strong>\u2018s main room is snaking all the way up the stairs from the basement. The band commences playing while the room is still filling up. Immediately, it\u2019s a challenge to even just see them as they\u2019re bathed in thick, opaque dry ice. If you\u2019re not within a couple of metres from the stage, you\u2019re seeing nothing but the outlines of human forms. It comes across as frustrating more than mysterious.<\/p>\n

Their atmospheric black metal is a victim of this subgenre\u2019s popularity in the previous decade. Extended, mournful atmospheric riffs are layered in shoegaze influences, employing heavy reverberation and delays. Arrangements are predictable and bolt through a checklist of the genre\u2019s clich\u00e9s. This pedestrian and hollow writing renders\u00a0SUNKEN\u00a0<\/strong>as little more than an echo chamber act. Vocalist\u00a0Martin Skyum Thomasen<\/strong>\u00a0embodies a range of vocal styles from black metal snarls to somewhat clumsy shouts. His performance is impassioned, which is more than could be said of the music. Overall, this is yet another atmospheric black metal band that stagnates the genre rather than propels it forward.<\/p>\n

Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PanopticonPanopticon live @ Stereo, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall<\/p>\n

Rightfully, Stereo\u00a0<\/strong>is tightly packed for headliners\u00a0PANOPTICON<\/strong>. This tour sees sole member\u00a0Austin Lunn\u00a0<\/strong>and his hired guns perform songs from his Laurentian<\/strong> trilogy of albums:\u00a0And Again into the Light<\/strong>,\u00a0The Rime of Memory<\/strong>\u00a0and the upcoming new album\u00a0Det Hjems\u00f8kte Hjertet<\/strong>. The show starts with\u00a0Winter\u2019s Ghost Part II: Hjeml\u00f8s<\/strong>. This portion of the song is a pure folk number with no metal elements.\u00a0Lunn\u00a0<\/strong>utilises almost foreboding clean guitars, Americana folk singing and\u00a0Charlie Anderson<\/strong>\u2018s mesmerising violin to produce tender but haunting, candle-lit soundscapes. Unfortunately, some technical difficulties lead the band to wrap up the song dissatisfied with its end.\u00a0Dead Loons<\/strong>\u00a0takes over but is also mired in issues; the intro sample of recorded loons is played twice while problems are addressed. When it does get going, this introspective track bathes the venue in dense atmospherics as well as complex, active lead guitars and bold keyboards. This merger infuses\u00a0PANOPTICON\u00a0<\/strong>with so many more layers and expressions than their peers. There\u2019s another concern when the keyboard suddenly rises to ear-piercing volume but thankfully only lasts a couple of seconds.<\/p>\n

Glasgow gets lucky tonight. Those present do become the first to hear the live debut of songs from\u00a0Det Hjems\u00f8kte Hjertet<\/strong>. The first of these is\u00a0The Great Silence<\/strong>, Extinct<\/strong>, followed by\u00a0Blood and Fur Upon the Melting Snow<\/strong>\u00a0and later in the set,\u00a0Woodland Caribou<\/strong>. These songs are garnished in\u00a0PANOPTICON<\/strong>\u2018s mellifluous welding of folk and atmospheric black metal, yet contain new galloping rhythms, marking\u00a0Lunn<\/strong>\u2018s style as fresh and evolving.\u00a0The Blue Against the Whit<\/strong>e\u00a0takes an organic stroll into post-rock territory leading to a roaring crescendo of intricate drumming, savage riffs and zealous black metal growls. There\u2019s a three-pronged vocal attack throughout the night. Live guitarist\u00a0Arron Charles<\/strong>\u00a0provides supplementary growls and bassist Andy Klokow<\/strong> provides clean vocals. These Americans can\u2019t drop the energy, and the fans are devouring every note, transfixed by these rare anthems.<\/p>\n

\"PanopticonPanopticon live @ Stereo, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall<\/p>\n

There\u2019s time for just one shorter song, so the final track is\u00a0Into the North Woods<\/strong>\u00a0from\u00a0Autumn Eternal<\/strong>. It\u2019s grittier and rawer than the other songs, but that translates even better live. One final burst of grateful headbanging follows the band to its end. After nearly a generous hour and a half,\u00a0PANOPTICON\u00a0<\/strong>defies technical problems to lay out a jaw-detaching spectacle. They are still undisputed royalty of the well-trodden domain of atmospheric black metal, and tonight is another reminder of that.<\/p>\n

Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out our photo gallery of the night\u2019s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like PANOPTICON on Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years have elapsed since atmospheric black\/folk metallers\u00a0PANOPTICON\u00a0last played live in Glasgow. It\u2019s only right that the Americans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,247951,712,251118,251119,16,15],"class_list":["post-888903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glasgow","tag-britain","tag-glasgow","tag-great-britain","tag-panopticon","tag-scotland","tag-stereo-glasgow","tag-sunken","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116391468704514248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888903","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=888903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}