Pantheïst - O Solitude (2003)

Antwerp, Belgium based, Pantheïst formed back in the beginning of 2000 by keyboardist/vocalist Kostas Panagiotou and quickly the demo, '1000 Years' was released. In 2003 alongside band members, Nicolas Tambuyser (guitars), Frederic Caure (bass) and Oscar Strik (drums) the bands debut, 'O Solitude' appeared.

Pantheïst writes long funeral doom metal songs played in a typical very slow tempo with more than enough misery and emptiness to go around. Heavily distorted downtuned sluggish guitars characterize the album and while they are mostly played at slow speeds there are some speedier moments, drum blasting and even some solos present. Acoustic guitars also make their appearance on the song, 'Don't Mourn,' which to me is one of the albums finest songs (all 14 minutes of it). 'O Solitude' is also largely synth based with beautiful orchestral cathedral-ish atmospheric synths, organs and piano enrichment, which creates a very dreamy and melancholy mood. In fact the atmosphere of this record is perfect. Its just one of those albums that works entirely too well on cold, gray rainy Autumn days.

Kostas' vocal work is superb since it switches between low growled howls to spoken passages, whispers and even some semi-operatic-ish sounding parts that just work perfectly with this sort of music. On the song, 'Envy Us' guest singer, Stijn van Cauter (mastermind behind, 'Until Death Overtakes Me') makes an appearance using a much slower and guttural roar and towards the end of the song has a sort of growled duet with Kostas, which is just bad ass sounding.

Although just five songs long, the entire record runs for fifty seven minutes and as it sometimes goes with this sort of music it tends to feel like one super long song. However I find that, 'Don't Mourn,' 'Time' and 'Curse the Morning Light' are truly stunning pieces of funeral doom.

For whatever reason I never followed Pantheïst past this album, which is weird, especially since I played this one a lot back when it first came out. Since then the bands relocated to England, changed members, and released three additional albums, which may very well be just as stunning as this debut.