PAN-THY-MONIUM for a swano newbie!

[Kushantaiidan]

Greetings..

PAN-THY-MONIUM never really caught my eye.. for some reason.. I heard it was a dan swano project, and I decided to check out some reviews.. The general idea I got from the reviews was that the music is insane brutal death mixed in with jazz elements and other assorted craziness.

From Chedsey:

Imagine if John Zorn, Chris Barnes (with a bad throat cold), various members of Yes, Rush, and a demon all met in an alleyway somewhere and got into a fistfight. And suppose the omnipotent Dan Swano happened to be there to capture this on tape. This is very similar to what Pan-Thy-Monium is about. Based loosely on a fictitious god Raagoonshinnah, Pan-Thy-Monium has previously been dripped in mystique. This is their last release and what a ride it is.

The first two tracks are sound collages that switch from death grunts, to jazzy guitar overtures, to sax wack-out noise to spoken voice chants to keyboard interludes. Everything is thrown in here. It's as if a death band all fell into a coma, dreamt about Mr. Bungle, and then set to making music without Mr. B's wet dream lyrics. Quite odd. The final track (not including the minute of silence that makes up track four) is a page right out The Xenon Codex-era Hawkwind textbook. Based on a soothing keyboard riff and a clock tick, the mystique knights put their god to rest. For the anti-rock in all of us.

Now seeing I'm a yes fan,. and a fan of all things insane, as well as a budding new swano fan, (I'm still at the stage of slowly digesting purgatory afterglow and some of his nightingale work) I think this band, or project sounds very interesting..

Can anyone suggest a track I can download to check out this band. I already assume that this isn't the type of band that you just listen to one track.. But I want to see what these guys sound like.

Thank you!

 

[spikes77]

Track 1 on dawn of dreams , i have it untitled... its 20 minutes long...

 

[Kushantaiidan]

Also... There seem to be a lot of dan swano projects that I'm not aware of.. So to save me starting another thread, does anyone want to list and explain his projects?

I know of EOS, Nightingale, Moontower, and Now Pan-Thy-Monium as well as bloodbath. But what about his other projects.. There seems to be so much stuff, it's overwhelming..

 

[yourdeadgroom]

I'll second the recommendation for the first track off 'Dawn of Dreams' (which is called Raagoonshinnah, although not many no that, it's not listed on the album, and that may be spelt wrong ). A 20 minute masterpiece, honestly one of the coolest songs I've ever heard.
For other projects, there is Unicorn, which I think is proggy but I've never heard it so I don't really know.
Infestdead is another, it's total Deicide worship, and rocks hard.

 

[Metal88]

Originally posted by Kushantaiidan
Also... There seem to be a lot of dan swano projects that I'm not aware of.. So to save me starting another thread, does anyone want to list and explain his projects?

I know of EOS, Nightingale, Moontower, and Now Pan-Thy-Monium as well as bloodbath. But what about his other projects.. There seems to be so much stuff, it's overwhelming..

It is a bit overwhelming. Bloodbath has only 3 songs right now with a new full lenght album coming out in the near future, this is great but nowhere near his best stuff. Forget about it for now. Those others you mention are among his best work. I recommend "The Spectral Sorrows" From EOS though others will point you elsewhere and I can understand. Most of Dan's fans feel the same about the rest I will say though: Any of Nightingale's 3 albums are sensationally bombass and you must get all 3. The album "I" will be the one that gets your attention quickest. Moontower is simply the name of his solo work under the title "Dan Swano" and everyone agrees it is spectacular. From Pan.thy.monium, Dawn of Dreams is great and Raagoonshinah is the best track as everyone has told you, but it is pretty tough to find. I recommend their final cd "Kahoos and Konfusion" it is just as good or better and is easy to find. Get the first two tracks: "The battle of Geeheeb" and "Thee-pherenth" The only thing you missed that is among his ELITE work is Unicorn's "Emotional Wasteland", a must own cd and you can buy it cheap here: http://www.lasercd.com/Merchant/lasercd/

Good luck exploring Dan's Goldmine of cd's. There is much much more but as not to overwhelm you, come back when you have all of the above. Hehe.