I'm a massive Dan Swano fan, and over the past months I've made it my mission to get as much stuff involving him as possible. So after a bit of searching I managed to get my hands on Pan-Thy-Monium, Khaoohs & Konfusion, their last CD in 1996 (I think it was) before the group went on an extended period of not existing. Around the time this was made Dan was still involved in the floundering Edge of Sanity. Dan plays the keyboards on Khaoohs, and he said that Pan-Thy-Monium was his way of letting out all the weirdness he had inside. Whenever he had a weird idea, this band was his outlet. It sure shows. On to the music.
Pan-Thy-Monium is possibly the weirdest metal band I've ever heard. Scattered within their quite heavy brand of twisted metal is odd trumpets and saxophones, spacey keyboards soaring cheerily above heavy riffs, weird clangs, bangs, peoples voices, organs, screams, and a heap of random stuff thrown in for good measure. Also, the bands growler, Benny Larsson, later Edge of Sanity front man after Dan vacated, has a vocal style I like to call the 'froggy squish'. His vocals are unintelligible and very low in the mix, and according to Dan there aren't even any lyrics, he is simply using his voice as another instrument...which is refreshing approach to growling...but one major tick off this CD in my book is the growling style. I hate the extremely low squishy style of growls, I like them higher pitched, and it actually gets kind of annoying after a while that all the vocalist is saying is 'oooRRhggg Urrghh Splooorg Haaaurrrggg'.
Now...the music itself...this CD is filled with awesome riffs, and there is always something crazy going on to back them up. The first song 'The Battle of GeeHab' is my favourite, it is a brilliant track. The guitaring is pretty awesome on this, and often a guitar breaks from the madness to soar above the riffs. Sudden, jarring shifts in pace personify this song, and almost normal metal sections suddenly morph into crazy keyboard medleys. Around 3:13 of this song is a particularly evil sounding riff
, which suddenly cuts off to an out of tune trumpet wailing away...back to normal riffage...then into a beautiful keyboard medley...so on, so forth. The sheer spontaneity and nerve of this CD is what makes it so brilliant. This song is fantastic all the way through.
The second song, Thee Perenth is not as impressive. It opens with a picked acoustic riff that almost sounds like Aerials by System of a Down, than goes into a sludgey, angular riff which Benny growls over. After this section we a plunged into the weirdest bit on the CD, 1 minute and a half of a looped echoey crowd noise which seems totally out of place, then we are thrown back into the metal calamity. This track has some very good parts, like the relaxing bit near the end with a nice solo, but overall its not as good as 'The Battle of GeeHab', which is brilliant from start to finish.
To top it all off the 3rd track 'Behrial' is simply a synth choir singing over clicks and echoey drums, strange. The last track, 'In Remembrance' is one minute of silence .
This CD 'Khaoohs & Kon-Fus-Ion' is so strange and alien, it could be from another planet. Its like metal of an alternate future, where up is down and black is white. Pan-Thy-Monium played from instinct whatever came to mind, put it all into one song, beat it with a weird stick and muddled it up a bit. The result was this twisted masterpiece which I sometimes find myself having trouble listening to. It is growing on me...and thats the scary thing. I do not know whether I would recommend this as a CD, but I would recommend the song 'The Battle of Geehab' itself. The rest of the CD is not so great, but the first song itself is so good it could be worth getting this album.
Music for weirdos........yet cool....
Pan-Thy-Monium is possibly the weirdest metal band I've ever heard. Scattered within their quite heavy brand of twisted metal is odd trumpets and saxophones, spacey keyboards soaring cheerily above heavy riffs, weird clangs, bangs, peoples voices, organs, screams, and a heap of random stuff thrown in for good measure. Also, the bands growler, Benny Larsson, later Edge of Sanity front man after Dan vacated, has a vocal style I like to call the 'froggy squish'. His vocals are unintelligible and very low in the mix, and according to Dan there aren't even any lyrics, he is simply using his voice as another instrument...which is refreshing approach to growling...but one major tick off this CD in my book is the growling style. I hate the extremely low squishy style of growls, I like them higher pitched, and it actually gets kind of annoying after a while that all the vocalist is saying is 'oooRRhggg Urrghh Splooorg Haaaurrrggg'.
Now...the music itself...this CD is filled with awesome riffs, and there is always something crazy going on to back them up. The first song 'The Battle of GeeHab' is my favourite, it is a brilliant track. The guitaring is pretty awesome on this, and often a guitar breaks from the madness to soar above the riffs. Sudden, jarring shifts in pace personify this song, and almost normal metal sections suddenly morph into crazy keyboard medleys. Around 3:13 of this song is a particularly evil sounding riff
, which suddenly cuts off to an out of tune trumpet wailing away...back to normal riffage...then into a beautiful keyboard medley...so on, so forth. The sheer spontaneity and nerve of this CD is what makes it so brilliant. This song is fantastic all the way through.The second song, Thee Perenth is not as impressive. It opens with a picked acoustic riff that almost sounds like Aerials by System of a Down, than goes into a sludgey, angular riff which Benny growls over. After this section we a plunged into the weirdest bit on the CD, 1 minute and a half of a looped echoey crowd noise which seems totally out of place, then we are thrown back into the metal calamity. This track has some very good parts, like the relaxing bit near the end with a nice solo, but overall its not as good as 'The Battle of GeeHab', which is brilliant from start to finish.
To top it all off the 3rd track 'Behrial' is simply a synth choir singing over clicks and echoey drums, strange. The last track, 'In Remembrance' is one minute of silence
. This CD 'Khaoohs & Kon-Fus-Ion' is so strange and alien, it could be from another planet. Its like metal of an alternate future, where up is down and black is white. Pan-Thy-Monium played from instinct whatever came to mind, put it all into one song, beat it with a weird stick and muddled it up a bit. The result was this twisted masterpiece which I sometimes find myself having trouble listening to. It is growing on me...and thats the scary thing. I do not know whether I would recommend this as a CD, but I would recommend the song 'The Battle of Geehab' itself. The rest of the CD is not so great, but the first song itself is so good it could be worth getting this album.
Music for weirdos........yet cool....
