I’ve said it before, and I don’t mind repeating myself: Whenever I think that black metal has died, it starts kicking again. In the case of Pantheon I it kicks the shit out of me!
Fueled by the very grandmasters of the genre and hailing from the same beautiful region, they play brutal oldschool black, refined by use of classical string instruments, at a level so advanced that only Emperor could keep up. The riffs makes me want to scream and kill my neighbors, and the way they intertwine with the background heavy artillery drums and delicate cellos is nothing short of marvelous! The genius behind the great guitar work is Espen Sagstad, who I’ve never heard about. His talent should be the envy of any zit-plagued bulletbelt-wearing teenager that owns a guitar.
The learned metalhead will hear elements of Dimmu Borgir, Marduk, Trollheim, Dornenreich, Chthonic and the brilliantly “newfound” black n’ roll of late Satyricon and equally late Darkthrone (I’m not the only one to compare them to the latter two). In other words: “Worlds I Create” contains everything a liberally minded black metal fan needs; from the grim and unstoppable Nordic assaults, dominated by the double bass drums, to the melodic despairing outcries of witches on the pyre – usually within the same song!
The prime rule of criticism is, that it is always easier to write about something you hate. Thus, this review goes no further. I’ve used up all my positive adjectives for today, and I can't add anything but: Go by this album – it will change the way you feel about black metal – and possibly even the way people that don’t normally like black metal feels about it too.
