Panopticon - Hellbore (Review)

Friday is a great day - with releases up the release radar, I am mostly concerned about the releases from smaller bands. That’s when a catchy artwork and the tag of tech-death caught my eyes. It was “Panopticon” by Hellbore, and I instantly knew I had to cover this. A bit of background - for what started out as a two-man band, Hellbore promises to rise and spread up from its thrash roots to a more complex soundscape in their sophomore release and debut album “Panopticon”. Well, without any further ado, let’s jump into the album discussion!

The album intro “Libertus” begins with a slow dark piano melody building upon the anticipation, while bleeding in with the hard-hitting main riff of “All Men Are Created Evil”. With catchy riffs, almost matching to the level of Obscura, the track showcases the intensity prevalent throughout the album. With blasting double bass on drums throughout with moments of shred blasts, the track also invests in its atmospheric elements in the background. Expect a keyboard solo itself in the latter half!

“Angel Slayer” has a sludgy thrash vibe to it. With hardcore (kind of) style of drums, this one is rather slow paced. The vocal texture of Chris Whitby almost is reminiscent of Randy Blythe growls and lows. The layerings on the vocals really stand out, giving it a chanting feel. “Terror Eyes” with its short middle-eastern based intro, showcases absolutely bone-crushing brutality from the start. The vocals shift from lows to insane highs so seamlessly. The track mesmerizes you with its short passage of clean guitars with prog-jazzy drums, while again shifting back to its heavier parts. “Necrocracy” picks up where its predecessor left, continuing the chapter with sheer speed and technically profound riffs. The basslines really shine through the mix, almost coming to the forefront while the synth elements act as the backbone of the track.

The actual fun begins in the second-half of the album with the “Panopticon” trilogy - definitely the best surprise of the album. “Panopticon I: The Pretence of Balance” begins with a flute melody, building up for a cinematic sound experience before bleeding into the blasting attack of rapid death metal. This one will definitely remind you of the starting to the album “Vile Genesis” by Inferi. The band does not fear to experiment with creative elements - like the use of Vocoder, or featuring some jazzy drumlines halfway. Charlie Munro showcases a technically proficient solo on this one. The outro showcases beautiful clean vocal melodies, which does serve as a great ending for this eight minute track. While Part I and II are not interconnected musically, “Panopticon II: Born to Bleed” begins in the same fashion of a dramatic intro with marching drum pattern and bass  grooves. With choppy riffs and start-stop progression, this one is filled with technical elements and much groove oriented like Decapitated. “Panopticon III: The Tyrant’s Throne” definitely dives deep with the jazz and prog elements, setup in the first half of the elements, with gradual increasing in intensity of buildup and finally releasing all its wrath with tech-death madness. Not to forget the dynamic shift in the latter half, giving us a much needed memorable headbanging riff and ending the album with some heavy action. 

For a band that started out playing death/thrash and also an EP to that list, Hellbore’s “Panopticon” shows you how much the band has progressed towards a more technical and progressive soundscape. Charlie Munro really showcases a great range of songwriting on the record, borrowing influences across various genres. The vocals of Chris Whitby does its magic too - both in the highs and the lows. For a band, rather two man project where music was written and shared via the internet, “Panopticon” is a highly memorable release. Adding some extra note of positivity to the discography of Hellbore, “Panopticon” is definitely one of the best death-metal releases of March.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Website: https://www.facebook.com/HellboreMetal

Genre: Technical Death Metal

Worldwide Release: March 18, 2022.