Hellbore - Panopticon Review

It’s very interesting how an album can change in so few tracks. How from head to toe things get hugely different. “Panopticon” is an album that started with a Brutal Death Metal feeling and little by little turned into a Technical Progressive Death Metal – hm, I really don’t know if this labeling exists. If it doesn’t, I created it. Yay!

First track “Libertus” is really an intro and as an intro it follows that rule of being completely different than the track it introduces. Yeah, though strange this is very common within Metal music. There uncountable intros that have nothinh to do with the track they introduce. That’s exactly the case as it a calm and tranquil track with chamber music elements. “All Men Are Created Evil” comes and changes every sense the fan tried to make with the intro. I liked very much the track tittle that is really a pum with Jean-Jacques Rousseau who wrote “People in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence,however, is corrupted by the evils of society.” Well, I don’t agree with both. People are created good and evil, however the evils society do corrupt men. I agree that there are more evil men than good ones. Unfortunately that’s the dang truth. The discussion, however, is valid. My thoughts are that Metal music has this important role as it puts on the table discussions that no other genre discusses. I know I said little by little about the changes into Hellbore’s music. In fact, by the third track the Technical Progressive facete is very clear. Not only happy to introduce chamber music elements in their music Hellbore mix in the cauldron some dashes of Jazz. Ok, this isn’t exactly news but the way the band does it is remarckable as the songs doesn’t loose a pound of their heavyness – a pound of their heavyness, seriously? In fact, the heavyness is increased as the sense the chaos goes with it and all spaces are filled by an extremely competent bass. The hars, acid and at times eerie vocals help a lot with this honorable quest.

“Panopticon” is an album with lots of detais and my fan knows that the devil is the details. Besides the Jazz elements there are a lot of Progressive Rock elements as well as my dear can check on “Panopticon III,” the last but not least track. By the way, the last tracks of the album are called “Panopticon I,” “Panopticon II,” and “Panopticon III.” Clever, huh? The band also deals with other cadences than the standard plot twists. That’s another important detail that enriches the album. I invite my dear fan to check them all out. Really worth it.

Hellbore “Panopticon” will be self-released on March 18th.

Track Listing: