The Panzerfaust tetralogy, The Suns of Perdition series, began all the way back in 2019 with Chapter I: War, Horrid War. Despite being a great record, delivered by a band showing huge promise, this massive saga wasn’t one that I really expected to ever see finished. Bands break up, get dragged into controversies1 or whatever. But, five years later, here we are, at the conclusion of The Suns of Perdition series and the end of the world. For that is what Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion explores: the world slowly falling apart, as human society and civilization approach inevitable collapse, and descends into chaos. At my hands, the series to date has gone 4.02-4.5-3.5. Does the final entry represent a triumphant conclusion to an epic saga or Panzerfaust’s unavoidable descent into the reality of the cold light of day?
To say that Panzerfaust’s music is misanthropic would be an understatement. The entire thesis of The Suns of Perdition is that to put it bluntly, humanity is a collection of twats doing awful things, which will eventually lead to the apocalypse. Even measured against that yardstick, Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion is bleak. And unrelenting. Unrelentingly bleak, one could say. Gone are the shimmering adornments and twisted, yet familiar, touchpoints scattered across War, Horrid War. Gone are the dancing melodies that occasionally lifted the gloom brooding over of Chapter II: Render unto Eden. Gone (thankfully!) are the interludes that disrupted the threat of Chapter III: The Astral Drain. Panzerfaust is unleashed on To Shadow Zion, with nothing held back. From start to finish, this is the sound of The End. However, where a band like LLNN rendered the apocalypse real on Unmaker through sheer heaviness measured in metric tonnage, Panzerfaust achieves the same by tone alone. Don’t get me wrong, To Shadow Zion is crushing, with savage carnage on the likes of “When Even the Ground is Hostile,” as Goliath’s sulphuric, rasping roar rips out over the backing vocals and cascading tremolos of Brock van Dijk. But from the doom-laden overtones that open “Occam’s Fucking Razor,” with its half-heard, half-chanted backing vocals to the brutal but stripped-back closing third of “The Hesychasm Unchained,” Panzerfaust achieve a cohesive tone of desolation through a variety of means.
The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion by PANZERFAUST
As on previous outings in The Suns of Perdition saga, so on To Shadow Zion, Panzerfaust’s true MVP is drummer Alexander Kartashov. His ability, and crucially willingness, to shift between metronomic, artillery-like blasts, doom-laden rhythmic patterns, and something altogether more progressive is what both holds Panzerfaust’s compositions together and drives them forward. Most evident on album highlight, “The Damascene Conversions,” Kartashov modulates his patterns to perfectly accentuate and highlight the bağlama3 (contributed by guest Ahmet lhvani). Far from introducing a lift in mood, the bağlama’s discordant, twanging harmonies bring a sense of mournful hopelessness. The epic closer, “To Shadow Zion (No Sanctuary),” is massive, its rolling guitar lines and thick, meaty bass steamrollering forward, as Goliath switches up his delivery in places, leaning into a snarling, half-spoken rasp that conveys nothing but contempt for his subject: us.
“Fuck hope” intones Goliath (or possibly van Dijk) toward the back end of “When Even the Ground is Hostile,” capturing the entire feel of To Shadow Zion. Panzerfaust has created a dark portrait of a world in flames and done so in five, tightly written tracks, spanning just 45 minutes. The Astral Drain devoted ten full minutes of its run to meandering interludes. These are abandoned entirely here, which means that despite being two minutes shorter than its predecessor, To Shadow Zion delivers more actual music and does so cohesively, without sacrificing its flow or tracks transitions. The production is good, without being stellar. A lot of emphasis is placed on the (excellent) drums and (trademark) vocals, but I do wish Van Dijk’s guitars were pushed just a little more into the foreground in the heavier passages. That said, the guitar tone in melodic places, like the melancholic opening to “The Damascene Conversions,” is perfect and the overall soundstage is dynamic.
The slight (and relative) drop in quality on last installment, Chapter III: The Astral Drain, notwithstanding, delivering a worthy conclusion to The Suns of Perdition saga was always going to be a huge challenge for Panzerfaust. On To Shadow Zion, they have risen to the occasion. “The Damascene Conversions” is likely to follow “The Far Bank at the River Styx” in finding a high place on my SOTY list, while the album as a whole delivers on everything that Panzerfaust set out to achieve. Whilst not quite reaching the stellar heights of series-highlight Chapter II: Render unto Eden, Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion has a devastating flow to it and it’s more than worthy of closing this epic saga.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Eisenwald Records
Websites: panzerfaust.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/PANZERFAUST.BM.OFFICIAL
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024
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