When more than a week passes between posts, then one can suspect something strange going on. Luckily the hellish exam has passed with success, but I was so fatigued by it that I could barely sit down, listen and write about new tunes. I got my time to recover and it is time to get back on track and this is the perfect band for the occasion!
"Panthalassa" is a screamo band coming from Seattle, Washington formed in 2010, writing and recording this little beast of a demo during winter time. This band is technically a three piece with vocals, guitar and drums, but there is also a guest star fourth member on bass, none other than Andrew from "Lizards Have Personalities". When Sean initially wrote to me about their demo he didn't mention whether this kind of band composition is a one time thing or not, but I honestly hope it isn't, since they sound excellent this way. Also on the technical aspect, Simon from "Bears" helped out with mixing and all that jazz, though you can read about all that stuff in the "About us and thank yous" file in the download link.
Moving on to talk about how this all sounds like, it took me more than usual to think up bands which sound similar to "Panthalassa". I'd definitely say that this is a merit, since it is obvious that they don't follow a norm when it comes to writing music. What I did manage to scrap from my brain is a combination of "Lion of the North" meets "Broken Chords Can Sing A Little" minus the raw chaos and plus jazzy guitar...something like that. It is hard to describe since I think the band itself is still experimenting with what they want, due to the fact that in the course of the seven minutes present in the demo you have a lot of variation and experimentation with sound. You get to hear fast, flowing, mathy tunes which a song later change into slow, choked, spasm like rhythms. The cool thing is that despite the sound mutation and the shortness of the release, the demo seems quite consistent in the sense that you can actually get into the music and have an opinion about it. There were numerous projects that offered some test sounds through quite short demos and it took me some time to listen and re-listen to actually say that I like it or not. With "Panthalassa" it seems just straightforward, the release jumps in your face and you like it. The songs are catchy and backed up by great lyrics (also found in the download link), so they just get stuck in your head and you can play them over and over again.
Reading what I wrote thus far, it seems I kinda lost touch with properly writing down my thoughts about music, which usually happens when I don't write for a long time. Either way, if I failed to seize your attention about this release, then I will do it the old fashion way:GO AND DOWNLOAD THIS. I really find the demo enjoyable and hopefully the band will stick together and whip out some more material, since this really shows that they have talent and can make something cool and interesting. Check them out and get in touch via their facebook page found here. Enjoy!
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