Songs Of Hiraeth by Panopticon<\/a><\/p>\nPossibly the most brilliant thing about Songs of Hiraeth, however, is that it gets better as it goes on. This is not to say that the earlier parts aren\u2019t good\u2014they are; the solemn, then triumphant atmo-black of \u201cThe White Mountain View\u201d could compete with any later fan-favourite and is really lovely. But from the first tumbling rollovers of \u201cThe End is Drawing Near\u201d onwards, something shifts. The blackened ardour goes from a hum to a storm, and the mournful melodies pitch into urgency (\u201cThe End is Drawing Near,\u201d \u201cA Letter\u201d), before they cascade down with exquisite sadness (\u201cA Letter,\u201d \u201cThe Eulogy\u201d). That bewitching liquidity to the reverb-soaked tremolos\u2014which was present from Panopticon, and which only grew in sublimity over time\u2014dominates these three final songs. In them\u2013particularly closing duo \u201cA Letter,\u201d and \u201cThe Eulogy\u201d\u2014you can hear and feel the heart of their creator beating in the expressive, pleasantly audible drumwork, the transcendent soaring of the guitars, and the literal grief and pain in the lyrics he screams into the haze.<\/p>\n
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2025 has been the year of Panopticon for me, with a discography deep-dive, two albums, and a surprise EP that knocked me off my feet. This has only sharpened my perception of the music\u2019s strange magic: although my mind knows, my body forgets between listening sessions, just how good it is. Songs of Hiraeth is not just a coincidental window into the past; it\u2019s another immersive offering of vulnerability revealed at a very specific time\u2014just as crucial as the harrowing Laurentian Blue\u2014and it is, as everything Panopticon creates, fantastic.<\/p>\n
Songs to Check Out: \u201dThe White Mountain View,\u201d \u201cThe End is Drawing Near,\u201d \u201cA Letter,\u201d \u201cThe Eulogy\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I spent so long this summer submerged in Panopticon\u2019s discography, once I came back up, I was overwhelmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9342,11431,17049,26973,146,34665,85,46,409,112741,17058,102762,91786],"class_list":{"0":"post-199888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-9342","9":"tag-american-metal","10":"tag-atmospheric-black-metal","11":"tag-black-metal","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-folk","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-panopticon","18":"tag-post-black-metal","19":"tag-things-you-might-have-missed","20":"tag-tymhm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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I spent so long this summer submerged in Panopticon\u2019s discography, once I came back up, I was overwhelmed by the amount of things I\u2019d missed or needed to get a headstart on. Consequently, I didn\u2019t spend a huge amount of time with Songs of Hiraeth when it first dropped; I listened, loved it, made a note to TYMHM it, and moved on. It was only as Autumn started to turn into Winter and the seasonal chill reminded me of not just my end-of-year writing obligations, but the snowy wildernesses of Northern America (and Northern Europe, where much of Songs of Hiraeth was conceived). I\u2019m not necessarily suggesting that the shorter days and the colder temperatures made the music sound better\u2014I spent a significant chunk of my ranking-preparation listening in the south of France, and it sounded excellent as always then. But in some way, mine, the environment\u2019s, and the album\u2019s auras aligned, and everything was set for Songs of Hiraeth to reach full power.<\/p>\n