Simply the idea of bringing your own sound to the table in order to create something new that has never been heard before. It’s a goal that permeates much of music and has helped the world of music become as detailed, vivid, and layered as it has become over the centuries, and metal is still a genre that’s constantly coming up with different ways to out-do itself. Avant-garde black metal is far from a rare thing, but it’s still incredibly interesting to experience and the debut album of Panegyrist is everything that a fan of the style should come to expect.

Easily, my favorite thing about the surreal world of avant-garde black metal is how there really isn’t a blueprint or a structure on how to make a sound that can be considered a part of the genre. It’s a style where everything is unusual from what you’d expect, it’s progressive in a dark way, and it truly blends styles together into an opaque madness that’s just as intimidating as much as it is artistic. That’s literally everything that “Hierurgy” is to the maximum! A debut can always have the potential to be impressive, but Panegyrist starts out with an explosive album that shows how much talent, vision, and all-encompassing progressive mind this band has as a unit. That’s something we simply don’t get often. Panegyrist brings a unique flavor with a vicious approach with the intensity of “Hierurgy” playing the main role with the artistic vision, macabre brilliance, and massive innovation being terrific back-ups when the intensity simply didn’t do it. The vocals, in particular, stand out as they’re very atypical to black metal, but that makes them fit all the better with the idea of avant-garde metal.

Few bands dare to go into the world of avant-garde given how outside-of-the-box you have to be in order to simply enter that style, and then backing it up with a sheer musical brilliance that’s no less than delicious to eat up time and again. If “Hierurgy” is anything indication as to what excellence we’re to expect from Panegyrist, then this band is without a doubt one that you will want to keep your eyes on.

“Hierurgy” releases on May 18th via I, Voidhanger Records!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “Hierurgy” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Panegyrist on Facebook here.