Induct a Panopticon album into the Corridor of Fame, they stated. Decide the very best one of many bunch, they stated. You recognize, probably the most impactful report, probably the most well-known one, the one that actually stands out from the pack. Positive. Straightforward.
Austin Lunn’s long-running Americana-infused black steel venture has, in fact, produced a number of masterpieces deserving of such consideration. However contemplate a great religion try to separate these albums into eras by subject. The person wrote, organized, recorded and launched nearly 5 hours of high-quality music within the span of solely 4 years. How cleanly do you think about these concepts may very well be extricated from one another? Lunn has even particularly said that the music for 2 very totally different data—Kentucky and Social Disservices—took form at the very same time. And this was earlier than Kentucky turned the primary entry of an eventual trilogy that helped Lunn perceive and categorical his journey from devoted southerner to unabashed northman. The music on every album within the trilogy nods to totally different influences and faucets totally different emotional facilities, however none could be full with out locking arms with the opposite two.
Which brings us to 2015’s remaining phrase on that interval of Lunn’s life: Autumn Everlasting. The years resulting in the album’s creation will be precisely characterised by upheaval. Lunn had spent years in social work jobs that took a major toll on his personal well-being, and in looking for a method out, he was invited to apprentice at a Norwegian brewery. Whereas his spouse, Bekah, was pregnant with their first little one, they briefly moved to Drammen, Norway earlier than returning to Louisville, KY solely lengthy sufficient to pack for a transfer to Minnesota and begin a brewing enterprise with Bekah’s brother. Being transplanted can solely be completed by first being uprooted, and the disorientation Lunn felt throughout this course of was equaled solely by the wave of acceptance he finally skilled and wrote about with Autumn Everlasting.
Autumn Everlasting inhabits a transitional second, a mix of Lunn’s former self and the individual he was striving, even then, to turn out to be. Sonically, the album finds a considerably impartial center floor, and bittersweet magnificence blooms the place that soil is the richest. It derives its energy from newly solid friendships, but in addition from older relationships that had been strengthened and, in some sadder instances, sundered. It celebrates Lunn’s new adventures into household life and right into a wilderness that someway felt nearly instantly acquainted. And thru his strategy of inspecting these components of his personal private evolution, he offers us with the poetry—and the pounding, monstrous riffs—to raised respect the instructions our personal lives have taken.
We can not fake that Autumn Everlasting soars singularly above Lunn’s already massive and ever-growing catalog, however we’re proud to pick out it as a totem of types, an excellent assortment of songs round which we will rally help for Lunn’s devastating musical legacy. Throw large the doorways of the Corridor, and set the standing oaks ablaze.
Want extra traditional Panopticon? To learn your complete seven-page story, that includes interviews with the personnel who carried out on Autumn Everlasting, buy the print situation from our retailer, or digitally by way of our app for iPhone/iPad or Android.