Induct a Panopticon album into the Corridor of Fame, they mentioned. Decide the most effective one of many bunch, they mentioned. You recognize, essentially the most impactful report, essentially the most well-known one, the one that basically stands out from the pack. Positive. Simple.
Austin Lunn’s long-running Americana-infused black steel challenge has, in fact, produced a number of masterpieces deserving of such consideration. However think about a great religion try to separate these albums into eras by matter. The person wrote, organized, recorded and launched virtually 5 hours of high-quality music within the span of solely 4 years. How cleanly do you think about these concepts could possibly be extricated from one another? Lunn has even particularly acknowledged that the music for 2 very completely different information—Kentucky and Social Disservices—took form at the very same time. And this was earlier than Kentucky grew to become the primary entry of an eventual trilogy that helped Lunn perceive and specific his journey from devoted southerner to unabashed northman. The music on every album within the trilogy nods to completely different influences and faucets completely different emotional facilities, however none could be full with out locking arms with the opposite two.
Which brings us to 2015’s last phrase on that interval of Lunn’s life: Autumn Everlasting. The years resulting in the album’s creation might 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 trying to find 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 ultimately skilled and wrote about with Autumn Everlasting.
Autumn Everlasting inhabits a transitional second, a mix of Lunn’s former self and the particular person he was striving, even then, to turn into. 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 cast friendships, but in addition from older relationships that have been strengthened and, in some sadder circumstances, sundered. It celebrates Lunn’s new adventures into household life and right into a wilderness that by some means felt virtually instantly acquainted. And thru his technique of inspecting these elements of his personal private evolution, he gives us with the poetry—and the pounding, monstrous riffs—to raised recognize the instructions our personal lives have taken.
We can’t 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 kinds, an impressive assortment of songs round which we are able to 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 difficulty from our retailer, or digitally by way of our app for iPhone/iPad or Android.
