Pantheïst & Dauðaró - Af holdi og malmi

Perhaps one of the coolest collabs I’ve heard, funeral doom metal bands Pantheïst and Dauðaró have teamed up to release this massive album titled “Af holdi og malmi,” a concept album exploring the philosophical tension between humanity and artificial intelligence.  

If you don’t know who the legendary Pantheïst are, then do you even like doom metal? They have been putting out some of the most expansive and intelligent doom for a long time now and, thankfully, show zero signs of slowing down. Dauðaró is one of my favorite modern doom metal bands and the one-man project has been steadily building his own legend with a butt load of great albums behind him.  

What I like about this album is that it is, for the most part, SLOW. I know doom doesn’t have to move at glacial speed but the best kind does. This collaboration feels like a love letter to both the styles of each band and for funeral doom, in general. If this style is your jam then prepare to dive into quite the experience. If this isn’t your acquired taste then it sucks to be you. Also, go acquire it and come back later. Thanks! 

With 7 songs and a runtime of just over 1 hour and 17 minutes, this album requires your time and patience. This isn’t music you put on at a birthday party (although you should) and go about your day. Grab a good pair of headphones and settle in and let the doom wash over you. The best thing about this album is not one second of it is wasted or not needed. This is a fully realized collaboration, not some cheap product where each artist is phoning it in with a couple lame covers or c-sides. Each song is a living, breathing entity and has something to say. 

The production and mix is perfect. Every element, from the organ to the bass, to each and every growl and scream can be heard through its own suffocating and dread-filled atmosphere. Listening to this album is like walking through a cave: massive and seemingly unending. Like cold water dripping off stalagites, I love how the keys sprinkle atmospheric pressure over the dense, brutal riffs. It is methodical with purpose instead of just being heavy for the sake of it. 

“The Architect,” is indeed a song that builds a structure of towering presence that sends out emanating waves of technological dread. The first moments of the song are atmospheric and ambient noises that crawl around the darkness, barely seen through sinew and shadows they cast themselves. The cavernous noises continue as the guitars drop their notes, slow stabs into the dark that hit their target and sprawl out to cover the landscape of sound. 

The first growls around the 5 and a half mark are frightening–I knew they were coming yet their presence is still shocking to the senses in the best way possible. The minutes that follow are a slow moving atmospheric river but instead of in the sky, it’s deep below—and rising to the top. The hallmark introduces dour melodies that a huge doom fan like me finds catchy. These bare moments of dim light entice me to keep exploring but as I make my way deeper into the song, I soon find out that I might not be able to get it. Remind you something? Like our technological advancement of AI?

“Iron Dominion,” is the shortest song on the album, at a little over 5 minutes. It’s a more straightforward song (so to speak) and smartly placed in the track list. The growls/screams are goddamn painful. The guitars/keys meld with them perfectly, a swirl of melancholic dread that is nightmarish, yet I couldn’t walk away even if I wanted to. The halfway point is something else, a dichotomy of metal and keys/organ that sounds unreal yet its heavy weight ensures it is indeed existing—and growing. 

Other than the godly opening song, “Completion,” might be my favorite on this album. The opening riffs are a musical avalanche—the rocks sliding down to destroy all, arriving in the form of notes that are so heavy that I’m surprised my brain could handle them. Is this the eventual slide that AI will cause? Are we already in it? Scary thoughts and this song is definitely menacing on its own, regardless of meaning. The vocals are VICIOUS. The metal and the atmosphere crash together, becoming a new beast before breaking apart into a miasma and it all starts again. Unrelenting. The second part of the song is heavy on ambient textures, turning it all the more horrific and unsettling. 

The final song is “Cosmic Authority,” it is surreal as it is mesmerizing. Their keys and organ are used to maximum potential, creating moments of unrest that pave the way for the crash of drums and guitars. The first few minutes are doomed out but the bulk of the song’s back half is instrumental and uses liminal spaces among keys and ambient textures to finish telling the story. It’s tragic because it feels all too real—and it may not be telling the future but instead painting what has already started.  

So is this album the soundtrack of our doom? Will humanity heed warnings or continue to be the only species that destroys themselves in desperate attempts to falsely improve what really isn’t broken? Well if we are indeed killing ourselves, at least we have damn good music while we fade into ash. That might be the best we can hope for. 

“Af holdi og malmi,” is a slow album with urgency to it and a must have for fans of either bands or just doom in general. This collaboration is a terrifying piece of music but also extremely smart and well-written. It’s worth the nightmares.  

Rating: Excellent