I mentioned some of the weirdness of To-Mera's song "The Lie" in my last post, but Sweden's Pan.Thy.Monium could give weird lessons to just about any musician. They're also my first avant-garde metal entry since Sigh at number 95. Pan.Thy.Monium is one of myriad projects by multi-instrumentalist and producer Dan Swanö, who can be heard on the excellent low vocals with Star One. He's really more of a bit player on this one, playing bass and keys. Other members include his brother Dag - who also plays with Dan in prog rock outfit Nightingale, Roberth Karlsson - probably best known for his vocals with Scar Symmetry, and Benny Larsson - drummer for another of Dan's projects, prog-death metal band Edge of Sanity.
Pan.Thy.Monium includes some unusual instrumentation with violin and saxophone, but even more unusual is how they include it. There's a lot of altissimo bari squealing and violin scraping that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Dan Swanö's keyboard often sounds like a $50 Casio, and Dag conjures images of the 70s as a hybrid of Tony Iommi and Terry Kath. "The Battle of Geeheeb" is the opening track off of their third and final album from 1996, Khooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion. This epic composition is chock full of driving riffs, none of them sticking around for more than 16 bars or so. Just when you get your toe tapping to one (and they do usually have a catchy, head-bobbing feel), it switches to something completely different (if just as groovy). Full disclosure, I have a tendency to like avant-garde music like this more than most, so I won't blame you too much if you don't dig it. But at least give it a try. As I've mentioned, I appreciate a little humor with my music, and these guys are a fun, smile-inspiring listen.
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