Review by Sonny for Nechochwen / Panopticon - Nechochwen / Panopticon (2020)

Nechochwen's four tracks that make up side A are their usual high quality atmospheric BM fare and I don't wish to dismiss them out of hand as they are damn fine tracks, but the really interesting part of the split is Panopticon's single track that takes up the entirety of Side B, Rune's Heart. This is obviously a deeply emotional and personal track for Austin Lunn as the lengthy and somewhat harrowing notes that accompany it on Bandcamp will attest. It is a song from Austin to his young son Rune (Austin refuses to publish the lyrics as they are personal between himself and Rune) after Rune spent many, many months in hospital due to a necessary heart operation and complications that arose from it. It is a fantastic piece of atmospheric metal, it's twenty minutes encompasses a number of tempo changes and tonal variation, from aggressive frustration to calm reflection and back again that proves once more (if proof is needed) that Panopticon is still right at the head of the atmo-black pack.