DREAM II

The Dream II EP is the first official release ( if you don´t include their demo) by Swedish experimental death metal act Pan.Thy.Monium. It was first released as a 4 track 7 EP vinyl only in 1991 but was re-released in 1995 by Avantgarde Music as a 5 track mini-CD ( EP) with the song IV as a bonus track. Pan.Thy.Monium is one of Edge of Sanity/ Nightingale frontman Dan Swanö´s many projects. Here on Dream II he plays drums and bass under the pseudonym Day DiSyraah. Edge of Sanity drummer Benny Larsson appears on the EP as Winter.

The music style is sombre and sinister death metal with lots of atmospheric keyboards. The vocals are brutal growls and this is probably not for the faint at heart. The songs are not as experimental as later output from the band but this is not ordinary old school Swedish death metal either allthough the music is certainly rooted in that genre. Aag aka Tom Nouga (Lead guitars, organ, barytone saxophone) has not entered the band yet and his future contributions on saxophone are especially missed on Dream II. The three first songs ( named I, II and III) on the EP are in experimental death metal style while the fourth track called Vvoiiccheeces is a short atmospheric keyboard track. The bonus track IV is in the same style as the first three.

The musicianship is good and the sound quality is actually pretty good if you compare it to the standard of those days. Raw and unpolished but still enjoyable.

Dream II is a must for the fans of the band and it should also hold some interest to fans of early experimental Swedish death metal. I find later releases more interesting but Dream II is certainly a worthwhile purchase. A 3 star rating but actually close to a 4.

The first thing i have to say about this EP is that i like it's anguished, tormented cover. Pan.Thy.Monium had always a thing for clocks, all their albums have the clock motif, i believe it's related to their concept story presented on their albums. This is an early recording of the band, featuring Dan Swano on bass guitar, and another Edge Of Sanity member, drummer Benny Larsson.

Actually i can't believe this is the same band who released three magnificent albums in the next 5 years, but then again a band has to start somewhere. Their music at the begining was nothing more than your usual death metal songs, i would have never guessed they would take such a giant leap to release their superb first full lenth album only the next year, an album with clear experimental writing, and a very mature approach. The band sticks with the usual instrumentation, no great solos (or solos at all), and no saxophone just yet. Keys are added, but still doesn't have such a good effect. The songs are really not bad, they are just quite simple, and not impressive. The music is based on the heavy riffing, and when those are mediocre, than there isn't much left to save this release. The band does work as a whole though, and plays a coherent death metal, but not more than this. This would appeal more to fans of the underground swedish death metal scene, or fans of the extreme metal without the progy influences. The sound is actually quite good for an obscure EP and The CD reissue offers a bonus track, which is cool. I really like this band, but i don't have any desire to listen to this again, i suggest to go for their debut. 2 stars, for collectors only!

DREAM II is a short EP and the first official release of PAN.THY.MONIUM led by Dan Swanö better known for his involvement in Edge Of Sanity. This short EP of four track debuts much of the stylistic approach that the band would further develop on the three full- length albums that followed.

The band was formed by Dan Swanö (aka Day DiSyraah on bass, keyboards, effects) and his brother Dag Swanö (aka Äag aka Tom Nouga on lead guitar, organ and baritone sax) along with Edge Of Sanity member Benny Larsson (aka Winter on drums) and lead vocalist Robert Karlsson aka Derelict and Robert Ivarsson aka Mourning on rhythm guitar.

The band already showed promise on the demo "?Dawn" and really start to evolve their progressively tinged death doom metal sound on DREAM II. Many of the riffs and ideas on this EP were recycled and appear liberally on the debut album DAWN OF DREAMS which is obvious by the ticking clock effect that begins both this EP and the first album

DREAM II displays the signature sound that would carry the band all throughout their brief 90s existence. PAN.THY.MONIUM was totally an anonymous band at this point and no one had any idea that Dan Swanö was the mastermind behind the project when this came out. All four tracks are also untitled which made this band a bizarre mysterious addition to the expanding extreme metal world of the early 90s.

Graced by heavily distorted death doom metal riffs and indecipherable gutturally growled vocals, the tempos are faster than the dirge-like contemporaries and also implements spooky spectral atmospheres through the stellar work of the keyboards. While the death doom aspects are dominant, there are also thrashy chugging riffage as well as progressive outbursts of time signature rich angularities.

It's not too difficult to understand how albums like "Crimson" evolved as Edge Of Sanity's magnum opus when listening to PAN.THY.MONIUM. Even at this early stage a young Swanö was already heavily influenced by not only the most extreme aspects of the metal universe but equally at home with the progressive rock influences of the 70s.

This album displays all the metal madness accompanied by the avant-garde extras which include call and response monster vocalizations, ethereal electronic intermissions, various guitar riffing styles, keyboard attacks more at home on an Emerson, Lake and Palmer album and outstanding compositional fortitude. This band was light years ahead of the pack in terms of complexity. Whereas most doom based metal plodded along, PAN.THY.MONIUM was very much about variations. A spectacular and brilliant first offering.