Panopticism

Gaol's Panopticism doesn't sound as much like a demo as it sounds like a demo of a demo. What I mean is this sounds like a rough rehearsal tape they'd make in preparation for their first demo just in order to get their ideas down. The production here is beyond garbage, it sounds like they just left a tape recorder from the 90s on while they messed around in their basement jam spot.

The Metal Archives lists their genre as sludge/crust and I guess that is more or less accurate. Their lyrical themes certainly fit the bill, detailing harrowing prison stays, copious drug use and the horrors of mental illness. However, this does seem to have a huge amount of Hellhammer/early Celtic Frost in the sound, particularly plucking from their slower, groove-laden sections. The tempo occasionally picks up to a hardcore bounce, but this never lasts long.

The vocals are probably the best part of this. While I'm fairly certain that for the instrumental portion of Panopticism was just recorded on a shitty tape recorder during a practice session, the vocals do sound like they were added after the fact. They are a meaty cavernous growl, coming off like crust vocals with the bite of primitive death metal. The only problem is the reverb, they lay copious amounts of that shit on the vocals to the point of sounding kind of silly. For other positives, while the cover art is very amateurish and kind of silly, I do dig the outsider art aspect. Then there's the running time, being under ten minutes is definitely a plus!

Definitely avoid this one. I'm not going to lie and say there's some potential to be detected under the muffled murk, but I hope that their next one at least has somewhat improved production. The awful muffled sound here is just horrible and makes this all but unlistenable.