PANOPTICON unveils a first glimpse into his upcoming offering

The US atmospheric black metal/folk metal entity Panopticon unveiled the first track from his upcoming offering, “Songs of Hiraeth”.
This release is comprised of material from around the “On the Subject of Mortality” era that never got a wide release, remixed by Spenser Morris and sequenced as the album that never happened.
The album will be out on August 15 , and will be co-released between Bindrune Recordings and Nordvis, who are distributing the release in Europe!

Austin Lunn shares about the album:
“All of these songs were written and recorded from 2009 to 2011. During this time period, I wrote a lot of music. Bek and I were traveling a lot…I was new to traveling outside of the country, and so seeing Northern Europe for the first time impacted me greatly. We were in our twenties, no kids, no real responsibilities… just working our jobs and being around our community… and with what money we could save, we traveled. Just the two of us. Typically in remote places in the north of the USA, or in Northern Europe. It was the first time I had experienced those eco systems, and it had a profound effect on me and the kind of music I was writing. In particular, “On the Subject Of Mortality”.

The material on this record was either used for splits with friends bands ( the first 3 being from a split with Wheels within Wheels ) or simply sat on a computer to be forgotten, intended for splits that never materialized. The only material that ever made it to vinyl was the 2 songs that were on the split with Vestiges, which were the last to be written and recorded of this material. It’s been an enjoyable project going back into the sessions, remixing them and cleaning them up, revisiting that nostalgic time in our life together. It looks a lot better in the Rear view mirror, as most things do, but I look back on it all fondly.
Bek took all the photos on our camping tour in Norway…most of it was taken in the Sunndalsøra area. Some was taken in Drammen, where we lived for a short time a couple years later. The cover is two photos I had always wanted to use as album covers but never got the chance, combined. I did a painting of the mountains for “ The Rime of Memory”. The others were taken along the highway in locations unknown near the Swedish border. Our friend Death metal Dave did back up vocals on “ The End is Growing Near” back in 2009 or 10. Spenser Morris did the editing, remixing and mastering over the past year or so (2024-2025).

Thanks for Bek for being my adventure partner and giving me a nudge out the door, to Spenser for making this come to life, to all my Louisville friends who sat in my basement drinking beer with me while I worked on these songs a decade and a half ago. And thanks to you for listening to this.

Don’t let the fire burn out”

Tracklist:
1.The Road to Bergen
2.From Bergen to Jotunheim Forest
3.White Mountain
4.Haunted America
5.The End is Growing Near
6.A Letter
7.Eulogy

Listen to the first song from the upcoming title, “White Mountain”,  below:

If you are interested into the folk artistry of PANOPTICON, you can also check the first song from his upcoming folk title, “Laurentian Blue”, about to be released on the same date as “Songs of Hiraeth” (August 15).