ANOTHER OAK PANTHEON UPDATE

We climbed on the Oak Pantheon bandwagon last June, which I suppose was before it was a bandwagon. Since then we’ve been closely following this Minneapolis duo (a trio, if you include producer Sean Golyer). Their self-released debut in 2011, The Void, was wonderful. It appeared on many of the Best of 2011 lists we published. As I wrote in a subsequent post: “[T]he music is hugely distracting and tremendously appealing. As a gross generalization, it’s folk-influenced black metal with memorable acoustic and electric melodies, infectious rhythms, and a scarifying dose of Nordic vocals. Sweeping beauty and the beast, indeed.”

The Void is still available for download at Oak Pantheon’s Bandcamp page. But as creative musicians are wont to do, the band are working on a new album for release later this year. They’ve created a “teaser reel” of rough instrumental mixes for three songs from the album, and they’ve asked fans to listen and then vote on which song Oak Pantheon should preview in full before the album drops.

After the jump, you can stream the teaser reel and find out how to vote on the track you would most like to hear in full. Also after the jump, I’m excerpting a recent interview of the band that provides more info about the musical direction of the new album.

First, here is the excerpt from this interview of Sami Sati and Tanner Swenson at the Midwinter Fires blog:

Tanner: I would say the new album is more vibrant than The Void.  I feel like we are coming into our own as songwriters and this album shows it.  Fans should expect a crap album so they are blown away when it’s actually good.  Well, hopefully it’s good.

Sami: I’m really excited to hear the reception for the new album.  It’s got a lot of variety.  We’ve got songs that still have that Folk/Black Metal vibe from The Void.  Some tracks are way heavier than anything on The Void, and some are laid back songs focusing more on acoustic guitars.  No song really sounds the same.  Tanner’s also using his voice this time around for clean vocals, so the contrast between my harsh vocals and his clean vocals really add a lot to some of the songs.

And now here’s the instrumental teaser reel:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/34599445″ iframe=”true” /]

Vote for your favorite track here:

http://www.facebook.com/questions/338992126131500/?qa_ref=qd