Review by Fernando on February 28, 2024.

Technical thrash metal is a tricky subgenre to pull off, and more often than not what makes or breaks it tend to be the vocals, now the good part is by virtue of being thrash metal you can sell it with intense and angry yells, but the prog elements make it tricky. Why do I mention this? Because Serbian progressive thrash and heavy metal act Pannox managed to pull prog, classic heavy metal and thrash metal with very interesting vocals for their debut record The Night Of Pan, and without the vocals of Relja Škrbić, the whole project could have either fallen apart, or have had to pivot.

So, how is the vocal style of Relja Škrbić unique, well, for starters his vocals are very suave singing with occasional guttural grunts, but always on a lower register, and yet, his vocals both fit the music and have something of a cool attitude, it’s less Tom Araya or Max Cavalera and more Andrew Eldritch from The Sisters Of Mercy or the more subdued performances of Peter Steele. It's a very unique approach for sure but it works, from beginning to end. With that out of the way, the rest of the band also don’t slouch at all. They have this perfect blend of intense thrash with proggy elements and classic metal groove and swagger, and everything is seamless, more impressively, the band are able to have that prog technicality without devolving into its excesses or drawbacks. Pannox will not waste your time with 10 minute epics or seemingly endless pentatonic solos and whatnot, they get the job done in under 5 minutes and you’re left satisfied.

Furthermore, while the music on The Night Of Pan proudly wears its influences on the sleeves, this record is not just empty worship or a throwback. The overall stylings are rooted in the classics, but the music isn’t beholden to it, this is a very modern sounding record in the best way, while the production does sound a bit too clean in some areas, given how the music is aiming for that soaring and technical quality, the clean production enhances more than it subtracts for the band as a whole. Not to mention how good the instruments, particularly the drums sound, while the music has that modern sheen, the performances are very natural and raw, they don’t sound artificial or doctored in any way, so again, I have to applaud the band’s decision to not indulge into the infamous excesses of modern prog music, like the need for everything to sound abnormally perfect, on time or rigged.

All in all, this is a solid and thoroughly enjoyable album and an impressive display for a new band. They manage to have the classic hallmarks of thrash to please diehards, with a fresh modern take to avoid being another copyist or revivalist band, and the results pretty much speak for themselves.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10