The reunion of PainKiller, the world’s most extreme sax-bass-drums trio, was one of the great musical events of 2024. For the third installment of their new trilogy of albums, Zorn, Harris, and Laswell take a more moody direction, creating two long tracks combining heavy metal intensity with ambient textures and a brooding lyricism. Inspired in part by Arthur Machan’s gothic novella The Great God Pan, the music weaves a frightening tapestry of mystery, horror, and the imagination.
