It’s not a perfect record but something about it obviously spoke to a few people and that is an amazing thing. It was like they had been on this journey to eventually get back to me (a little worse for wear), the genuinely positive responses were heartwarming. I mean, most creative people live in fear of their early work being exposed! So, I watched a few videos, giggled, I couldn’t really believe it.

It took me a few minutes to even look it up and even more to press play. The group that had been hunting down the record on Discord filled me in. It was on a music page I had not updated for years. I woke up one Tuesday morning to a strange message on social media asking me if I was the singer from Panchiko. In an interview with Corduroy Threads he said: Over time, the number of people interested on knowing the background of the EP grew exponientally until, eventually, in early 2020 a person managed to contact OWAIN, the lead singer of the band. It was not until 16 years later, that in July 2016 an anonymous user of the imageboard website 4chan made a post in the music section with a photograph of the physical CD cover art, asking for more information about it and, later on, also uploading the audio files ripped from the CD with a peculiar sound due to disc rot.

With only 30 physical copies, the album was originally released as a four song EP in June 2000, and it went completely unnoticed.

With dark lyrics, a distorted and deep sound, and a unique story, British rock band Panchiko presents their debut album D˃E˃A˃T˃H˃M˃E˃T˃A˃L.

Deathmetal album covers