Aes

(Originally posted by me to the Metal Music Archives: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/)

Today, we have Skepticism once again. This time, they release this Aes EP featuring a single 28 minute long song. Skepticism aren't well known for making songs THIS long; but with a funeral doom metal band, it was inevitable. You know what else it was? Pretty awesome, that's what.

The beginning is calm with soft sounding guitars and atmospheric keyboards and drums already playing the main beat. The soft guitar and the not so soft (though somehow not that heavy) funeral doom chugging guitar play together throughout the song to create a really nice sorrowful harmony. The music goes on and transitions steadily from variation to variation. 4:51 marks the biggest change so far with the metal guitar going into faster steady strums not held down. During this section, the keyboards kinda go out on their own to paint their own natural and beautiful picture. This transition is broken around the 7 minute mark with the guitar switching to some sweet sounding melodic playing eventually to be joined by the metal rhythm guitar and keyboards. This melodic lead guitar pretty much replaced the soft sounding lead guitar that was present before, but it does switch back to the soft guitar at the 10 minute mark of this song.

After the 12:30 mark, the song begins to get heavier sounding with the guitar riffs getting heavier and drums getting echoy. The guitars and keyboards play the same notes during this movement in a rhythmic dance with the drums. When this movement ends, the song gets quiet again with the drums going into a steady beat once again, guitars becoming soft, and keyboards being the main generator of the atmosphere. Eventually, the guitars begin to get tentatively more prominent, but maintaining a softer side. Up to the 19:40 mark, the keyboards have sounded like violins. Beyond that point, they break into a more atmospheric, spacey sound with the heavy rhythm guitar becoming heavy once again and the lead guitar returning to the soft strumming. By the late end of the 21 minute mark, the lead guitar goes into a more electric sounding lead going off into something of a slow solo. When it ends, the song gets heavier as it begins it's outro climax. The barely recognizable bass becomes a little heavier. The lead guitar transitions back to the soft sound. When the song finally reaches it's final stretch, the heavy instruments back off to let the soft lead guitar, drums, and quieter keyboards finish.

I love how light the lyrics are. It's like Matti is singing about slow flight:

"mountains become heavy like dust, towers will stand like smoke, ages tighten to become aes, entering the levitation, feet would crave for solid ground, lost in vast forbidden ground, fell from clouds on sacred ground, in the mills of thought are being ground..."

This song is light as a feather but heavy as a brick, giving the perfect accompaniment to the words in this song. The slightly cleaner production also helps. Skepticism fans need not be skeptical about Skepticism doing a 28 minute long song. They've pulled it off well.

Given Skepticism's previously exposed penchant for lengthy, ambient-tinged, deliberately composed works, it seems almost inevitable that the band would eventually choose to make a release composed of a single track- it's actually more surprising that of their discography, 'Aes' is the only record in such a vein. That being said, it's good enough that the band probably doesn't NEED another such release under their belt. Of all the overambitious, massive releases in the history of metal, 'Aes' is one of the best, and one of the only that doesn't collapse under the weight of its own ambitions. I guess it's to be expected that Skepticism of all bands would be one to pull it off, but it doesn't make 'Aes' any less fascinating or ultimately thrilling a release.

'Aes' is where the first strains of Skepticism's 'Farmakon' sound start to emerge, forming a neat bridge between the more traditional works of their earlier releases and the wandering, grey, somewhat experimental material that would define their latter era. To describe it more succinctly, 'Aes' sounds like something of a 50/50 combination of 'Stormcrowfleet' and 'Farmakon,' with many of the overtly depressive, straightforward elements of 'Lead & Aether' oddly absent. 'Aes' is not a release that indulges in the more purely melancholic feeling of codified funeral doom- instead, it takes a more circuitous and interesting route. Built off subtle, slow, delicately constructed changes in mood, melody, and rhythm, 'Aes' takes a great deal of time to get where it's going, but never stops being compelling for the listener.

All of Skepticism's traditional features are present- large swaths of floating guitars, heavy, somewhat tribal drumming, and forward-pushing organs taking up the bulk of the low end- but 'Aes' is constructed even more sluggishly and deliberately than any other work in Skepticism's catalog. Opening with a churning, grey, confusing clash of melodic voices and surprisingly uptempo drumming, 'Aes' progresses through a series of extremely distinct movements over the course of its half hour running time, passing through more traditional, epic moments ala 'Stormcrowfleet' and oppressive, lurking, nervous material in the style of 'Farmakon,' constantly walking a tightrope between the more immediate and the long-term objective of the song. Skepticism understands that keeping the listener's attention during a piece as long as this requires a delicate balance between immediately satisfying, viscerally appealing melodies and a certain lack of resolution that keeps the listener curious, and Skepticism executes this magnificently through the perpetually shifting textures of the song.

Each distinct movement tends to take up a handful of minutes, allowing the band to tread water within a certain mood before moving on to the next, either with a gradual flow of instruments to another form or through the abruptness of a sudden musical pause or key change. It's very impressive how intense and exciting the band manages to make such slow, pounding music; you never feel like your patience is being tested by this EP. As usual, Skepticism's phenomenal grasp of volume dynamics, pacing, and repetition allows the music to breathe more fully than nearly any other metal band on the planet- slow shifts in tempo, volume, and vocal timbre all come together to make this a riveting and easily studied musical experience.

A lot of people like to talk about the classical influence on metal, which is an idea I appreciate in the abstract but generally dismiss as wishful thinking. It doesn't help that so many of the people who advertise this cite people like Yngwie Malmsteen as the carriers of such a musical legacy. However, I would absolutely suggest Skepticism as being one of the most truly neoclassical projects in metal today, and 'Aes' makes this clearer than possibly any of their other releases. If you're interested in something progressive- and I mean truly progressive, not 'prog'- you should absolutely acquire this disc and listen to it closely. With 'Aes,' Skepticism have achieved a level of compositional elegance and intelligence rarely matched elsewhere in modern music as a whole.

I'd just like to say that I'm not a naturist or naturalist, basically struttin' your stuff around with no care or regard; I still like to think that I've got a balance and one of those balances is walking around in every day life with most of my cloths on. Well, except for this review here. But go right ahead and laugh it up; go ahead, it should be good to laugh anyway. Because it doesn't take an experienced psychologist to point out the normal defense mechanisms involved. Honestly, I know I couldn't stop from grinning or initially going through the review in my head at the same time with some kind of diabolical glint in my eye. Actually, that is until I personally seemed to think differently on the matter. You've witnessed others that go clothesless for momentary protest, revelry, or outright denounce modern-society's standards on the matter. Though I can imagine this last one takes some shaping and conditioning. Like walking through the house, next to the garden and down to the mailbox without someone noticing. And off to the local chapter or colony after that to show up grandpa in some hoops and very carefully knit with grandma.

Skepticism's 'Aes' is one of the most ideal releases to do so if there wasn't another. Because it is obviously an EP release, but unlike many other releases in this regard. This is a long and lonely track, and a few minutes shy (not here anymore) of thirty minutes. I'm reasoning that it starts—pulls you in, gives you life, adds some panning climactical moments—and then suddenly it takes that away from you, resembling death. So you're born naked, and probably will die naked—and I don't care how much arguing you can muster about these next three words—without a care. So here we are as bare and vulnerable as an acorn that just fell in a seemingly pathless, moody forest. Or with steady forward-moving momentum and as bare of plants or visible covering lifeforms as a meteor fragment passing through wide open space surrounded by planets that make the ant-to-human ratio need some updating.

Right now I can't imagine cold weather where I live because of the stifling heat. Sometimes a heat that is like a pressing weight (not now at least because of the human costume I frequently wear which can act as a conductor and trap it in). As musicians in Finland you can imagine that they must feel the coldness straight down to their ligaments and cartilage. Especially when one of their activities is to play instruments at a purposely slow rate and ultimately with less bodily friction. Just picture playing outside there at an elevated plateau, that would seem to be exhilarating, and then also realistically numbing and idiotic during a cold rush. This is opposed to practical musicians playing fast and blazing right through, essentially warming themselves up. And basically cutting down on their usual steaming bath house visits. But maybe the opposite theory is more truer: that depending which temperature you might dwell in, you might want to actually feel the worst of it either through less bodily movement or more. Like, for instance some South American bands playing at consistently fast tempos and becoming drenched with enough sweat to take a shower with.

Right now the feeling from the air and temperature are undoubtably different. Co-mingling and reaching those hairs and outer skin that didn't feel there before. The feeling is of freeness, like your whole body is felt at once if you concentrate. Although if gravity was taken away, I could guess, but I would have no idea what that would be like; though being pressed down with g-force like if spinning on that infamous carnival ride the 'Gravitron' and then being stuck to the side I can imagine would be a loss of once's self in present case. Though Skepticism seems to believe in the opposite state, adding a free-floating musical projection. Like there are these little rising dilemmas in their song writing that need solving and your mind plays the game and must find the solutions and answers. Being free as such as I am, I can say it helps you lift off, not hunkered down by any humanistic garments and essentially one with your elemental surroundings. I can no doubt imagine other people might find the experiment—see, this last mentioned 'e' word is what it really is supposed to be to me—repulsive. This is because their mind wanders into, yet again, human thoughts; their own strictly human feelings, unable to shake these things loose that were learned. Well, depending on your physical appearance, things might dangle, flop, and have gravity find all of your little nooks and crannies. But that would be back to your human side, the side that reads the-day-in-age consumer articles, talk to fellow beings that radiate with it and superficially believe in it, and fix themselves up in the mirror for someone else instead of themselves. Most of us are guilty to some degree, and then I have to say a lot of us find our own balance. But ultimately that's why this is essentially an experiment for me to listen to Skepticism's 'Aes' and be free of constraints. Literally.

What I like about Skepticism is that you kind of have to jump on their train, be guided on their tracks. Not knowing where it might go with its little slow shifts, but making the scenery of the ride a focused one. Some musicians might make you defensive and cautious. You know the feeling, one that you can't reason with and find yourself with your fingers or foot tapping out of sync with the music or even your mind wandering elsewhere; like the guided journey just can't launch for whatever reason or another. Though Skepticism on the other material I have heard from them, including this, are simplistic as far as musician's ability is concerned. But their timing and calculated measurement is somewhat consuming. For example, a certain musician who might be starting out and has the option to take lessons from a professional, let's say in guitar, and then learn the scales from back to forward. He can match notes perfectly as far as the books go, and it is safe to say with enough time he can become skilled in that particular area. But then again it is what you do with those notes, and not only that, what you do with those notes at a particular timing. Actually, without going too far off reasoning, some might be able to balance some awe and wonderment through a level of technical skill and also add the right of amount of little step ups in their song writing. But here timing and flow is Skepticism's greatest asset, and I'd definitely say it is positively their main driving point. Then again they achieve this through simplistic means, but certainly studied, manipulated, and carefully chosen means.

Aside from myself, the music's bare essentials spill out with a cool—though some might say warm—sound, something that is more embracing than a grainy production quality, or even having a rough or raw sound. There are still effects included that drive some backing to their instruments. This includes some clean strumming guitar mixed with electric, though it flows in and out of the evolving song writing. This is a continuous stream with different pockets of open water, and also some gorges that enclose you from each high-rising side. There is darkness and unsure tension, braided together in a tight interlocking dependant connection. At some moments you could flee but your senses are too eager to stay and watch the show unfold. An electric guitar solo eventually begins like an ancient tree awakening to tell its learned tales. Building up from its start and doesn't depart until you've heard all of its harmonizing notes and its gradual thrilling exploits. The keyboards are slipped and stitched in and operate as an extension. Like an extra appendage that works and functions as well as the rest without falter or lessening strength. Imperceptibly waving their golden hand in a kind of subtle reign. This is intrinsic to its domain, though producing creatures that you couldn't fathom or behold. Noises come and go in their gloominess, some simulated strings or horned projections might arise here, or even there, yet being elusive and hard to capture all at once.

The drums are stuffed with effects, elevating their visual level to gigantic size. This still has the same reverberated ringing on his snare and tom drums, like they were recorded in some kind of massive empty factory as the sound bounces off of unmoving concrete walls and then back again. His movements are more simplistic to a coming deity, pulling out a decent amount of hypnotic and overlapping cymbal fills that ring with some more clarity and praise. There are moments where the drums come in more clear and perceptible as the keyboards might break. The vocals are green and enchanted, hidden in their camouflaged woods, peaking out their head only to have a deepened ghost-like whisper escape. But was it heard? From which direction did it come? This is still a brand of growl like you would expect but still holds some mysticism to their music because of how he isn't constantly going, or where he is going to end up. Like a time-traveler who might drop in and out to breathe his stories in that faint, deeper whisper he does. All of that distant dimension hopping must of put a toll on his throat. But there is a part where he adds some cleaner, though still a tad monotone, vocals which resemble important mumblings that give off a regretful feeling because you wish you could have known what he said. Though it is understood that dark prophets often speak in tongues and fragments; the modern day lunatics or just tainted for their time.

This I feel is not too far off from typing while intoxicated. Giving a way to approach or mentally look at something completely different, like staring at a picture from a new perspective or angle; or even taking a picture from a new perspective or angle. Yet the experience is still particularly different in the end, because it takes some willing meditative practice yourself. For participation purposes, Skepticism's 'Aes' fits the bare bill for me at least, because for one important reason its music isn't marketable in the normal sense. To take the other end of the example, I think a safe average for most radio songs I know, for instance, are between three to five minutes. These essentially are there to present some conforming ideas for multiple facets of listeners; producers reason that they don't want to offend this gal or that guy. Though just listening to this it wouldn't be too hard to reason that Skepticism takes ideas here from traditional composers, and of course extreme metal, and then brings both factions together for that darker, involving and enclosing mood. Extreme though in acceleration, vocals, and being heavily shadowed. Though, since their recordings are beyond the norm and result in a longer track, it can resemble 'movements' like you would find in a composition by a symphony for some more comparison. The music ends when it ends, not so the disc jockey can have some time to talk or so commercials can come in and blab your ear off for a car you're not going to buy now out of annoyance. And I can't imagine shedding your outer layer and shakin'-bakin' it to the newest pop artist would just be ludicrous. As well as if your only party cloths is a beer in your hand and nothing anywhere else while rowdily listening and headbanging it to some Deicide or Cannibal Corpse; you're either a reformed naturist and got over the fact, or might be rowing with all of your oars in the water as the unfavorable expression goes. Maybe the decision has to reflect the experience, and then possibly some, is what I'm essentially getting at.

For the idea of this release and for atmosphere's sake I think 'Aes' is top notch. Skepticism is still pushing the bar from their previous two full lengths and essentially took the previous ideas and here gives you a release that doesn't untrance you until it is over; instead of normally breaking that sensation when tracks change over. Though as a release this isn't recallable in the normal sense. Like where some bands during a certain section in their music have instant recallability; having your brain being zapped by this part or that. This essentially moves and keeps on moving. There's not a catchiness factor, and this is against the grain in many respects. For some bands you might especially remember the guitarist or the drummer stands out as extremely talented; this if anything has unique keyboard sections, but I think they work as a unit. Like if one guy stood out from the other it would break their tight-knit system, a system that works and feeds off of each other. And I also think Skepticism's shifting or guiding music essentially piles out and adds a little bit of open interpretation. The confidence is there in themselves, but they didn't cut it so confidently that you have nothing else to do or reason with. 'Aes' does seem somewhat personal but open to translation in that sense as well. And I would recommend this, at first particularly not in my present state, but because it can create a certain escaping, pinpricking-at-your-stimulus atmosphere and scenery that almost paints itself in the end through-and-through.

Skepticism's "Aes", a single track, 27 minute EP bored me numb. If a song is this long, it had better be either interesting, progressively moving, or immersively atmospheric. I've found this track to be none of those.

Don't mistake me for a newcomer in this genre. True, I don't own countless demo tapes of obscure, unknown bands and projects of funeral doom. But I do own most of the essentials, with many other releases I have found along the way. "Aes" isn't an essential by any means; it only occasionally actually captured my interest and rarely kept my attention. Once again, I'd like to expand upon my qualifications in this area; I enjoy Ahab, Wormphlegm, Tyranny, Thergothon, Mournful Congregation, and, not funeral doom, but incredibly slow nonetheless, Sunn O))). None of the bands mentioned are known for short or fast songs- in fact, Wormphlegm's "In an Excruciating Way..." demo is over 30 minutes long, but is one of my favorite releases in this genre.

So, onward we go. I have several expectations for what funeral doom should be. It could be dreamlike, with heavy yet atmospheric keyboard use. It could also be dirty, raw, and absolutely nightmarish. It could also be its usual heavy self, but with mellow segments intertwined with the weight of the music (see: Bosque). I can't speak for the rest of Skepticism's material, as this was my first venture into their discography, but "Aes" is nothing that I've mentioned.

This is the first of many of the flaws: lack of identity, with a sort of meandering sense of direction. It seems to me that the band does not know what they are going for, be it crushingly heavy/nightmarish, dreamlike, or a combination. Some parts of "Aes" are actually decent, where there will be a average keyboard lead, yet the other passages are below average and overall lacking. For example, take the riff at around 5 minutes in. A simple, palm muted power chord or two, repeated quickly and surely. This lasts for around an entire minute, until a keyboard melody slowly ebbs its way to the top of the mix. My description probably doesn't make it sound half bad, but believe me, it is. Several things account for this. Primarily, the guitar tone.

Maybe being a guitarist myself has made me a bit more picky about this, but from a reviewing standpoint, maybe it's for the better. My problem with the tone, is that it's simply too conventional. C'mon, this is FUNERAL DOOM. It is supposed to be different, supposed to be immediately recognizable from the rest of metal's sub-genres. Jani Kekarainen's tone does nothing to allow for the said level of originality. A bit of distortion, nothing more. None of the reverb, gratuitious amounts of fuzz/distortion, nothing. His tone, for this sub-genre, is practically clean. This is a problem, and being that the guitar is almost always prevalent, it is a big problem.

My second problem with Skepticism's apparent lack of musical decision is this indecision itself. The music just plays; it begins, it continues, and it ends. It doesn't take you on a journey like some funeral doom does, and it doesn't make you numb (in a good way) like the rest does. It simply exists, ploddingly slow, monotonous, and indecisive.

My other issues with Skepticism lie in the more conventional aspects of music. The vocalist supposedly has a deep, whispery, atmospheric growl. Maybe he usually does, but not here. He is very low in the mix, and so hard to hear without paying close attention. When entirely audible, his growls are average at best. I've heard deeper, I've heard slower (and luckily, I've heard louder). This is nothing new, nothing special, and adds nothing in particular to the music.

The final aspect left to cover is the drumming. Drummer Lasse Pelkonen, like the rest of Skepticism, seems to be of average skill at his instrument. There are no interesting fills, nothing here to show ability. I don't expect any double bass work or solos, but it would be nice if we could hear something to let us know there really is a live drummer here, and not just a drum machine. Another complaint I have on the part of the drums is their overall feeling. Most funeral doom favors bombastic, loud drumming. Maybe they were going for a mellow feeling here, maybe they weren't; however, it still adds to the monotony of the song, and does nothing to prove false the assumption that Lasse simply walked away from his kit and left a machine to finish the song. That's how much feeling he puts into it.

A general lack of any feeling or emotion could be described as this EP's greatest flaw. Funeral doom can be angry, depressive, violent, haunting, whatever. The general theme is emotion- something that is completely missing here.

Skepticism’s Aes represents Skepticism at their creative height. They took their formula off deep droning riffs; ambient organ work, whispered growls and bone shaking drum patterns to a new level.
The result is a 28-minute epic, which stands above everything they had done before and everything since. The music slowly progresses, gradually changing, each section easing into the next. Not once does it feel rushed, or do you think that section could have been shorter.

The album contains long minimal sections often consisting off a few keys and drum beats, these serve to add a very strong sense off suspense into the listener; before throwing you back into the sound-scape. These also help to emphasize the feeling of despair and loss the whole song has about it. This feeling of despair is brought to life by the production off this album. It gives the music a very ‘spacey’ and ‘distant’ feel, making it feel as though it is rising up from a great depth, with the vocal slowly surfacing through the music. The vocal delivery perfectly suits the lyrics for the song, which convey very complex imagery, which convey the slow changing off the world, with strong reference to nature.

To finish I would like to say that, if it were not for Esoteric’s The Pernicious Enigma this would easily be the best doom album currently in existence.