Farmakon

Skepticism, after a long hiatus, has finally returned with a new lp. Now to begin, this lp is very, very, very different from the atmospheric qualities from previous efforts like Stormcrowfleet and Lead And Aether, although its differences make it great and make it tedious at the same time, so let us begin with a review.

Farmakon, in any sense, is Finnish for “pharmacology”, which translates to “wise remedy”. Just look at the lyrics to the song Farmakon Process if you don’t believe me!

But let’s now get into the nitty grittiness of Farmakon. The first song, The Raven and the Backwards Funeral, literally opens up the album with such anger and power. Some would say that the lack of keys suits the song and the album respectively, but I think otherwise. Without keys, it sorely lacks the atmosphere of its forefathers, and that seemed to disappoint me. The next song in line is the greater and more “moving” Shred Of Light, Pinch of Endless. The fading in guitar notes with a new sort of sound is prominent in Skepticism’s new track. It does have a sense of anger regarding the song with the organic keys and the crushing drums and guitar.

Untitled, or track number 4, really brought me down. This new sort of song is what made this album my least favorite out of the Skepticism catalog. It’s boring and droning. Though I love my drone when Sunn O))) and Earth come into play, but when Skepticism tries that act, it really brings a low score. There's not much more to say about the record except that the two sister songs Nowhere and Nothing are pretty much the life and soul of the lp. I think this album deserves what it got, an 85%.

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

With Farmakon, Skepticism take on a slightly cleaner sound that features a somewhat clearer tone of their dreamy weirdness. For whatever a reason, this clearer tone made this album a little harder to digest, but it turned out just fine. After all, it's Skepticism we're talking about. It's 2001 at this point, and the band's been at this for quite some time.

The organs on "The Raven and the Backward Funeral" kicks this off. Mostly, the pipe organs in Skepticism songs make it sound scarier, and at certain sections here they do; but they also make the song sound regal. The song is broken up by periods of calm acoustic guitar with drums in the background so that the song still has the necessary melancholic feel. These calmer guitars are present at the start of the next song, "Shred of Light, Pinch of Endless". However, at this point, the organs are replaced by the ambiance keyboards that Skepticism are also known for.

The atmosphere generated remains light sounding and natural as usual for Skepticism, as if the pictures they paint with the atmosphere involve rain. The mixture of calm guitar and keyboards give it the sad rainy day feel while the guitar again and the drums give it the natural feel.

So why does this album not get as good of a score as the two before it? Well, like I said, it's hard to take in even compared to Skepticism's other works. There's definitely more atmosphere and less funeral doom involved. Though I like the atmosphere, it can seem a little overbearing. Look at the so-called "untitled" track. For the first two or so minutes, it's just ambient. And even after that, the ambiance keyboards are really overbearing. I feel like they could have gotten a better result if they kept them more in the back like they did with their other songs from the past years. On the other hand, I don't really dislike it either. It's decent enough to prevent this album from falling bellow the 90 percentile, which is pretty good.

I do like the continuation of the delayed ending on the final song. On "Nothing", the keyboards get intense and loud (but they were like this on the climax on the last songs on the previous albums), then it ends. After a few minutes, the music starts again to play out a final segment before fading away.

In the end, Farmakon is a win/win situation, but ultimately not as noteworthy as Stormcrowfleet or Lead and Aether. Oh well, it's still great for what it is, and I'm glad to see that Skepticism is still playing on.

I know that things can be goofy and cool, you know, Sin City and Star Wars exist, but with this album, I think that Skepticism have found a way to be both goofy and bleak at the same time. The reasoning behind this is apparent upon listening to about 5 seconds on this album, it''s the Hammond organ. It''s pretty much what you would expect to hear echoing out of 16th century castles, and its really quite goofy. Oddly enough, despite the fact the idea is in itself is so silly, the bleak atmosphere that the band can create is totally unharmed, and it doesn''t make any sense.

Skepticism''s third full length release is divided into two pretty clear halves, the first half consists of three shorter songs, all heavy on the goofy organ, and the second consists of the bands more traditional lengthier roomy pieces with the keys used for a more orchestral goal. The effect is surprisingly good, if not intentional. The sillier tracks are certainly more likely to jump out and grab you and put a big drooling smile on your face initially, but over the course of the songs the organ becomes more of a medieval mood setter while the riffs drag you into their pit of despair. The result is by the time the slower, deeper tracks come around you''ll be pretty much sucked into the album, and in a better mindset to really absorb the brilliance that''s laid in front of you. I have no idea if this was intentional, but it’s the effect the track listing creates.

Farmakon isn''t your usual crushing chords type of funeral doom album, instead it uses quiet and lightly distorted melodies to build amongst grand keyboard work, either used in a orchestral sense or in the medieval hammond organ style. Even as things get heavy, the band relies on bleak and majestic melodies on the guitar, with the majority of the heaviness coming from the low vocals and louder orchestration. It’s this lack of heaviness, even more so than the daunting length of some of these songs that can make this album a little bit hard to enjoy without total focus.

This need of focus is why those strange opening tracks work so well, they have something attention grabbing to get you into the right mindset for the last three songs, in which the true majesty of this album really lies. The first three songs are of a reasonably high pace and the tribal drumming is certainly an attention grabber too. Apart from the organ, the drums are certainly the stand out on these songs, the usual plodding of the genre is replaced with what in the context of the genre could be considered frantic and busy. Lasse Pelkonen plays unique, nearly tribal styled drumming with busy tom driven work. With that said, this music is still quite miserable, "Farmakon Process" easily being the darkest of the lot, with it''s oddly atonal lead riff during the last few minutes, and "Shred of Light, Pinch of Endless" being something that one would struggle to call funeral doom. Repetitive and growing sure, but the tempo is up fairly high, and the drumming so very busy, with a main riff that hits sharply, probably closer to regular death/doom. It''s an interesting and attention grabbing way to start the album, with barely a heavy droning chord to be heard, and the songs move swiftly between one another.

However, once the Untitled track rolls around, it''s clear something is different, the song takes its time getting started, offering up some extremely minimal ambience, rather than the near acoustic strumming which occupies the earlier part of the albums softer sections. The overall theme feels darker, an effect that runs for the last 40 minutes of the album and simply doesn''t let up. The riffs are heavier, the melodies more involving and the whole affair suddenly feels a lot more artistic. The songs don''t just run from one to another, now we get exposed to a few minutes of pained gasping and minimalist mood setting, it feels like there''s more genuine soul to these songs. As comparably fun as the earlier tracks were, they simply cannot compete with the sheer darkness and grandeur that is held within the last three. The orchestration is huge, and riffs while being heavy feature surprisingly intricate picking. "Nothing" may be the absolute best example of the bands desire for grand, melodic funeral doom, as it lurches with a melody that manages to be majestic, heavy and miserable all at the same time, and it only grows to be bigger as the song carries on through it''s 12 minute run time.

There isn''t much that would really surprise a Skepticism fan, but the band''s ideas and unique musical sound is at its most developed. The production is excellent, with loud and bombastic keyboard work over muddy lower guitar work and louder, clear and precise lead melodies. The guitar seems to change tone when it needs to switch between droning and being beautiful. The drumming features excellent echoing toms, and messy, obscure cymbals, which make those tom based rhythms stand out even more. The vocals are mixed in low and rumble along as are needed, almost acting like the bands missing bass guitar, adding a thickness to the bands lower end and giving some of that heaviness that we all love in our funeral doom back.

Farmakon is another excellent release by one of the most well known bands in funeral doom, and is up there in contention to be their best. It has a better production than the earlier works, and hasn''t lost an ounce of the grand melody and misery that made the band stand out in the first place. The first few songs are kind of goofy in some ways, but they''re still excellent songs which add a helpful boost of character and memorability to the album. And once you hit those last three slabs of doom the payoff is worth any amount of silly castle music.

It would be reasonable to think that some might like a session to run at a sensible length. Comparable to movie shorts to hour-and-a-halfers to the epic length of Seven Samurai to the multitude of episodes in the seasons of The X-Files. I think the content is dependent to what its length should be, though Skepticism seems to use up every inch of it telling you their story. The band sets you through an enduring process, like a hike that was worth it in the end. Something like reading the novel 'Deliverance' and the unexpectedness of going into the unknown, traveling outside where civilization purposely moves at a slower pace. Yet you might find yourself going along for the trek and do more listening than talking. Like you're packed to the gills with existential moments and gut-feelings, and just have too many coming at you to concentrate on, potentially giving this yet another round of adventures.

I have to say the transition kind of threw me off the very first time I heard this. I was used to Skepticism building up their songs, well, at least building up their songs from start to finish. The initial track here kind of just places your ears in the midst of them already playing almost. Oddly the second track's volume raises and they step it up from there. One could easily say the order of tracks can sometimes make a difference on how a recording can sound/flow and I have to say it does here. The second track feels like the beginning and the first feels like the middle, or what could have been the middle. Skepticism still plays music that moves one engaging moment at a time but channels that into a broad expanse. As a band they apply something like brushing on a marinade before the meal, instead of consuming it raw outright. Like they were standing in a hardware store and it hit them (literally, the can fell right on their heads): to add the prime before the paint and bring out deeper tones, bring out a texture that looks varied and purposeful without seeing the underlying presentation before its done. And something where just a glance can stab you through your mid-section; leaving your wallet and valuables though, it was a crime of passion.

'Farmakon's production uses more gravity here with the instruments being more distinct sounding and can pull you closer towards it. Though it still projects a certain tone by the beats they produce and maintain. This has effects, but not effects that continually blend the music together. The snare, for instance, is more poppy or higher sounding at points (he possibly uses two differently tuned snares or a higher tuned tom drum) and doesn't have that deeper tone from the last albums, but still has some reverb on it, and instead of leaving you with a single hit, it expands that hit. Like a water drop falling in a deep cavern, instead of a presser washer giving it to a massive gong causing someone in the superstitious Orient to become rightfully ashen. The guitars seem to change depending on the particular part, some sections it is more clear sounding and then at others distorted and is slightly hidden by the keys overtop. This is still simplistic in form, instead of using an unnecessary number of overflowing riffs; essentially the band wants to captivate you with specific notes among the instruments, and the production seems to add a helping hand with this.

This would be a great soundtrack to some mind-melting and tantalizing late '60's/'70's visuals, obviously without the funk but the yearning for an outworldy feel through whichever means possible; the inventive brain was just stuck to use whatever was available at the specific time. Skepticism applies music on a long curving stretch, like gradually sinking or traveling through a long tunnel; either destination designed with a you-can't-resist-come-over-here-finger gesture and pulling current. They don't have hardened personalities, being as moldable as clay. Even if we're comparing their progress from one album to the next this doesn't always have metal moments. An outsider's perspective could say this is as light on its feet as rock, sometimes with less thick guitars and similar rhythms as such that aren't going for a crushing mentality. Or inspired by and shows some experimenting and abstractness that would be found in the genre of ambient. Then there's their theatrical side that shares personalities with darker symphonies where the subject matter might thrill or fright crowds of well-dressed audience members. Clean guitar is melded into some sections as well, being brought up to guide the music into distorted areas. This also leaves some parts purposely vague, leaving your mind to not being able to grab ahold of notes with certainty. Like experiencing a new landscape for the first time, and instead of running straight through or taking it in all at once like an excited school girl with lollipop and skirt and all. You take your time, savor the moments as they run by your senses, checking one lifting or inspiring item and moment till the next.

Skepticism is still experimenting, and with experimentation some stretching can occur; going out of bounds and getting docked for a foul. Where the band changed on their third full length here is that each song seems to entail its own separate world in the greater bundle of their universe. This is in comparison to beforehand where it was more or less closely stringed together per song. I think they only had things that could be called 'songs' because their previous material might of been listened to in sessions due to it being so long. Though this here has more individualistic songs for Skepticism and I feel still finds itself with similar themes, though having slightly expanded their themes by comparison to their past material. To get a better understanding, you could loosely look at the songs possibly as seperate EPs, and this lets them play around more so, adding either drums and keyboards to go on their own tangents, or guitar sections when consistently playing might just hold the music together, and then occasionally just briefly chime in as if it weren't a traditionally played guitar. Then they even have some vocal arrangements that come across as out of the norm. One of the longer tracks has a piece with loud breathing, and then intermittent percussion and hardly noticeable keyboards in the background. This part I feel is a little stretching it because the visual is more clear and it feels like the section is overdone. Like instead of applying emphasis, they could have been more elusive, because one gets a clear and odd image of Gatorade commercials or the afterwards of cycle classes. Throughout the recordings he maintains the deeper growl, and also appears to have some improvisations with rasps, laughs and other noises. The fifth track here is the longest and happens to be the best I feel, because they seem to take advantage of each instrument and use that to grow and mature without a lapse forward till the very end. The drums and guitar on this song have their own varied moments, and although the keys are more imperceptible, they carry an underlying atmosphere. Also during a short part they add a clean vocal chant underneath of another doing the distorted vocals, and I think it truly fit the moment and wish the band would have included more of these.

'Farmakon' contains six tracks in total, with the first three being reasonably going to and from, then the last three are more drawing in. These last three seem to become more loose, more expandable on that looseness due to their length, sometimes using all of their instruments to project their own personalities instead of moving strictly as one slow, simplistic organism. So you get hit at once with a few invisible forces, at least compared to their past where the music more so shifted as a whole entity and you could say was more basic in execution, though their melded and manipulated production in the past seemed to help with this. Like for instance keyboards might lead, or the guitar and even the drums, and the rest would be more meshed in the background. Though 'Farmakon' on the other hand progressed and has more sections that use more instruments to overlap and add their own varying rhythms it seems. And instead of continuously slowly shifting they might add more variations per measurement, basically more in quick succession. A small example, the drums use a more unorthodox technique on the first track and it actually seems to fit. The drummer double sticks it on the hi-hat (like a shimmy) and then spaces out his snare hits, instead of single-arming it and hitting the snare alternately; and yet it seems to work well for a so called funeral doom metal band. There are also other points where he might just hit a single drum in a mesmerizing pattern and keep the flow steady that way.

One could surmise that Skepticism for this release listened to a few fans: some might of wanted the drums and snare to resonate louder, others might have wanted some more variation (some individualistic tracks), more altering vocal changes, and others more! more! more! of that characteristic organ. And they got it. So even though 'Farmakon' has a lot of experimentation, to me it feels slightly less personal at this point in the Skepticism discography, with a few formalities seeming to creep in that I can't wrap my whole mind around. Though what I still like about Skepticism is they keep their music in the eye of the beholder, being half-open to interpretation and nearly closed to completely sounding like everybody else. Reflections are cast, but they can resemble yourself; it is like they use your own perceptions to toy with you. And in spite of a few obstacles, I can still recommend 'Farmakon' because I think Skepticism produces another album that goes for escapist tendencies and still mostly contains those aspects that pull and guide you away.