Pathetic Being

I conclude that at the turn of 2000/2001 the Cracovians from Sceptic were far too critical for themselves. Well, believing the word from the "Pathetic Being" booklet, the sound obtained on this album (but who knows whether the music itself also - contrary to what they wrote inside) was not particularly pleased to the band. Hence...I treat such info as a kind of unsuccessful joke, because this album clearly exceeds "Blind Existence", sounds powerful and is even more interesting than debut! Even such important things as reshuffles in the line-up (although these had accompanied Sceptic since the beginning) or the mediocre acceptance of their debut did not prevent this from releasing it.

After the departure of Marcin Urbaś and Kuba Kogut, they were replaced by Michał Senajko and Maciek Zięba. And while Maciek does not deviate from the earlier standards of Kuba from the drums side, Michał Senajko's singing has noticeably a slightly different feeling - despite the fact that it strongly refers to Urbaś. First of all, Michał definitely prefers higher harsh screaming than growl or occasional clean vocals (the last one does not appear), which is a bit of a disadvantage of "Pathetic Being". Because vocally, the differentiation of these parts is much smaller than on the debut album.

Despite that, "Pathetic Being" is - as I mentioned - better cd than "Blind...". This time the influence of "Unquestionable Presence" was much less, and instead, a lot of "The Sound Of Perseverance" melodies were added. The pattern is, of course, excellent, and bearing in mind, Jacek Hiro's band can smuggle different bands influences into themself music, but the music gained even more interesting shades. And it gained, as can be heard in "Lost Identity", "Only Lies", "Ancestor Of All Powers" or "Children Eyes" composed and played with a decent power. In addition, "Arctic Crypt", a cover of Nocturnus, sounded like their original song and not worse, the melodic instrumental song "Particles Of Time", fortunately not making a softener here - makes a great impression. The grazing itself is also production (maybe except for the strange sound of the cymbals - although it's going to get used to it quickly), of which again the guitars with their "fleshy" sound and clear bass deserve special praise.

In all this, the critical opinion of the musicians and the average reception of the disc are surprising. The second album of Sceptic is an even better show of skilful inspiration from the cds of Death and Atheist and even more interesting show of Jacek Hiro's band talent. Actually, these things could guarantee the band solid career abroad...

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/07/sceptic-pathetic-being-2001.html

Be it the hyper aggressive riffing and drumming from blackened death metallers Behemoth, the classic yet tight riffing of Vader, or the revolutionary tech death from Decapitated, Poland has definitely left a mark on metal. Now, I very much love those bands, but I have to admit, my heart is for Death. When I'm listening to my iPod during the day, I'll likely end up upon a Death album. I mean, my God, I love Death. So needless to say, I enjoy bands that pay homage to Death. More specifically, I mean post-Human (meaning including) Death. Now I don't particularly remember how, but I happened to stumble upon Sceptic one day. I had gotten the Unbeliever's Script, and I tend to base my opinions off of reviewer's opinions (stupid, yes I know). But looking into it, I read about Pathetic Being. I figured, this sounds promising, let's check it out. Holy shit.

So I got it and checked it out, skipping through the songs a bit. I suddenly came across "Ancestor of All Powers". That intro guitar riff absolutely caught my attention. I listened on to the song and thought about how awesome it sounded. I listened to it a few more times and enjoyed it so much. I ended up picking up my guitar and trying to tab out the intro, with much success. I kept tabbing it until I realized I tabbed the whole song, and was pretty happy, because those riffs sound so nice. So I gave the whole album a listen. I'll just say that this has entered my daily rotation.

From the intro, you realize that you'll be listening to some nice, melodic music. Not too Gothenburg-esque, but it has the calm melody to it. Then you're brought to Ancient Portal, starting with a nice chugging riff. Then comes the verse, a skank beat filled, speedy riffed, screechy vocal filled one to boot. The vocals are definitely unique, they're ear piercing, but in a good way. The drumming and riffing was also very Death reminiscent, something that I enjoyed. Hearing Ancestor of all Power's solo, I could tell that they were adept in the guitar department, but Ancient Portal helps assert that merit. We're treated with a very interesting swept solo, backed by a nice drum groove. so far this album is awesome. I would also like to mention that the bass is very pronounce in this album.

The album follows a typical pattern of d tuned guitars, thrashy yet technical drums (there's no blast beats, I can't believe it!), Derek boyer reminiscent bass playing, and Vocals from a range of screeched to lows. The thing is, it's not repetitious. Each song has its own identity, and I dig it. I would like to make special mention to the Nocturnus cover of Arctic Crypt, being only familiar with the Key, I honestly couldn't even tell it was a cover. They definitely gave it their own sound, and it sounds SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOD. After a nice instrumental, they close the album out with the Children's Eyes, which could have easily been on a Death album. This band deserves so much more mention than they get.

Poland has long ago proved the metal world that it is the power to be reckoned with. Widely acclaimed monsters like Vader and Behemoth keep on smashing with new masterpieces and it seems Poland has a lot more to offer.


Stumbling upon Sceptic's "Pathetic Being" I was...kind of sceptical at first, but my doubts soon turned into sheer delight. To cut the long story short there are basically 3 things you need to know about this album:


1. Melodic. Melodic enough to prevent the album from turning into boring "see-my-khult-playing-skills" thing, but also keeping a safe distance from Gothenburg kind.


2. Great drumming. Yep, Maciek Ziêba really knows how to handle his gear. Although you won't find machine-gun type of blasting here, the drum arrangements really give you this feeling that you're listening to tech-death, not melodic one. Sophisticated and beautiful.


3. Mindblowing solos. This is the essence of Sceptic. You’ll find these in every "Pathetic Being"'s track. Once again, it's not that ”look-I'm-so-cool-with-my-solos" type of playing, on the contrary, they perfectly blend in every composition, so you'll hardly get this feeling of forced, unnatural solos. Most probably the best one is in "Ancestor of All Powers".


I'm not discussing the vocals, because, frankly speaking, with such skillful instrumentation I tend to neglect the vocals altogether. They are there, that's
for sure, but I personally would rather have this album purely instrumental.


Now, my fellow reader, all you have to do is some simple math: melodics + masterful drumming + wonderful solos = Sceptic, wantonly underrated technical death metal act from Poland. Go check it out; this could be a real gem in your collection.

This album was one of my greatest investments. I’ve only known about Sceptic for a few months now but I feel like I’ve known them my whole life. The main thing I love about this band is the amazing guitar solos. Every song on the album has a mind blowing solo, guitarist since the creation of the band Jacek Hiro is just amazing. At first I didn’t like the vocals on the album but after a few listens I started to respect them for how unique and crazy they were. Technical riffs and clean groovy drum beats tops it all off. I’m not going to blab on about this album like some reviewers do but this is definitely an album for Technical Death metal fans and for those who enjoy crazy unique vocals like Jeff Walker from Carcass and amazing long and spine tingling solos.