Companion

Skepticism can truly be counted as one of the strange old masters. The Finns have been around since 1991 and have maintained a rock-solid four-piece line-up throughout every one of their now 6 full-length albums. Nothing happens very quickly, Companion taking over 6 years to arrive since Ordeal, but that accords with expectations for one of the originators of funeral doom. Then again, Skepticism have rarely made their music about darkness and grim sorrows, instead crafting elemental pieces of varying mood and texture. Structurally, Companion feels very much like 2008’s Alloy, what with a briefer running time of 48 minutes and only one out of 6 songs reaching 10 minutes in length, while sonically every instrument sounds lush and calmly clean, like a winter seashore in sparkling dawn light. Eero Pöyry’s multifarious keys, especially the organ, provide the steady pace with a solemn overtone, yet the softer presence of rhythms and faded guitar remains at the core of the songs.

One might almost say that Skepticism make a sort of cinematic post-rock for people who enjoy harsh vocals, though the moments of churning heaviness in ‘Passage’, which actually creeps into somewhat relaxed death metal environs, embodies the emotional heft still present. The massive brassy opening of ‘The Swan and the Raven’ may count as the most dramatic portion of the release, mainly because of its starkness, while cuts like ‘Calla’ and ‘The March of the Four’ build by stages to those grand vistas well known at the atmospheric end of funeral doom. Companion charms in the same manner that The Slow Death or Longing For Dawn have done, and only produces mixed feelings when recalling that Skepticism ought to be considered absolute kings of the style, and that it really has been a long time…


Originally written for Metalegion #10 - www.metalegion.com