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Skepticism > Farmakon > Reviews > lord_ghengis
Skepticism - Farmakon

Can something be both goofy and bleak? - 94%

lord_ghengis, January 2nd, 2010

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.