Towards My End

The usual process for someone young and upcoming is typically to experiment. I'd say there are a decent amount of beginners who accidentally stumble into something. Like when a trainee starts a job and then his outside influences start revealing loop holes that weren't noticed before with a little bit of the intentional and unintentional. The general idea is those people that are new to an area or field aren't yet hindered by time. Although for a first release Skepticism isn't conforming to mainstream music that much is clear, however they began with some stricter pact ideas if considering extreme metal, and unfortunately didn't follow the loose theory that I just went through if we're following this last perspective. That is until later.

This is a recording that one could easily say is at a misdirection for the band, that is if they pursued the same ideas more instead of breaking free and destroying the 'box.' And is also a release that might not spark your interests the same as their later material. Skepticism at an early stage would play something that is death metal inspired, like they're playing in the vein of though in more of a medium projection. If you wanted to get technical you could say Skepticism's got one foot on one side, a hand out stretched to the other where doom metal is, while the other remaining foot is used for balance; you can imagine the slight awkwardness of the situation. This is music that grabs ahold of deeper growls and adopts thicker notes just alike, though more paced and less sockin' it to you like you might perceive for the genre. Their agenda in the end didn't seem to want to scare or repulse, but to add more perspective as they play and use some darker influences from the genre of death to achieve that.

You can still tell that Skepticism had an attraction to decelerated music. The guitars are constantly trying to reduce speed and slow things down for the band, but the drummer prevails and maintains a medium beat throughout the two song span. Like the guitarist, for instance, might just strum an elongated note and the drummer plays more upbeat and keeps things alive instead of traveling into a kind of dead zone. There's still a traditional musical approach here for the band, instead of their later material that would tread along in a more unorthodox and non-conforming fashion, throwing old-school thoughts out the window and finding another path. And the keyboards that would be rostered up later are a missing factor as well. On its own something just feels missing here or needs to be included more of.

Though on its own 'Towards My End' appears to be, I don't want to say is directionless, but it comes off like they are new to the realm at that point. Being basic and simplistic and then actually sounding basic and simplistic. This has some pick up parts that help them though, the first track has a sort of faster beat with some double bass and a chunkier rhythm on the guitar. From them being stationary to that point, it can kick-start your attention span. Like they were going for a mood and aren't as captivating as they could of been. The vocals aren't entirely a helping factor, with them being more or less the guy who isn't as noticed as the other members, even though he represents the slot of front man; he's hardly stringing you along with his gets-the-job-done growls, and honestly you might forget that he's there. There is a quicker guitar line on the second track that adds spice with a more intricate riff that could be considered a traditional sounding lead and is more stand apart. It seems like the band needed more parts like these to grab ahold of traction and bring more light to these recordings, and ultimately have sections that might be remembered easier for the style of metal they're playing at this point. Something that needs to be catchier or be overly moody to draw you in.

For a two track release, I can't imagine wanting to turn over the other side on a 7" in the same session, not because it is terrible sounding but because justified reasons escape you at this point. Or maybe this could be squeezed at the end of a B side cassette tape if there's room. 'Towards My End' is a recording that I can't picture a later fan of Skepticism would want to go out of their way to locate. I can see it being more remembered for the time, a release that was available back then, and was eventually passed over for other bands, and a release by Skepticism that not many seem to mention. It isn't a horrible recording, the band does play something that gets through songs without entirely mucking them up or averting you away from musical conformity. This honestly is just basic sounding and that simplicity unfortunately didn't entirely work for them at this point.