Skepticism - Farmakon CD Review

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2003-10-24 : evilpoptart
I heard good reviews about this so I ordered it to check it out... This is crap, this stuff is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW. And I like alot of doom metal. Someone described this as pure pain, but it's not an expression of pain they are talking about... This music is so damn awefull that listening to it will make you hurt.
2003-08-25 : om
danowar:
When I heard Skepticism's "Process of Farmakon" EP, which preceded this release, I was intrigued by their sludgy doom metal. Their ability to create walls of pulsating sound was rivaled by few. But with this full length, my intrigue turned into pain. In the long run (and I do mean long run), Skepticism's eight to fourteen minute long songs were enough to have me fall asleep MULTIPLE TIMES during this full length journey! Don't get me wrong - it's not uncreative music. On the contrary, Skepticism are just as admirable in their approach to this style as they were before. But this is a style of music I can only take in small doses. The long dirges where you can almost forget hearing a drum at all between each beat can catch up to the average metalhead who has a hankering for speed. Songs like "Nowhere" are as melancholic as they ever have been. The vocals hardly have a presence and sound like they're part of the background, leaving the music to really stand on its own two feet.
"Farmakon" is tiresome. It's the soundtrack for the tortured soul to escape from pain the only way it knows how - to sleep... whether that rest be eternal or not.

2003-08-25 : PM
SKEPTICISM Farmakon
Red Stream Records (2003)
You have to be seriously closed off to information if you haven't at least
heard of these Finnish slowfiends. They've consistently
blazed new trails for doom metal since their first tape back in the
early/mid '90s, and have inspired legions of clones
(some good, some bad), much like CANNIBAL CORPSE and SUFFOCATION did in the
heyday of death metal. The MCD taster for this
full-length was SKEPTICISM's strangest material to date, but also the most
intriguing. Farmakon is simply amazing.
I'm not much into doom metal the last few years, so--and not that I think
highly of myself in the least--that's saying a lot when I can
listen to an hour-long doom album in one sitting multiple times. The sound
is very earthy and soothing. Every nuance
of the music works synergistically to lead you down the path of your dark
subconscious while in the distance disembodied voices
beckon hauntingly. Truly SKEPTICISM's pinnacle. . . for now.
2003-08-19 : PM : Link
Tracklist:
The Raven And The Backward Funeral
Shred Of Light, Pinch Of Endless
Farmakon Process
Untitled
Nowhere
Nothing
The iciest band of these days is coming back a new time to haunt us with some extreme doom. Recorded already two years ago and following the excellent mini CD "The Process Of Farmakon", "Farmakon" continues in the same vein, with still the same obscure concept, and they seem to be coming back on some way to the traces of "Aes", with very long tracks, close to fifteen minutes.
You will find here the two tracks "The Raven And The Backward Funeral" and "Farmakon Process" is some slightly changed versions (compared to how we knew them). And the four new tracks are simply terrific. Slow as a snail trying to escape your fork, cold to freeze your fingers, and at the same time, beautiful as a blond Russian girl who'd be lying half naked on a bear's skin. Bear whose voice can by the way be heard here as vocals…

But there's no need to tell more about it. You'll have understood it, this is still high class SKEPTICISM, that you must definitely own. (Online August 18, 2003)
2003-08-18 : PM : Link
Skepticism – Farmakon
Red Stream Records – RSR-0156 – April 18th 2003
By Russell Garwood

Skepticism play utterly bleak, suffocating funeral doom; achingly slow drums plod ominously along with a dormant foreboding, whilst guitars hold melody and extremity. They rely on listless chords and single line melodies, and cleaner tones add some welcome variety to the crushing, slow-moving wall of sound usually created. A melancholic element is added by synths, which rely on dramatic organ tones and violins, helping create a dark beauty in the monolithic movements. Deep growls can be barely audible, creating more of an atmosphere than a front to the music, so buried are they in the mixing.

Surprisingly, for such slow building and lengthy songs, I don’t find they become boring at all, but create a dark ambience which you will either love or hate. The hopeless, wretched tunes and mournful feel are sure to attract fans of extreme doom, but I see no reason why this release shouldn’t be enjoyed by lovers of dark, morose and extreme music. Skepticism play top class funeral doom; "Farmakon" all too easily carries you off into cold oblivion for an hour, and comes highly recommended
2003-07-27 : Anonymous Coward : Link
SKEPTICISM:"Farmakon"-91(100)
CD/62:22-Red Stream Records

To be frank with you I'd never heard this band before,but I was very anxious to know how this funeral doom sounds. "Farmakon" was recorded in april 2003 ,and offers us a very interesting album with ONLY 6 trax into slow funeral doom metal filled with medieval and neo-classical keyboards in a very personal way of playing.as I'm a death and grind metal fan I was a little bit shocked by Skepticism's unique doom sounds,but I really like it now.Probably Skepticism's listeners or doom metal fans will appreciate this product at its fairly value.You'll find here some folkish elements ,very well inserted and combined with this doomy sounds.Although we have here 6 trax and the total time is more than 62 minutes,these trax aren't tediously and you'll gonna like Skepticism after all.Doom metal fans should buy this album as soon as possible if they want to enlarge their musical knowledges or CD collections.
2003-07-12 : Anonymous Coward : Link
Review by Crin

With a cd booklet black as pitch and a cd looking like a starless night, you’ll be thrilled to discover the music contained therein is equally as stygian in tone. Skepticism plays what they classify as ‘Funeral Doom’. How apt indeed. Slow burning keyboards simmer the blood with images of cold morgues and moonless graveyards. A drumbeat slower than a dying parson’s heart plodding forth into some dismal coffin where the very silk lining wraps its suffocating presence around your mind. The guitars strum their lamentations accordingly, labouring towards oblivion. Cast a whispering groan into the murky atmosphere and what we get is the perfect soundtrack to watching loved one pass away. [I should know, I’ve
been there twice]
This is more depressing than discovering you’ve got Aids, gloomier than a leper’s ulcerous mouth. The tracks contaminate the air, squeezing dry the lungs with every discordant note. The members of this band must surely be pissed off with life for they have managed to compose music that numbs the senses into perceiving the world naked.
Listen to Farmakon and the world will undress before your ears, warmth shall succumb to the chill of death and laughter will be disintegrated before the altar of grief. Regret and woe shall embrace in slow motion as the unbearable slow compositions eat away at your thoughts. I love this band. They are unique, brave in their vision and colder than a corpse in a fridge.
2003-07-07 : PM : Link
Skepticism - Farmakon (Red Stream)
Review by Yury Arkadin
July 1, 2003.

It comes that each year - and this is something that is surely becoming
more frequent for my case - whether unconsciously or consciously, I am
writing out a mental list of the albums that I am most anticipating, albums
that I know will be released within a certain timeframe, yet it is unclear
when. For Skepticism, the band's third full-length recording "Farmakon" was
originally planned, or I thought it would be planned, for release in 2002,
but this never happened. "The Process of Farmakon," that came prior,
splintering certain creative patterns of past releases, in visual
presentation and ideas in sound, while not veering too far away into
uncomfortable territory ("The Process of Farmakon" was an exceedingly
comfortable release for me), nonetheless whetted my appetite, as it is said,
more than just about any other piece of music in the year, for what may come
in the future. It was like a trail of bread in the forest was set and I
needed to know where it led, to find the big loaf, the origin, from where
these pieces were first torn off and later shaped. Notwithstanding the fact
that they produced nothing in four years since this release, there was
something old and defined and refined to near genius in that little two-song
sampler of a release, a kind of regal modesty or aloofness also, betraying a
perception that cheap gimmicks are entirely superfluous. There is no
necessity for gimmicks, for tricks, for Skepticism. They are experts,
professionals. They know what they are doing. Who can doubt this?
A year has passed since that time and now, in 2003, as I was beginning to
consider that Skepticism were on the brink of fizzling out of existence Red
Stream has delivered, with no forewarning, no flare shot out in advance,
Farmakon, which is a release so iron-like, so bold, so full of conviction
and power that it immediately enters the status of doom metal classic to
this writer's brain. I am exaggerating, you would believe? This is no
poetic license or hyperbole. But, before I begin to go into the details of
this abstruse masterpiece, let me add that I am not one, if you haven't
guessed this by now, that can speak of Skepticism with even an atom's worth
of 'objective' qualification. I can promise you in advance that I will try
to do so, but it would be hypocritical of me to even try (and, besides, who
enjoys reading 'objective' writing in reference to music - or, indeed,
anything?). Skepticism has always simply been "my" sort of band, they have
always understood - not to imply that they write anything for me personally,
this is symbolic talk now, mind - what I value in music and in art in
general - namely: mystery, power, innovation, convergence of light and dark,
drama, emotive value and the whole universe of the "other." This "other,"
which is so familiar to them that I sometimes think they are not of this
world, is home to Skepticism, it is where they live. Indeed, it is possible
that Skepticism is not a group of human beings, but an ensemble, a secret
communion, of aliens from outer space. Just consider the facts: they have
never felt the necessity of revealing who they are, ever since they have
first brought their communication to the outside world; they were always
hidden somewhere, and they are still hidden today. The only tangible
evidence of their human characteristics that we find today are purely
visual, earlier found in the obscure art of their third creation on Red
Stream, "Lead and Aether", and now on their web-site. But they are still
undefined, still murky and indistinct, still hidden somewhere in the mist,
contra-distinctive in a way to their sonic channeling which has always
struck me as immensely focused and meticulous, especially from "Ethere" and
going further; shrouded in black, but clear, so _profoundly_ clear. These
counterpoints of almost ascetic definition (in their sound) and
obscurity/abstraction (in their visual art, always, as well as their sound)
reveal something of the dramatic wizardry and alchemical proficiency _par
excellence_ of this band, the expert tossing of one ingredient with the
other.
Yet before I go any further in this generalization and digress any more, let
me slow down a bit, pause, and return to my present aim, namely: Farmakon.
Farmakon is comprised of six tracks, "The Raven and the Backward Funeral"
(reversed as "Backward Funeral and the Raven" on the mCD, also reversed in
lyrics and the musical motifs to some extent on the album), "Shred of Light,
Pinch of Endless", "Farmakon Process" (the "Process of Farmakon" on the
MCD), a track referenced as an image or symbol, and the two epics, "Nowhere"
and "Nothing"; it is the band's sixth official output, excepting the demo
and a practically impossible to find seven-inch vinyl recording.
I will begin with the most unusual and most experimental track on the album,
the track designated with a bluish symbol, which is probably my favorite on
the entire disc. This track, instead of following the blueprint, if I could
use such a word, of most Skepticism pieces, slowly builds and builds over
time, reaching a feverish climax by its end with almost hysterical singing
on the part of the vocalist, and presents no less than the fastest tempo so
far for any Skepticism piece as it gradually gains momentum through its 13
minute duration. It's interesting that I say "fastest", that I even use
this word. The tempo of this track is just _unusual_ for Skepticism. The
keyboards play a very dominant role throughout, carrying the singer through
the various transitions and stages of his journey. It is like séance, a
shamanic ritual, a hypnotic tribal summoning of ancient gods... this tribal
element, conspicuous in the percussion, the droning repetition of riffs and
growing escalation of movement, ties it vaguely to their "Aes" MCD, and
perhaps "Lead and Aether" also. The keyboards burst in an epic delivery
carrying the catharsis toward the end, which arrives like a sudden storm
after a brief period of heavy, uneven, exhaustion, "the calm before the
storm," and the eventual revelation. This track is surely an experience of
itself, transcending all mundane borders, ripping a hole in one's
consciousness to peer beyond the fabric of reality. Simply an amazing piece
of conceptual music, and the "next step" for Skepticism to be sure.
The two tracks that reappear from "The Process of Farmakon," the title track
and "Backward Funeral and the Raven," are considerably enhanced both with a
new, crisper and more accurate production (as the rest of the CD, by the
way) and certain subtle changes and additions to the sound images. Gone are
also the samples, the rowing noise from "Backward Funeral..." and the sound
of boiling water (my crudest guess) from the title track. There is a
remarkable new vision here, all of the sounds are lifted and catapulted, so
to speak, as well as clarified. The enormous upgrade in percussive ambience
from the MCD is something that astounded me upon the first listen. It
certainly makes sense, once you hear these tracks in their arguably
'definitive' format here, why the band members decided to put such temporal
space between releases... it was to _emphasize_ this enormity. All of the
highs are higher; all of the lows lower. The creativity of these tracks is
a pure delight, and the percussion throughout especially is remarkable, even
amazing. The sound of this percussionist's set is unparalleled on this
album. I don't think I have ever heard such wide, monstrous, cavernous
sounding percussion before, at least never on a "metal" album... (if I could
even apply such a humbling term here)
"Shred of Light, Pinch of Endless," next, follows a more typical course for
Skepticism today, if anything this band has ever produced can be called
"typical", in the development of slowly unwinding spirals of riffs and clean
guitar passages accented with a grand helping of synthesizer overlays. I
think of moving terrain, movement, open space in this track. There is a
feeling, a distinct sensation, of inflexible assurance in this track,
triumphant, slow walking, steady breathing, but with a full comprehension of
what has come, and what inevitably will come to pass, in the future. Next
to "Farmakon Process" it is the shortest track on the release, I believe, at
about seven or eight minutes, but also contains some of the best (elevating,
majestic) moments on the entire album.
The two concluding pieces, "Nothing" and "Nowhere", which seem to fatefully
belong as one, side by side, are Skepticism in full measure. They summarize
to some degree the entire oeuvre of the band, from the primitive beginnings
in "Aeothe Kaer" to the present moment - a calculated reprise, a synthesis
of the past and the present. These tracks, which are in the standard slow
pace, probably possess the majority of the grandest and most confident
moments in Skepticism's existence, next to the fourth track that I've
already mentioned - which is their pivotal point - also some of the most
intense and creative percussive work I have ever heard. It is here in
particular that the lyrics and the music should best be comprehended
together. The image of black islands rising in the distance, in the
midpoint of "Nowhere", with the plaintive, ultra-simplistic lead (reminding
directly of "Aes" - and there are plenty of references to that release
throughout this album), that lead that conjures width and distance, is a
fine example of this. The steady tempo throughout these tracks, like a slow
moving wave in a deep, black sea, a tempo that clearly has no need of
proving anything to anyone, presents an ideal transition from after the
nearly hysterical, unrestrained metamorphosis carried through in the fourth
track. One thinks of a passage, a gateway to "the next level", access
granted, experience gained, and all this before the inevitable end. The
inevitable end which, in the tradition of earlier Skepticism albums, reaches
its endpoint with a reiteration of an earlier motif. This time it is the
majestic, wide and tall forward-march of the fourth track, heightened in the
keyboard component and carrying the strength of a enormous death armada, a
collective of jet black ships gliding through the ocean at night on their
way to slaughter the human race. The final sign of a perilous storm from
another era, another place and time!
Embellishing this collection of six songs, which is as whole as any
'collection' can possibly be, is some exceedingly minimalistic art not
veering too far away from what a listener of Skepticism may expect, but
still wholly unexpected. The color scheme, for example, of gray, black and
a bluish purple (the days of "everdarkgreen" are ancient history) define the
visual element, and the entire presentation in total is as austere and
simple as one can imagine.
So, after reading all of this, you must be asking yourself, where do I stand
on the rank of this album in the context of the complete Skepticism works?
Where does it fit in with all the rest? There is a palpable feeling on this
release of something enormous. It is huge, it is heavy and oppressive, but
at the same time, like the most brilliant releases, there is something in it
that is light and full of air, full, at any rate, of ease of movement, of
facility in expression. There is nothing pompous or 'symbolically' heavy to
"Farmakon", although it is obviously the heaviest release of the band since
"Stormcrowfleet". It is a darkness of a bottomless chasm, the eye of a
raging galaxy piercing with its eerie light through the eternal night with
its determinate stare, pushing forward, gravitating and pressing nearer like
some inescapable constant of nature. "Farmakon"... like a black hole in
space, a tear and singularity in time; the warping of the laws of reality.
"Farmakon"... literally, a drug, a poison, a medicine, all of these things.
Who can approach it and resist its forces? Who is even ABLE to approach it?
This is the question I pose, and it is something for you, reader, to
wonder about and consider.
So, again, a second time, after reading all of this, you are still
wondering, where do I stand on the rank of this album in the context of the
complete Skepticism works? The answer is… I cannot say yet. Their best
album possibly? It would be too clumsy on my part to evaluate this
masterpiece so early in time, having possessed it only for several months.
Give me a year or two, then I will talk. In the meantime, do not even
hesitate in acquiring this album; I guarantee it will amaze you.
2003-07-06 : Patrick : Link
Skepticism - Farmakon (Red Stream)
Author's Rating: Release Date: 2003

Skepticism... are back... with their third full-length album recorded in autumn 2001... aaaaaaarghhh...
"Farmakon" /visualised through a magnificent gloomy black cover artwork created by Mr. Tuomas Laitinen/ is built of five heavy and slow as hell compositions and a breathtaking untitled ambient/doom interlude, in other words - 62 moving minutes of funeral doom metal, as the musicians themselves describe their audio-art. To be more precise, Skepticism's "Farmakon" delivers an extremely diverse and often depressing breed of doom/death metal structured on scary guitar lines, frightening slow drumming, shattering organ and keyboard background, and desperate roars, whispers and moans coming from the underworld... leading you through Nowhere... to Nothing...

Author: [Nicki]
2003-07-03 : Patrick : Link
The lay out of this album is completely black, which shows a kind of mysterious side to what the music is about. So "Farmakon" is about 6 long tunes of funeral Doom with sad and melancholic atmospheres. The music is always slow (even very slow) paced Metal with a slice of depressive or morbid touch. The songs re well structured and could be compared to a mix between Winter ("for the heaviness) and Varathron (for the dark guitar gain). Some synth keys à la Candlemass, which means a church organ sound appear here and there. Skepticism really wants to create a gloomy feeling, so they "take" their time to execute their songs which can be seen as too long for existed Metalheads. Fan of funeral Doom don't miss this release
2003-06-26 : Patrick : Link
crestin raul-iulian

SKEPTICISM:"Farmakon"-91(100)
CD/62:22-Red Stream Records

To be frank with you I'd never heard this band
before,but I was very anxious to know how this funeral
doom sounds."Farmakon" was recorded in april 2003 ,and
offers us a very interesting album with ONLY 6 trax
into slow funeral doom metal filled with medieval and
neo-classical keyboards in a very personal way of
playing.as I'm a death and grind metal fan I was a
little bit shocked by Skepticism's unique doom
sounds,but I really like it now.Probably Skepticism's
listeners or doom metal fans will appreciate this
product at its fairly value.You'll find here some
folkish elements ,very well inserted and combined with
this doomy sounds.Although we have here 6 trax and the
total time is more than 62 minutes,these trax aren't
tediously and you'll gonna like Skepticism after
all.Doom metal fans should buy this album as soon as
possible if they want to enlarge their musical
knowledges or CD collections.
2003-06-02 : THE LORD
Farmakon is a the next step forward in the world of Funeral Doom. in some parts it feels more like a film sound track and it gives you a feeling of true darkness and isolation. SKETICISM are the masters of Grim,Nihilstic,Black Doom and it shows on this cd. A TOTAL MUST...

Perpare For Darkness
THE-LORD