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Skepticism - Alloy [Svart Records - 2020]There are a huge number of styles of heavy music, each, in turn, are divided into even more sub-genres. But to me bands that play in the doom-metal style are some of the most creative and original. Perhaps this is facilitated by a fairly broad framework of style and the ability to realize the full musical and creative potential of musicians, as well as use fairly original musical instruments. Back, in the late nineties, I heard the album Lead And Aether by the Finnish funeral-doom band Skepticism. I was impressed by the original sound - the musicians using the organ as a keyboard instrument, and their general distinctive take on doom. Since then, I’ve closely followed the work of the band, which has become legendary. So it’s great to be able to talk about this reissue of the bands 2008 album Alloy. Skepticism were formed in the early nineties, with their first release been 1992 demo "Towards My End / The Castles Far Away". Since then the band put out two more demos, three EPs, and five full-length albums. It is worth saying that almost all the recordings have been re-released several times in different years and on various media. Despite the thirty-year history, the band released not so many studio recordings, but this is more than compensated by the quality of the material on display. The band's most recent album Ordeal, was released in 2015 by Finnish label Svart Records, which have also reissued several of the band's early works. And so, in 2020, Svart Records reissued the band's 4th album which was originally put out in 2008 by the American label Red Stream. This reissue of Alloy comes as either a CD and 2LP of two different variations - plain black vinyl and blue vinyl. These options are available for ordering on the label website. The new edition includes the original album of 2008, as well as the EP Aes, released in 1999 by Red Stream.
The albums cover is a photo of some texture similar to wood, but it seems to me that this is a macro photo of metal affected by corrosion. The photo has a dirty red tint. At the bottom of the cover is the name of the band and the name of the album, made in capital letters in a classic white font. The cover, like most of the bands other covers, is made in a minimalistic and abstract way, which, in my opinion, is a very good move and allows the listener’s imagination to create individual images while listening to the album.
The album has a total runtime of just over one hour and fifteen minutes and consists of seven tracks. The first six tracks are from the original Alloy album. Skepticism presents us with a very voluminous and gloomy Doom metal with a great influence of Funeral Doom. The listener plunges into a wall of sound, woven from heavy death/doom riffs, backed by rich organ parts. Despite the lack of a bass part, the main guitar sound is very dense and thick, however, it is simultaneously hanging in the air and is oddly not particularly depressing. The parts of the organ very harmoniously support the guitar line, sometimes acting as the lead instrument. The combination of organ and guitar sound creates a unique rich atmosphere of darkness and grim air-ness. However, not only the organ is used here keyboard. You can also hear another, no less atmospheric, keyboard parts. It is worth noting the sound of the drums. These are very soft, but harmonious sound, which was achieved by using special drum sticks with a softer work surface. The vocals are classic death/doom growling that perfectly matches the overall sound.
Even though Skepticism belongs to the Funeral Doom genre, I would still say that the band is more likely to be influenced by this style, and not an obvious follower. By the structure of the guitar riffs, I would compare Skepticism with the classic death/doom metal, and the closest comparison would be the early works of the British doom metal band My Dying Bride. The seventh track is the EP Aes, consisting of one song, lasting a little less than twenty-eight minutes. The EP was recorded in 1998 in a live performance for one take. I think that this is a nod towards formal classical music. Aes is a long and rather complex composition with a large number of diverse musical themes and rhythmic parts - from melancholic keyboard moments to rather hard and rich parts. The overall sound seemed a little blurry and unbalanced to me. The guitar part is noticeably shifted towards the right channel, and the drum part is toward the left channel. Nevertheless, despite this, the ear quickly adapts to such a sound. There are no real organ part, but there are a large number of other keyboards. Also, the bass part is clearly heard on this track. Aes is an earlier work than Alloy. Between these albums there are 10 years of history, however, the approach to writing music and arranging compositions remained unchanged, which indicates their own established style and sonic personality.
I really feel that Svart Records have made a nice gift to Scepticism fans by releasing Alloy and Aes in this new form. This is another chance to enjoy these albums in the LP format, given that these works have not been previously published in this form.  Sergey Pakhomov
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|  | | Skepticism - Alloy | There are a huge number of styles of heavy music, each, in turn, are divided into even more sub-genres. But to me bands that play in the doom-metal style are...
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