Skepticism – “Alloy”

So I went around to the minimart tonight to get a toaster oven pizza for dinner after an 11 hour workday, and the guy who is always there was training a new guy. The first guy is about 7 feet tall, balding, and probably weighs 300 pounds, and is kind of an intimidating dude,  and the new guy was playing some kind of nu-melodic-death-metal, like Shadows Fall or something. The first guy says “Do you have any black metal?”, the new guy says “You mean like Cradle of Filth?”, and the first guy just glared at him silently until the other guy turned away uncomfortably and went back to work. It was pretty awesome.

ANYWAY.

Today’s recommendation is by Finnish funeral doomsters Skepticism. Their newest record “Alloy” is their first record in five years and only their fourth since their formation in 1991, and is a pretty major event for me because I love funeral doom, and for some reason funeral doom bands seem to release records about as often as they hit a snare drum i.e. very infrequently. I like the more Sabbathy doom like later Cathedral too, but that’s more stoner metal to me than doom. Doom, to me, should be slow, low, and crushing, and depressing as shit, not groovy and rocking. I am a big fan of bands like Nortt, Thergothon, Mournful Congregation, and Skepticism. This record does not disappoint and is the metal record of the year so far for me.

What makes “Alloy” stand out for me is how creative Skepticism is with their writing and how many different things they are able to do while staying within the sonic boundaries of funeral doom. All the songs are slow as hell, and are sludgy distorted guitar riffs, organ, and bashing drum hits once every thirty seconds or so, but they are really doing interesting stuff from part to part and song to song. It’s not just a bunch of pasty Scandinavians getting strung out and repeating a couple of dissonant chords for twelve minutes. These pieces are full of twists and turns, and are just brimming with melody (but not the shitty kind), atmosphere, and mood. Majestic, beautiful, and so heavy. Like having your childhood home crushed into dust slowly by a clinically depressed glacier. And you know what that means – HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION.