Customer Reviews

Stormcrowfleet

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this is it, my favorite doom metal album and probably my favorite album of the 90s. concisting of six tracks of slow extreme doom with growled vocals and very low guitars, this album also showcases some of the best organ i have ever heard, certainly in extreme metal. the album opens with 'sign of a storm' and wastes no time creating an atmosphere so epic you won't be able to breathe. some of the tracks are faster than others, with the begining of 'pouring' being quite fast for the band, but parts of it are still very slow. but really, this album works as a whole, and individual tracks are not that important. the closing track 'the everdarkgreen' is my favorite, with thet most variation and a very epic closing section. this isn't for everybody, but if you like it slow and crushing, yet melodic and meaningful, this is the album to get as far as metal is concered.

Stormcrowfleet is the debut of these Finnish funeral doomsters who seem to be reinventing the genre with every new release. While Stormcrowfleet seems weak in comparison with their later albums, one cannot fail to notice the warmth and the overabundance of emotion running throught the album. The guitars form a slow pattern on to which beautifully layered ambient passages are layed by the keyboards and the church organ (be it real or not). The vocals add to this mystery as they are not comprehensible in any sort but are mainly whispers. Friends of Funeral doom already own this masterpiece, the rest of you who want to get into the genre should pick this up.

Imagine yourself in a deep, dark forest. You're surrounded by monumental trees, dark silhouettes in the mist. The fog engulfs you, pressing heavy on your chest. All around you is a deep, droning, massive wall of sound from low-tuned guitars and a funeral organ accompanied by slow pounding drums and the trees whispering their secrets. Welcome to the world of Skepticism. Six tracks of the most oppressive music ever created, yet having an almost ethereal quality. Unparalleled, including by the later works of this band.

Most metal takes a low-tech and low-subtlety approach. Skepticism is the opposite: they slow everything down, use bludgeoning power chords intermittently among other techniques, and have an out-of-the-closet art rock sensibility. There are melodies here, folks, and they rise out of what seems like a chaos of distortion that doesn't seethe so much as it exists in the pure Zen of an empty gully in which asparagus grows. Blatantly sentimental vocals emphasize somewhat sad melodies which grow into bigger patterns that create a sort of joy in melancholy. While this entire CD has fewer beats and notes than the average death metal song, it dominates through a masterful atmosphere and majestic emotional complement to its sadness that makes it a joy of light found within.

Stormcrowfleet is an album that embarks you on an epic and emotional journey into the dark realms of your own imagination. If you do not have an imagination, then forget it. There seems to be an ancient beauty here, one that you can see and hear, but are forbidden to touch. This is a proud and powerful album that is drenched with emotional highs and lows. Stormcrowfleet, if you can imagine, is a tranquil stream that silently flows though tall, dark green forests of an ancient and timeless beauty. The proud and gallant stream then washes across majestic flowing meadows, where dark storms rumble across the vast horizon. The stream then flows through an immense vista of snowcapped mountains and pours over numerous waterfalls as the northern lights dance like eerie green ghosts in the starry nighttime sky. The stream finally marches out to the edges of the sea were the rising of the sun paints the morning sky in flames. Each song on Stormcrowfleet bombards you with simple, but extremely effective melodies. Afterwards, the tunes will stick in your head, and you'll be humming them all day long. The low-tuned guitars and church stile organs mostly play together, and Jani and Pasi are able to summon forth an epic and authoritative sound. Lasse's drums create a medieval atmosphere with pounds and crashes that remind me of something you would hear from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack ( which is actually legendary also, if you can find it ). Matti's vocals sounds like he's dragging a steel chain through a dark cave. But he howls forth just the right amount, not too much, not to little. They let the atmosphere and the roaring melodies paint the Stormcrowfleet picture. One of my favorite parts comes in the middle of The Everdarkgreen, where it sounds like one of the guys is slinging a bolo round and round. It's simple, but creates a bleak, eerie presence in that part of the song. Stormcrowfleet is also a very bassy album. Sometimes you must adjust the bass levels to bring the album to its full potential. It's hard to compare Skepticism to someone else because they are so unique. If your into funeral doom, and do not own any of Skepticism's creations, especially Stormcrowfleet, what are you waiting for, go get it!

A present for my son. It sure is nice to find these impossible to locate items at Amazon. Every order arrived on time this year.