Skepticism is a Funeral Doom Metal band from Riihimäki, Finland who are the Trope Codifiers for that genre. Their career, since 1991, has naturally resulted in quite a lot of critical acclaim as one of the genre's pioneers. They have released a single, a demo, three EPs, four full-length albums, and one live album.
Members
- Matti Tilaeus - vocals
- Jani Kekarainen - guitars
- Timo Sitomaniemi - guitars
- Eero Pöyry - keyboards
- Lasse Pelkonen - drums
Releases
- 1992 - Towards My End (7" single)
- 1994 - Aeothe Kaear (demo)
- 1995 - Stormcrowfleet
- 1997 - Ethere (EP)
- 1998 - Lead and Aether
- 1999 - Aes (EP)
- 2002 - The Process of Farmakon (EP)
- 2003 - Farmakon
- 2008 - Alloy
- 2015 - Ordeal (live)
- 2021 - Companion
Tropes
- Darker and Edgier: They (and funeral doom as a whole) are effectively this to traditional doom and death/doom.
- Doom Metal: Trope Codifier for funeral doom.
- Drone of Dread: Because of the extremely slow tempo of their music, it's not uncommon for them to hold a note for an extended period of time.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Their first single, "Towards My End", is straightforward Death Metal with some doom metal elements, as opposed to the funeral doom sound they would become known for.
- Epic Rocking: After their first single, nearly all of their songs have been at least six minutes long, with more over ten minutes than not. Aes is the longest, at nearly twenty-eight minutes.
- Hidden Track: The Process of Farmakon and Farmakon both have them.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: Matti Tilaeus almost exclusively uses growling as his vocal style and his vocals tend to be low in the mix, making it pretty much impossible to make out the lyrics.
- Live Album: Ordeal, is this although it consists mainly of new material. Live performances of two old songs, "Pouring" and "The March and the Stream", are included as a bonus.
- Long Runner Lineup: The line-up was the same from 1993 to 2015. In 2015 they added a second guitarist, Timo Sitomaniemi. Even then, some sources only consider him a live member.
- Loudness War: Mostly averted until Alloy, which plays the trope straight at DR5. But they were back to averting it with Ordeal, which is DR10.
- Metal Scream: Matti uses a deep, sonorous Type 2.
- New Sound Album: Aeothe Kaear is the most obvious example, as it's where they established their funeral doom sound. Before that, they were a straight-up Death Metal band.
- Non-Appearing Title: The March and the Stream: While the words “March” and “Stream” are said in the song, the full title is never said.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: Many of their songs feature synthesized organ as the backbone of the sound.
- Remaster: The band released a remastered edition of Stormcrowfleet in 2018.
- Re-release the Song: Often.
- "The Everdarkgreen", "Pouring", and "The Rising of the Flames", first released on Aeothe Kaear, were all re-recorded for Stormcrowfleet.
- "Chorale", first released on Aeothe Kaear, was re-recorded for Ethere.
- "The March and the Flames" and "Aether", first released on Ethere, were re-recorded for Lead and Aether.
- "Backward Funeral and the Raven" and "The Process of Farmakon", first released on The Process of Farmakon, were re-recorded with different titles ("The Raven and the Backward Funeral" and "Farmakon Process", respectively), on Farmakon.
- Finally, "Pouring" (from Aeothe Kaear and Stormcrowfleet) and "The March and the Stream" (from Ethere and Lead and Aether) were recorded a third time, this time in concert, for Ordeal.
- Trope Codifier: For funeral doom.
- Two-Part Trilogy: You could consider the EP/album pairs variants of this trope, more or less.
- Ethere consists of three songs, two of which were re-recorded for Lead and Aether. Ethere runs for about twenty-seven minutes and Lead and Aether for about forty-eight.
- Similarly, both songs proper on The Process of Farmakon were re-recorded with new names for Farmakon itself (both also have untitled hidden tracks, but those aren't the same). The Process of Farmakon is 17½ minutes long (18½ if you add the silence for the hidden track) is and Farmakon is sixty-one (or, again, sixty-two if you add the silence).
- Uncommon Time: Shows up occasionally. "Nowhere" has a lot of segments with 5/4, 6/4, and 7/4 mixed irregularly (mostly 5/4, but some 6/4 or 7/4 at the end of each four-measure phrase). The opening of "Nothing" is based on patterns of (5+5+6+6)/4.
