Funeral doom pioneers Skepticism unveil a new track

No one expects funeral doom bands to be prolific, but the apt, seven-year wait between Finnish pioneers of gorgeously rendered, oxygen-sucking misery Skepticism’s last album, Alloy, and their forthcoming opus, Ordeal - due out on September 18 via Svart Records - has been enough to have even their most stoic of fans curled up in a withdrawal-induced foetal ball.

Deciding that Ordeal couldn’t be confined to a studio recording, the five-piece decided to record it in front of a live audience in their home country last January, an experience that’s added new and deeper levels of atmosphere and emotional honesty to a 77-minute journey that progresses with the stately grace and heft of a spaceship drifting into the gravity well of the sun.

Thanks to the stoic people of Svart Records, we have an exclusive preview in the elongated form of The Departure, a 10-minute masterpiece of mourning that will hollow out your soul and then echo through the husks until time immemorial. Light a candle, abandon all hope and give yourself to The Departure Below!

Throw yourself upon Skepticism’s Facebook page here!

Jonathan Selzer

Having freelanced regularly for the Melody Maker and Kerrang!, and edited the extreme metal monthly, Terrorizer, for seven years, Jonathan is now the overseer of all the album and live reviews in Metal Hammer. Bemoans his obsolete superpower of being invisible to Routemaster bus conductors, finds men without sideburns slightly circumspect, and thinks songs that aren’t about Satan, swords or witches are a bit silly.