Poor man's Opeth, but still good - 70%
Opeth are one of the bands that probably draw the most polarised reactions in the metal community nowadays. Opinions either sound like "They must be the cure for cancer!" or "They'd be the devil incarnate if they weren't so boring!". One of the most common complaints thrown their way is that they go on repeating themselves for way too long - that's sort of understandable, if you're going to dislike something, less of it is always better than more.
Yeah, I realise this isn't an Opeth review, but hang on - this setup has some merit. See, it's almost like Farmakon are out to address this imbalance. From the moment that 'Time-Tables' comes barrelling through, it's evident where the primary influence is coming from. There's the familiar chord sequences and riffing, the deep rumble of the vocals and the slightly jazzy leads here and there. Only, what it sounds like is an abbreviated version of the same. No elaborate setups in order, no fancy arrangements, and almost inspiring in its brevity.
That's not to say that Farmakon forgo the longer pieces altogether - 'Sixty-Nine' goes on for over seven and half minutes (you know, they probably just came up with that title so reviewers could make dodgy statements like above), giving it space to build up and fade out in a manner that I'm more accustomed to with this sound. Ditto for the last song, The Mentally Disabled and the Artist, a comparitively sprawling instrumental that takes its sweet time moving from one place to another, and doing a decent job of it in the process.
Also, to imply that the entire template for Farmakon's formula is a direct copy wouldn't be entirely fair. There are other influences that aren't too hard to spot, like the extreme metal blasting that pops up now and then, the quirky King Crimson instrumental parts in the middle of 'Faint Light' and the weirdly awesome smooth jazz sections on 'Recondite'.
It's still unlikely that I could recommend this to anyone with a healthy dislike for Opeth. There's basically too much similarity and they do suffer by comparison as well, since they're not quite as proficient as the Swedish juggernauts. Marko Eskola's voice doesn't quite have the richness of Akerfeldt's voice, clean or growled, and Toni Salminen's leads, while pleasant, aren't really as intelligent or polished as Lindgren's or Akerfeldt's.
If you've somehow managed to avoid ever listening to Opeth so far and are justifiably pissed at my comparitive style of description, here goes: Farmakon's breed of metal juxtaposes aggressive barrages of riffing with occasional very mellow moments, the vocals shifting between a death metal growl and a clean singing voice. If you think that concept is intriguing, listen to that band that I've already mentioned here 4 times. If you like them, come back and listen to this.
chaxster, November 21st, 2007
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