Skepticism, Finland s long-reigning funeral doom masters, have just announced their sixth album,
Companion, and with it, a slice of melancholy by way of a music video for the debut single, Calla.
As one of the originators of this narrow and uncompromisingly slow, crushing subset of doom metal, Skepticism have stood as a pillar of the genre since first releasing the haunting
Stormcrowfleet in 1995. Now, they re back after their longest studio drought in their career, set to release
Companion, the successor to 2015 s
Ordeal, on Sept. 24 through Svart Records. Calla, surprisingly, is among the more urgent of Skepticism s songs. It s not what most would dub fast, or even mid-tempo, but it certainly is by the band s own pre-existing standards of funereal metal. Marked by swaths of rich organ melodies, choral chords, slowly advancing rhythms, sparse but forceful drumming and Matti Tilaeus tortured, gravely croak, Calla is another high mark in the band s catalog.