FARMAKON „A Warm Glimpse”

Well, this will make a nice stop gap until the next Opeth album. This is meant entirely as a compliment to Farmakon who manage to give Opeth a run for their money whilst at the same time, throwing in more moments of madness and acoustic interludes.

It's a nice and pleasant surprise to hear a Finnish band that doesn't follow their countrymen and end up sounding like a Children of Bodom clone. It may be a bit unfair to compare them so closely to Opeth, but the influence is undeniable and to be honest, there are worst bands to be compared to.

Farmakon mix brutal distorted guitars with beautiful acoustic, cleanly sung passages. The vocals here remind me of the Depeche Mode vocalist. The acoustic breaks don't break the flow of the songs, they give them another unexpected dimension.

The vocalist is very versatile, switching from a deathly growl, to clean vocals and then throwing in some wackiness for good measure, as with Ephel Duath. The drumming is solid and very adventurous. The bands time changes call for a lot of stopping and starting and this is executed tightly.

Song 6 “Flowgasp” has moments which remind me of Lake of Tears circa Forever Autumn, so if you are a lover of those dreamy passages, you will know what to expect.

If I had to say one bad thing about this album it would be that there is no warmth to the guitars. The vocals go some way to rectifying this, but it would have been easier on the ears to sort this out at the recording stage.

So, an album with a lot to recommend, with songs that carve out their own identity and with moments of oddness which give the album a certain charm. These guys could be serious contenders next time around (if they don't try and always look so serious as they do in the CD inlay)

RUNNING TIME: 47:32