Skeptical Minds – Kharon
Skeptical Minds – Kharon
Self-Released
Release Date: 08/12/23
Running Time: 46:08
Review by Dark Juan
8/10
Ah, my dear friends. I bid you the most cordial of welcomes and hope that you leave some of the happiness you bring when it is time for you to depart. Please, come into my drawing room and be seated upon this comfortable suite. May I get you a drink, or perhaps some supper? It is late, and I have already supped, but I do so hope you’ll join me in this excellent, freshly decanted port. Will you permit me to pour you a glass? I am delighted to have your company on this inclement, wintry night. I thought it would just be another night of tequila, music and books on my own. You are most welcome…
Do permit me to play some music whilst we converse and enjoy these drinks. I shall activate the mighty and puissant Platter of Splatter™ and have a quick riffle through the collection of music I have for our delectation. Ah! This will do nicely, and it fits the mood and feeling of this most Stygian of winter nights.
This album is from Belgium-based Gothic Metallers Skeptical Minds (the band is pan-European, with members from Poland, Greece, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg) and is the second part of the Omega Thanatos trilogy that the band are composing. Dark Juan has no idea what this means although it can be said that he is looking forward to the third part of it…
Now, Dark Juan has been having a bit of a time of it lately and veering off into the realms of ever more obscure music, and was becoming somewhat tired of having to exercise what is left of the old grey matter after a lifetime of dissolution and wenching, so I had a look at the list of things (and who) I need to do and decided to rest the meat computer and listen to something easy to categorise instead, so you have Electro-Industrial Gothic Metal to enjoy reading about.
A warning – there may be much fawning and falling hopelessly in love with a woman’s voice ahead.
The album opens with soft acoustic chiming on ‘The Awakening’ for all of two minutes and fifty seconds before we get some proper chunky guitar work, all overlaid with the crystal clear, lilting, heartbreaking voice of Karolina as she single-handedly turns this stupid old bastard’s spine to jelly with nothing but her voice within moments, which is a most engaging melding of the softness and sensuality of Liv Kristine and the power and stridency of Sharon Den Adel. ‘Desert’ follows with a much more upbeat tune – the band using harmonics in a fashion on the guitars not unlike “Siamese Dream”-era Smashing Pumpkins (but much heavier than the Grunge superstars, obviously) but not being afraid to heavy it up and start staring in an uncomfortably combative fashion right into the eyes of your good correspondent…
‘The Old Man’ is the next song, and I would like to remind Skeptical Minds that it is an old man reviewing their record and with age comes experience, and with experience comes treachery. However, the song itself is a good hard Gothic Metal song with a strong admixture of Nu-Metal in the staccato riffing and the electronics bubbling beneath the surface – if anything, I’d say this song was like Rob Zombie trying to write an Evanescence song, but he couldn’t work out how to shoehorn Sheri Moon on to it somehow…
‘Compass’ is interesting as it is very much in the mold of an epic bit of storytelling, extremely Nightwish-like and inventive in the use of a vocoder to break up the Gothic Metal. It allows a bit of light and shade to creep through the cobwebs and candlelight. It appears that Dark Juan is starting to lose his shit about yet another band.
As far as the production work on this record goes, it is polished to the point of being damaging to the sight in bright sunlight. Everything sounds mirror-perfect and the recording and production work of ex-Septic Flesh man Fotis Benardo sublime. And well it should be from the man responsible for the sound for the likes of Septic Flesh and Rotting Christ. The guitars are sharply honed, almost over-produced weapons of war, the drums absolutely perfectly placed in the mix and the cymbals particularly brassy and sharp, but the bass for Dark Juan is poorly served and sits far too low behind the drums and guitar and is also a bit anodyne and lifeless compared to the vivacity of the music and the guitars especially. More bottom end would please Dark Juan mightily for it is known that he likes big butts and cannot lie… The electronics are masterfully placed in the mix though – they bubble and swirl and warp and weft just below the Metal, enhancing the experience rather than taking it over and bludgeoning the Metal with full on Gothic Opera, but still lend the music that wistful, romantic, seductive, sensual quality that Goffik stuff does so well.
Whilst Skeptical Minds are not the most inventive of bands in sound or scale, what they do bring to the table that lifts them beyond the merely good into the brightly lit stratosphere of brilliant is the sheer good-natured bonhomie of the performances on the album. This is a record that sounds like the band are having fun and want to be in the studio laying down these songs. There is enthusiasm and joy dripping from these performances, even though they are Gothic and supposed to be miserable.
So, if you like your music to be a polished, sleek flying war machine that has as much to do with the likes of Rammstein and Eisbrecher as it does with Evanescence and Leaves Eyes, with a singer that has caused Dark Juan to descend into a blubbering, lovelorn mess (again) because of the sheer, perfect beauty of her voice, then you are going to enjoy Skeptical Minds as much as Dark Juan has.
(Noises of shouting, fighting, threats to kill every motherfucker in a twenty-metre radius, several meaty thumps, and a massive thud before the sound of an inert body being dragged across a concrete floor.)
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System has locked Dark Juan away in the cage it has ready for just this sort of thing because the fucking idiot can’t be trusted. Also, ‘War Is Coming’ had worked the silly sod up because of its pure, martial Neue Deutsche Härte marching music, and he is under the impression that he is a warrior, when really, he is a very silly man. Therefore, it has taken command of this review before anything that could be actionable occurs, imprisoned him until he has stopped being a massive teenager again, and awards Skeptical Minds 8/10 for an album that charms as much as it slays. A joyous listen and one that Dark Juan (if he wasn’t currently unconscious for the good of the realm) would exhort his readers to purchase and get behind this European band of some significance.
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Awakening
02. Desert
03. The Old Man
04. Compass
05. Cocoon
06. Reunion
07. The Key
08. Rebels
09. The Training
10. War Is Coming
11. The Path
LINE-UP:
Karolina – Vocals
Benjamin – Drums
Adrien – Bass
Mich – Guitars, electronics
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.