A WARM GLIMPSE

"A Warm Glimpse" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish, Tampere based progressive death metal act Farmakon. The album was released through Earache Records in October 2003. Farmakon formed in 2001 and disbanded in 2010, releasing two demos, one single, and two full-length studio albums in that period.

Stylistically the material on "A Warm Glimpse" is progressive death metal featuring heavy riffs, intriguing melodic leads and solos, acoustic breaks, and both growling and clean male vocals. There are occasional journeys into technical death/thrash territory and also the odd fusion/jazz section thrown in. Other than the last two mentioned elements the music on "A Warm Glimpse" sounds a lot like Opeth sounded around the turn of the millenium. Lead vocalist/bassist Marko Eskola has a voice and growling vocal style which is very similar to how Mikael 'kerfeldt sounds, and that doesn't exactly lessen the Opeth comparisons. Eskola's clean vocals aren't up to par though, and while they work on some parts of the album, they are slightly cringe worthy at other times.

The quality of the material is a bit up and down. Sometimes Farmakon produce some really effectful, heavy, and atmospheric progressive death metal, but their experiments with funk, fusion/jazz, blues, and other genres don't always work that well within their overall progressive death metal sound. Sure the listener is kept on his/her toes throughout the duration of the album, and you never really know what's lurking around the corner, but I end up with the feeling that "A Warm Glimpse" would have been a much better album, had Farmakon focused a bit more on a more conscise songwriting and less on odd musical ideas.

"A Warm Glimpse" is a well produced album, and every instrument and vocal part is heard clearly in the mix. I have to give a special mention to the drum sound, which to my ears is quite brillant. That snare drum sound is just killer. Farmakon are a very well playing band too, and in many ways "A Warm Glimpse" is a high quality progressive metal album. The slightly questionable clean vocals and songwriting which sticks in every direction do dampen my excitement over the album some though. A more open minded listener may find the many odd musical experiments more suiting to the music than I do, but ultimately I find the album more interesting from a musicians point on view than an overall great listening experience. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still deserved though.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)