Warthur On The Maniacal Vale Esoteric play a death-tinged psychedelic variety of funeral doom, with slow, ponderous riffs, death-grunt vocals and the occasional lapse into spacey, psychedelic territory of the sort explored by early Pink Floyd (say, on the live side of Ummagumma) or Hawkwind. Though the compositions tend to stretch out to vast lengths, we aren't quite dealing with full-on drone metal here; although things happen slowly, there's an awful lot of things that do happen, and the sound of the band is actually extremely varied. As an introduction to the funeral doom genre - which is what it is for me - it's a very capable one and it certainly makes me want to hear more both of the genre and of Esoteric themselves.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

“Paragon Of Dissonance” with it’s masterful sound and gorgeous production, brings some of the Doomiest music of the year.

Esoteric are one of the most famous bands of one of the darkest genres of music, Funeral Doom Metal. “Paragon Of Dissonance” is already their seventh studio album, their first one being released all the way back in 1993. Whether the album you like it or not, it features some of the most interesting FDM moments in quite a while, and is essential for any fan of the genre.

Whoever is not familiar with Funeral Doom Metal ( as I was), it is an even slower, monotonous, version of Doom Metal and growls are practically always used concerning vocals. The atmosphere is extremely dreary and sinister, reminiscent of Black Metal soundscapes at times, even because of frequent rough production. “Paragon Of Dissonance” does have most of these qualities, however it is not monotonous, it is as matter of fact one of the most complex Metal albums of the year: more than an hour and a half long, these seven tracks are changing hooks constantly, making it almost a progressive listen. The atmosphere the sound creates is so dense and precise, it ends up being the best thing the album has: the heavy guitars, the slow rhythms, are all veiled with an amazing production that gives the album a more elegant side. Everything is surprisingly crystal clear, and the details are always abundant from the first second of music. This is one of the most ambitious and adventurous albums of the year, and it’s quality is undeniable. However, some of the hooks are not as memorable as they should, and they become easily forgettable. Fortunately this applies to only a small chunk of the album. But also, the fact that it is more than 90 minutes long becomes a little too much for this kind of music, although it gives a more epic feeling to the album.

“Paragon Of Dissonance” with it’s masterful sound and gorgeous production, brings some of the Doomiest music of the year, no question. The extreme density of the music, the billions of layers over layers that can be heard are extremely overwhelming and a treat to listen to. The music though is almost nightmarish, and pleasant is not exactly the first adjective to come to mind. Brutally pessimistic, it is almost scary how it actually sounds so eloquent.

“Abandonment” is probably the most well structured song off the album: thirteen well distributed minutes with great hooks and very efficient atmosphere. Some of the most brutally desperate moments can be found in “Loss Of Will” or the surreal “Non Being”, where Ambient influences are acknowledgeable. Songs like “Disconsolate” or “Cipher” have great hooks, with interesting flows and moods, but don’t compare to the intensity of the already mentioned tracks. Although it’s extremely long, “Torrent Of Ills” has one of the most curious and interesting atmospheres, relying on many guitar effects giving a nod to Shoegaze.

An album of highest quality for it’s genre, a different and essential experience for whoever is a fan of this genre, as it is one of the bravest albums of FDM in the last years.

Wilytank 1999 saw the release of a notably cleaner sounding tone in Esoteric's music in the form of 'Metamorphogenesis'. Five years afterwards, these guys issue in another short album (by Esoteric standards). The sound is even cleaner on this offering titled 'Subconscious Dissolution Into the Continuum', and the Esoteric atmosphere gets even weirder with it. Unfortunately, I also feel that this is their weakest incarnation yet.

"Morphia"'s intro has everything that Esoteric has had before. Alien sounding rhythm guitar and a lead guitar eventually melting into some heavier, plodding riffs. It feels, however, when the vocals start and lead guitar goes away that the song goes on for an eternity (until about the four minute mark) of a riff that's not as creative as the Esoteric I'm used to. The four minute mark variation only jumps back to the notes that were present in the intro. 6:36 does introduce a newer variation to break this monotony, thankfully. The lead guitar and distorted ambiance that I like in Esoteric kicks in and sticks around for about two and a half minutes before the major atmosphere fades away again. The most annoying aspect of the song is that the tempo doesn't vary and the atmospheric aspects of the lead guitar and keyboards aren't around long enough to leave a lasting effect.

"The Blood of the Eyes" starts off with a much lighter sounding tone provided by lead guitar, keyboard, and rhythm guitar. The light sounding rhythm guitar turns into heavy riffs while the rest of the light sounding aspects continue onward. Already, this is much better than "Morphia". Finally, after four minutes, the song grows darker with the lead guitar disappearing. The keyboard seems to stay around to layer the atmosphere a little better. About a minute later, it shifts back to the lighter sounding tone with the lead guitar returning. This almost feels like a Skepticism song. At the 7:34 mark, the tempo switches up to a slightly faster pace and the tone growing darker until 9:34 where the riffs break into chugging going on for a minute. Then grows slow and darker to finish up the song.

"'Tis but a fucking grey day for me now." I'm sorry, but that first line to the song "Grey Day" just cracks me up. The song carries a more sorrowful tone which goes well with the more depressive lyrics. The most dense alien atmosphere is present in this song. It's not light sounding like "The Blood of the Eyes". This sounds much more dark and disturbing, yet spacey and drifting; the ideal area for Esoteric in my book. The lead guitar's presence is well established in the 17 minute duration of the song. But even when it's not around, the song doesn't get boring. The tempo changes a few seconds before the song reaches the ten minute mark when the lead guitar isn't going. I'm not totally sure when it slows down again, but the slow parts of the song contain the most dense atmosphere. Parts of it seem reminiscent to 'Epistemological Despondency'

So what's left? "Arcane Dissolution" is just a chance reflect on the disturbing passage taken. It's mostly ambient with growling and steady beats of percussion and guitar chords.

So, "Morphia" was mediocre by Esoteric standards, "The Blood of the Eyes" was better, and "Grey Day" was the best of the bunch. Underwhelming when compared Esoteric's more legendary works, but still fine in its own right. And yeah, Greg Chandler is still my hero of doom metal.

Wilytank There's some changes going on with Esoteric's third album, 'Metemorphogenesis'. One minor detail is that frontman Greg Chandler has picked up a guitar, which would become a permanent arrangement. The bigger change is that there's only one disc! Esoteric have been known for releasing two CD albums; but here, there's only one. There's only three songs, each of them getting progressively shorter in length for only 44 minutes of music. Maybe that will make this album easier to get into for outsiders.

Upon pressing play, there's one other little difference from the past albums: there's no creepy/spacey sounding intro. All the instruments and even vocals are going right from the get go at the beginning of "Dissident". Of course, we still have the same funeral doom sound with echo vocals and haunting lead guitar, but the production on this album has improved since 'The Pernicious Enigma'. Though starting out a bit fast, the initial pace begins to slow at 3:44, eventually reaching a slow section filled with atmospheric weirdness provided by keyboard notes and ambiance that Esoteric is very well known for by this point. They play around with that mood for a good while. Around the 10 minute mark, the rhythm guitar chugging starts to progressively get faster, but there's still lead guitar and/or keys to make it sound alien. Eventually, the sped up chugging gets really, really hypnotic before it stops a little after the 13 minute mark giving way to ambiance and noise going on for the last minutes of the song.

Yep, it's Esoteric's musical mind-fuckery at it's finest, but there's still two more songs.

"The Secret of the Secret" (what the hell kind of name is that?) comes next. It starts with slower, calmer spacey guitars with the pace with 1:15 signalling the intro of funeral doom chugging. Afterwards, the next big variation comes in at 2:45 with the tempo picking up slightly and the keys and/or guitar playing a scary lead line before the riff drops and music changes at 3:20. That scary, faster music comes back at 4:50. After it goes away again, the music that comes in to replace it is silent guitar playing with noise until the funeral doom music comes back in with a more melancholic tone that is maintained for the rest of the song with something of an extended spacey guitar solo playing to amp up the atmosphere.

All that is left is "Psychotropic Transgression". Another sorrowful sounding piece, the pace doesn't change too drastically, but there is another one of those extended spacey guitar solos among all the other atmosphere until the 7 minute mark where it all begins to quiet down and slow up keeping that pace for pretty much the rest of the song. Aside from the steadily changing atmosphere from the lead guitar and keys, there isn't much changing at this point, but it's funeral doom. What did you expect?

Esoteric is moving into the modern funeral doom sound with this release, and this transitional album is really quite astounding. Obviously, it's not quite as excellent as the legendary 'The Pernicious Enigma', but definitely better than the still great 'Epistemelogical Despondancy', making 'Metamorphogenesis' a most excellent addition to Esoteric's legacy.

Time Signature Non being...

Genre: esoteric funeral doom

You know, if there is one metal genre where the Brits have always been in front, it must be doom metal. In the likes of Black Sabbath, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Cathedral, Warning, and Esoteric, Great Britain have delivered some of the most groundbreaking and artistically amazing doom metal band of all time.

Esoteric have been around for a long time, haunting the world with their slow and depressive atmospheric funeral death-doom, and in "Paragon of Dissonance", they have committed another piece of doom metal brilliancy.

True to their genre, Esoteric make use of incredibly slow paces, many of the tunes have incredibly heavy and droning sections, while other sections display a heaviness more typical of more traditional doom metal. These doom-ladden sections are juxtaposed with more post-rock like melancholic sections, some of which are on the verge of being soundscapes, and this approach works brilliantly in generating a lot of atmosphere - dark and oppressive atmosphere, the way it should be in doom metal.

Like fellow funeral doomsters Esoteric are strangely melodic, and like Mournful Congregation, Esoteric make brilliant use of growled vocals that become one with the music and end up actually contributing to the atmospheric feel (and normally I do not like growls in doom metal, but here it works).

Any fan of slow, depressive and atmospheric music should definitely check out this slab of funeral doom metal.