Style: Slow Doom Metal
It's not often that I pick up a new album by an artist I've never heard of before and hearing something so new and whose material is hard to compare with other music I've listened to before.
This album did just that for me. Esoteric are an obscure band from Birmingham specialising in very slow, doomy, disturbing insanity. This is their latest album, clocking in at an epic two hours spread over two discs, give the listener an illusion of never-ending hopelessness and futility if they are brave, or patient enough, to sit through this onslaught.
The first track, 'Circle,' starts off in a deceptively tame fashion, then slowly it begins to build. Just when it gets to the point where you are comfortable, the carpet gets pulled from underneath your feet and the insanity begins. It drags you down in a slow never ending spiral into a void where everything is hopeless. Dissonant chords melt into crushing riffs, scarred throughout with eerie and sorrowful guitar melodies. Half way through the song, just as it seems to reach its climax, the whole structure collapses, leaving you in an empty ambient soundscape with a lone guitar pushing things along. There seems now to be hope, it sounds like it might be winding down. No chance. The massive, dissonant chords start up again, even slower and more aggressive. After this, what seems like eternal drone, collapses under its own weight, and the remains slowly die out into a single synth chord where it finally rings out. Truly epic. And that's just the first track.
The second disc starts off with 'Silence,' a similar melodic intro, then dragging you down into the bowls of Hell once more. The last track 'Ignotum per Ignotius' is by far my most favourite and encapsulates all of the twisted brutality, hopelessness and the ambient atmosphere of the previous hour and a half.
One of my favourite albums of last year.
Link
No comments:
Post a Comment