Artist: Esoteric
Title: Paragon of Dissonance
Genre: Doom Metal
Release Date: 11th November 2011
Label: Season Of Mist
Album Review
There is Doom Metal, and then there is monumental Doom Metal. Those who are familiar with the genre are surely used to those epic, trudging albums that span over an hour with just five tracks, but each ending up almost twenty minutes long. There are plusses and minuses to this strategy. On the plus side, one is NEVER cheated of their time in music when it comes to this kind of focus. On the other hand, since Doom Metal- especially Funeral Doom Metal- is very slow, it can be difficult to sit through a track of such atmosphere for more than ten minutes. Groups like EVOKEN and SKEPTICISM have attracted praise and criticism for this, and it is apparent that UK metal based ESOTERIC is about to catch some flak as well. On their previous album they did something very similar to what they have done here on ‘Paragon of Dissonance’. Giving listeners two discs with almost two full hours of begrudging Funeral Doom, the band dredges up this horror atmosphere that is actually a lot more inspiring and creative compared to the average Funeral Doom Metal band which relies on crashing distortion and guttural vocals with puncture wounds of slow, lingering chords that blot out the beauty of the synth to get their point across.
ESOTERIC apply a bit more of a classical approach to their style, which made their last two albums ‘Subconscious Dissolution…’ and ‘Maniacal Vale’ such attractive pieces. Each was epic in its own way. However, ‘Paragon…’ may feel a bit like a rehash because it is too close to sounding like ‘Maniacal…’ with the same song structure and same approach. As far as lyrics go… don’t even bother to decipher them. Usually ESOTERIC are good about vocal production but here on many tracks like ‘Torrent Of Ills’ on Disc 2 feature a mix of mid paced snarls and shrieks that can compete with the haunting distortion unlike how the vocals penetrated the air on ‘Subconscious…’ Granted, the faded vocal quality ups the creepy factor quite a bit and gives a much needed boost to atmosphere, but doesn’t make much for someone who is looking into the band for poetry as opposed to just mood ambiance. Because that really is what Funeral Doom is all about. Disc 1 is a bit “quieter” compared to Disc 2 through the features of more classical structures and a quieter tone of distortion such as on ‘Loss Of Will’, so the vocals can be heard a bit better, and the shorter length of the track might be easier to bear for those new to the genre. Other times the distortion can be too much like on ‘Non Being’ where at times it feels like pure white noise and doesn’t offer any aesthetic value at all.
Perhaps the biggest issue with ‘Paragon…’ is its length of tracks. Granted the shortest track on the album is seven minutes; the longest being almost eighteen. The average Metal listener is used to maybe five minutes of music before moving on to the next track, so unless one is a die hard fan of Funeral Doom or ESOTERIC itself, this may be a bit hard to swallow. And even if one is a fan of Funeral Doom, after a while the tracks all tend to start sounding the same, which is kind of a staple in Funeral Doom (it is not the most progressive genre) but at the same time nobody really wants to listen to the same instrument style for two hours. Granted, it is a steal to find a double album of this length for the price of one, but one will either listen to it once and shelve it, because they don’t want to take that crushing journey again, or find use for it for meditation, studying, or listen to it every once in a while only to find themselves wandering to do something else instead and come back to the album an hour later and still feel like they never left. Such are the glories and fallacies of ESOTERIC.
Tracklist
CD1
01.Abandonment - 14:07
02. Loss of Will - 7:21
03. Cipher - 9:38
04. Non Being - 16:09
CD2
01. Aberration - 16:23
02. Disconsolate - 16:11
03. Torrent of Ills - 17:59
Line-up
Greg Chandler - Vocals, guitar
Mark Bodossian - Bass
Joe Fletcher - Drums
Jim Nolan - Guitar
Gordon Bicknell - Guitar
Website
www.esotericuk.net
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 5
Sound: 5
Total: 5 / 10
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