This is a release that took me about three months to review. I’ll put that right out there before saying anything else. Esoteric are a Doom Metal band from Birmingham, United Kingdom. They were formed twenty years ago and have remained active since. The reason I say all this is I’ve never heard of them in all these years. This album was one I chose on sight, from the cover and the label, and I don’t know why but it just called out to me somehow. I can assuredly state from listening to Paragon of Dissonance, and reading their bio - this is a band that defines perseverance in nearly every sense of the word. And where you’ll find a band that’s been through as much and features an individual who has dedicated his life to his art for twenty years, you’ll find true excellence and value ingrained in the Music 9 out of 10 times, and Esoteric is no exception. So why did it take me three months to review?

This is a shadowy, plodding beast of huge, thick oppression. Marathon, lumbering, downward spiraling slabs of grumbling and rumbling mire running in prolonged pieces of up to 16 minutes in length, spread across two disks. It’s not for the weak or short of attention span to say the least. There’s no instant gratification here. No light at the end of the tunnel, just relentless oceans of bleak, staggering musical gloom and doom. A vision of near-nothing and dark desolation fanning out across the horizon as far as the eyes can see in all directions is one that fills my mind when I listen to Paragon of Dissonance. Occasionally a riff or progression will rear its head or start chipping away to lure me from my torpor and listen for more. It’s almost minimalist, but when it does show a little more, textures and patterns emerging above and beyond the numb, death-like calm it’s almost always cause for interest. Sporadic, near-lullaby type melodies, progressive dirges of harmonies, bittersweet soloing passages…they’re here, but few and far in between. I could use a little more of them personally just to lift me up and carry me through it more often. But I think there’s a fine line with these facets in Funeral Doom, that they can’t be used too much, but they’re my favorite parts and the highlights of the album in tracks like “Non Being” and “Disconsolate”.

Personally I’m not real big on this style of Doom as it is, it takes too much from me to just…accept and embrace. It’s so punishing in its non-traditional structure and measured, gradual evolution of heavy, downtrodden, lengthy passages. But as a personal expression, musically, I can’t really find anything wrong with it. The craftsmanship is ‘Grade A’. Absorbing tones and perfect playing ability throughout. Production is… menacing, and heavy as a 3’ thick slab of freshly hewn granite, coarse on the surface while smooth as glass along the edges. It’s really a phenomenal achievement actually…in Funeral Doom circles it’s most likely was a candidate for album of the year for 2011. But I just can’t do it. Nevertheless I feel not only compelled, but justified to judge it for what it is, and not by any means of what it means to me.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

CD 1
1.  Abandonment
2.  Loss of Will
3.  Cipher
4.  Non Being

CD 2
1.  Aberration
2.  Disconsolate
3.  Torrent of Ills

Total playing time:  1:33:00

Release Date: November 11, 2011
Label: Season of Mist Records

Esoteric - Paragon of Dissonance

Reviewer: Greg

February 13, 2012