Metal Storm logo
Esoteric - Paragon Of Dissonance



8.5 | 203 votes |
Release date: 11 November 2011
Style: Funeral doom metal, Psychedelic doom metal

Owners:

200 have it
33 want it


Disc I
01. Abandonment
02. Loss Of Will
03. Cipher
04. Non Being

Disc II
01. Aberration
02. Disconsolate
03. A Torrent Of Ills

The best Extreme Doom Metal album of 2011
Top 20 albums of 2011: 11

Additional info
Produced by Esoteric.
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Greg Chandler/Esoteric at Priory Recording Studios during May/June 2011.
Artwork by Kati Astraeir.
Graphics & layout by Mauro Berchi.

Staff review by
KwonVerge
Rating:
9.0
Being around for almost 20 years, Esoteric never were in a hurry to release as many albums as they could every 1-2 years. For some artists the burden of the aforementioned title is grandiose and they'd never exchange not even a bit of their quality for quantity. Esoteric belong to this group, they always took their time to bring together the main concept of every album and place in the right place at the right time all the ideas and emotions that were overrunning them at the time. And whenever it felt right a new work was coming our way to cleanse the band's world and torment the audience with all this sense of decay, horrid beauty and decomposition of morals transformed into vast fields of devastating soundscapes. So, almost 20 years of existence gave birth to 6 abhorrent children, with the successor to the throne being the newborn Paragon Of Dissonance, from the same septic womb, with the same unearthly stare, but with its very own personality and characteristics.

Read more ››
published 18.12.2011 | Comments (31)

Found in 52 lists
Top lists



Comments page 4 / 6

Comments: 169   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 957 users
17.06.2014 - 02:47
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.06.2014 at 02:31

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah you are one funny dude calling melodies that have been to death a gazzilion time by all sorts of bands flawless

That's where you're wrong These are the sorts of melodies that are unique and show meticulous musicianship. Most of the other bands following the trend fail miserably at this endeavor. For instance, Insomnium's latest was a failure from a melodic standpoint. I can easily identify well-crafted melodies from their amateur counterparts.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 02:49
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
For instance, here's an example of stale melodies in MDM:



If you honestly can't tell the difference...then don't bother with genres rife with melody
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 02:55
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
All those ,elodies are extremely boring melodies. Especially the Amon Amarth one Wintersun and I am not even going into totally mindnumbingly bringness that are Insomium's melodies or Scar Symmetry's. And about Noumena, well the less the better. Esoteric has melodies which are forward thinking and totally not as generic as the standard ones you just came up with. That people are good at their instruments does not mean they are good songwriters are good at writing melodies. Damn, those melodies have been done to death. Twenty years ago they were good not nowadays. Just copying what has been done before.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

Loading...
17.06.2014 - 03:03
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.06.2014 at 02:55

All those ,elodies are extremely boring melodies. Especially the Amon Amarth one Wintersun and I am not even going into totally mindnumbingly bringness that are Insomium's melodies or Scar Symmetry's. And about Noumena, well the less the better. Esoteric has melodies which are forward thinking and totally not as generic as the standard ones you just came up with. That people are good at their instruments does not mean they are good songwriters are good at writing melodies. Damn, those melodies have been done to death. Twenty years ago they were good not nowadays. Just copying what has been done before.

There is nothing forward-thinking about Estoteric's melodies at all, especially those leads. The guitarist is simply jerking the scales in the key of the music in such an amateur manner that I reckon any guitarist could write. There's absolutely no flow and in fact is rather generic. No, indeed technicality does not imply a capacity for songwriting or creating aurally appealing melodies, but I don't see anything I wrote contradict that. Here's a challenge: find one melody that sounds even marginally similar to any of those in the tracks I provided
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 03:08
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
In fact, I noticed a comment you made on a review questioning the popularity of StS; if you really can't grasp that then you have no sense of melody at all. I want to clarify that I am in no means am I glorifying StS for their overall songwriting capabilities, I am merely pointing out that they have a knack for writing brilliant melodies.

Edit: in fact all of those bands that I provided links for are popular for that very reason!
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:17
Rating: 9
Ag Fox
Angel No More
If you're judging melody based on popularity, you can always turn to David Guetta or Katy Perry and the ilk
----
loves 小巫
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:27
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Ag Fox on 17.06.2014 at 06:17

If you're judging melody based on popularity, you can always turn to David Guetta or Katy Perry and the ilk

Indeed, well-written melodies generally foster popularity, however in contemporary music there are far more factors at play which influence popularity.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:37
Rating: 9
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Like sex. Which begs the question, how is Esoteric not more popular? Greg Chandler's got it goin' on.

----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:38
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Troy Killjoy on 17.06.2014 at 06:37

Like sex. Which begs the question, how is Esoteric not more popular? Greg Chandler's got it goin' on.

Indeed, that receding hairline is irresistible...
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:38
Rating: 9
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
He has a great personality.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:43
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Troy Killjoy on 17.06.2014 at 06:38

He has a great personality.

Without doubt: "Bent double with psychosis, as vomit and blood spew forth"
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:49
Rating: 9
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 06:43
Without doubt: "Bent double with psychosis, as vomit and blood spew forth"

That's just a metaphor for childbirth. Don't read too much into it, he's a real sweet guy. This album is a good example of just how gentle a lover he can be. It's in those stale amateurish melodies.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 06:52
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Troy Killjoy on 17.06.2014 at 06:49

That's just a metaphor for childbirth. Don't read too much into it, he's a real sweet guy. This album is a good example of just how gentle a lover he can be. It's in those stale amateurish melodies.

At least he's mastered the art of dysphemisms - we can forgive his brutish attempts at melody
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 10:59
Rating: 9
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Viewing all those videos and then such comments regarding Non-Being or the tastes and ear of other persons.... We should probably leave it. Oh wait, that means I have no clue about melody. It's simple as that, right? How delightfully arrogant.

We should just agree to disagree and leave it at peace for the sake of all of us.
Kthxbi
----
Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 11:14
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
my God, what a bunch of painfully predicable melodies. Pretty sure I have diabetes from being exposed to such immense amount of saccharine.

Quote:
Anyone with a musical ear can tell you the same.


And anyone with taste or song writing ability would probably tell you otherwise, people I'd much rather put my trust in than simply someone who can play an instrument well but not be able to do an original or interesting thing with it. A totally different skillset which a lot of people lack, even "musical" people. A skillset about implicit understanding and interpretation, not about raw, technical comprehension of musical theory, and ability to regurgitate what guitar technique is being played at what point, which has absolutely nothing to do with grasping good songwriting or the writing of good melody in the context of an actual song. About seeing the woods for the trees.

Rod's right though, this thread has already been tarnished enough for one lifetime
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 12:57
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Guest on 17.06.2014 at 11:14

And anyone with taste or song writing ability would probably tell you otherwise, people I'd much rather put my trust in than simply someone who can play an instrument well but not be able to do an original or interesting thing with it. A totally different skillset which a lot of people lack, even "musical" people. A skillset about implicit understanding and interpretation, not about raw, technical comprehension of musical theory, and ability to regurgitate what guitar technique is being played at what point, which has absolutely nothing to do with grasping good songwriting or the writing of good melody in the context of an actual song. About seeing the woods for the trees.

Rod's right though, this thread has already been tarnished enough for one lifetime

That raw, technical comprehension of musical theory is exactly what is being applied in the songwriting of this very album. Like I said, it sounds as if the lead guitarist is simply wanking up and down in scales around the key of the music - there's no hint of melodic creativity whatsoever. If any of you honestly believe that there is absolutely no superiority regarding the melodies of those bands I linked compared to those written by the cluster of trite, copycat bands out there, then I'm essentially talking to a wall
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 12:58
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 12:57

That raw, technical comprehension of musical theory is exactly what is being applied in the songwriting of this very album. Like I said, it sounds as if the lead guitarist is simply wanking up and down in scales around the key of the music - there's no hint of melodic creativity whatsoever. If any of you honestly believe that there is absolutely no superiority regarding the melodies of those bands I linked compared to those written by the cluster of trite, copycat bands out there, then I'm essentially talking to a wall

As I say: context. You seem to to lack an understanding of it.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:02
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Guest on 17.06.2014 at 12:58

As I say: context. You seem to to lack an understanding of it.

That's precisely what makes so many melodies appealing: context. The finger-flopping melodies in this album even detract from the music as a result of their unimaginative and amateur nature.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:40
Rating: 7
mz

WTF.
If you think that people who don't like the generic as fuck melodeath of insomnium and amon amarth (which I actually enjoy) and the crab music of the wintersun have no ears, I have to inform you that not only you don't have any clue about the metal music, but also you are an arroogant asshole (ok this has been proven several times before, nothing new).
Seriously, I'm still in shock that someone calls esoteric "generic" while he adores those before mentioned band.
You should be able to understand that even some of melodeath fans agree that the genre is stagnant and full of copycat bands beating the same dead horse like 129767869861240 other bands.
Also, here is the chalange: if esoteric are generic, find a couple of bands playing a similar sort of funeral doom. I've been looking for such thing for long and all I have got are AC and faal (which are clearly influenced by esoteric and follow it)
----
Giving my ears a rest from music.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:42
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by mz on 17.06.2014 at 13:40

the crab music of the wintersun

That sounds like an awesome band right there.

Also: don't waste your time with LeKiwi, seriously. He doesn't get it because he can't see past instruments. It's as simple as that.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:45
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by mz on 17.06.2014 at 13:40

WTF.
If you think that people who don't like the generic as fuck melodeath of insomnium and amon amarth (which I actually enjoy) and the crab music of the wintersun have no ears, I have to inform you that not only you don't have any clue about the metal music, but also you are an arroogant asshole (ok this has been proven several times before, nothing new).
Seriously, I'm still in shock that someone calls esoteric "generic" while he adores those before mentioned band.
You should be able to understand that even some of melodeath fans agree that the genre is stagnant and full of copycat bands beating the same dead horse like 129767869861240 other bands.
Also, here is the chalange: if esoteric are generic, find a couple of bands playing a similar sort of funeral doom. I've been looking for such thing for long and all I have got are AC and faal (which are clearly influenced by esoteric and follow it)

No there's nothing generic about Esoteric. I'm clearly targeting on the melodic aspect of their music, nothing more. Melody plays an essential role in my enjoyment of a song.

Of course, I've blatantly admitted that MDM is a stagnant genre - just have a read of my previous comments where I compared hackneyed melodies to innovative ones. There's a reason those bands I mentioned are placed above other bands in the genre and if that isn't acknowledged by someone then, yes, they "have no ears."
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:48
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Guest on 17.06.2014 at 13:42

Also: don't waste your time with LeKiwi, seriously. He doesn't get it because he can't see past instruments. It's as simple as that.

I wouldn't have a reason to deconstruct this band into a multitude of aspects, including melody, if those aspects were appealing as a whole.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:51
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 13:48


I wouldn't have a reason to deconstruct this band into a multitude of aspects, including melody, if those aspects were appealing as a whole.

Precisely: you feel the need to deconstruct bands by focussing on unnecessary details and techniques. This is what I meant by the term context. You don't know how to appreciate a band for its whole.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:53
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Guest on 17.06.2014 at 13:51

Precisely: you feel the need to deconstruct bands by focussing on unnecessary details and techniques. This is what I meant by the term context. You don't know how to appreciate a band for its whole.

That's precisely what I was attempting to do when I listened to this album - then those aforementioned melodies came crashing in and ruined the vibe. Everything is about context, I'm well aware of that.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:56
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 13:53

That's precisely what I was attempting to do when I listened to this album - then those aforementioned melodies came crashing in and ruined the vibe. Everything is about context, I'm well aware of that.

And to me that's why Amon Amarth and its ilk is subpar, because they focus on nothing more than overbearing and sickly effusive melody and predictable progressions with virtually nothing else going for it. Esoteric may be considered "amateur" in terms of how it employs melody from a technical point of view, but unlike shallow melodeath and other melody-bearing bands it employs "amateur" melody in much more mature song composition.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 13:58
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Guest on 17.06.2014 at 13:56

And to me that's why Amon Amarth and its ilk is subpar, because they focus on nothing more than overbearing and sickly effusive melody and predictable progressions with virtually nothing else going for it. Esoteric may be considered "amateur" in terms of how it employs melody from a technical point of view, but unlike shallow melodeath and other melody-bearing bands it employs "amateur" melody in much more mature song composition.

Yet, somehow there aren't many other bands reaching their level of success...I wonder why Perhaps it's because writing melodies that appeal the masses is no easy feat?
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 14:02
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 13:58

Yet, somehow there aren't many other bands reaching their level of success...I wonder why Perhaps it's because writing melodies that appeal the masses is no easy feat?

Lol, as has been said a billion times before success is not a measure of quality. You'll always get awful pop bands thrown at you for comments like that, and rightfully so.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 14:04
Rating: 6
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by Guest on 17.06.2014 at 14:02

Lol, as has been said a billion times before success is not a measure of quality. You'll always get awful pop bands thrown at you for comments like that, and rightfully so.

And as I've said earlier, there are myriad other factors which come into play with regards to contemporary music. Additionally, most pop artists don't even write their own music and the writers use an infallible formula to appeal to the masses.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 14:06
Rating: 7
mz

Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 13:45

No there's nothing generic about Esoteric.


How about this, then?
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 03:03

The guitarist is simply jerking the scales in the key of the music in such an amateur manner that I reckon any guitarist could write. There's absolutely no flow and in fact is rather generic.


Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 13:45

Of course, I've blatantly admitted that MDM is a stagnant genre - just have a read of my previous comments where I compared hackneyed melodies to innovative ones. There's a reason those bands I mentioned are placed above other bands in the genre and if that isn't acknowledged by someone then, yes, they "have no ears."


If that's the case, I prefer to "have no ears" instead of insulting people for their opinion (although it is a fact that those bands you mentioned are generic)
Anyway, good job covering Ponderer's ass. We do need someone to be an icon for "how not to participate in forums".
----
Giving my ears a rest from music.
Loading...
17.06.2014 - 14:06
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by LeKiwi on 17.06.2014 at 14:04

And as I've said earlier, there are myriad other factors which come into play with regards to contemporary music. Additionally, most pop artists don't even write their own music and the writers use an infallible formula to appeal to the masses.

Of course there are other influences, but none as important as the simplistic melodies used. Take those away and the band would vanish.

An infallible formula is exactly what the bands you posted are doing if you ask me. Safe, easily digestible melody. Nothing more.
Loading...

Hits total: 23205 | This month: 51