Band:	Skyfire
Album:	Esoteric
Style:	Extreme power metal
Release date:	September 14, 2009
Guest review by:	Darth Revan

01. Deathlike Overture (Intro)
02. Esoteric
03. Rise And Decay
04. Let The Old World Burn
05. Darkness Descending
06. Seclusion
07. Misery's Supremacy
08. Under A Pitch Black Sky
09. Linger In Doubt
10. The Legacy Of The Defeated
11. Within Reach [bonus]

An album made by a melodic death metal band with power metal influences? Well since I'm a fan of both genres this album should be like bread and butter to me right? Ehh, I wouldn't put it like that, but Esoteric certainly is effective in some areas, even though it does have its weaker tracks as most albums do.

I've listened to the album again right before typing up this review, and it's still pretty hit and miss to me. Some of the songs are really good, and they meld the two very different genres seamlessly, songs like "Under a Pitch Black Sky", "Darkness Descending" and "Seclusion" fall into this category. In these songs the keyboards and power metal inspired riffs compliment the aggressive vocals and the heavy drumming very well, but in others it isn't like that, unfortunately. In some songs, the power metal seems to be clashing with the melodeath, and thus appears out of place. This happens a lot in "Rise and Decay" and the title track. Aside from those ups and downs, the rest of the album was good, but pretty forgettable to me, nothing really left an impression.

Noteworthy tracks would be the already previously mentioned "Under a Pitch Black Sky", "Darkness Descending" and "Seclusion".
Overall, Esoteric isn't a bad album, not at all. It's actually a very good album, when it works. However, it doesn't work all of the time, and it has its weaker tracks. But I do have to give props to Skyfire for creating a style which I never heard before (And yeah, Children Of Bodom also crossed power metal and death metal, but Skyfire is absolutely nothing like them).