esoteric

Esoteric
Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England, UK
Genres	Avant-garde doom Funeral doom Experimental
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Season of Mist Eibon Records Aesthetic Death
Website	Official website
Members
Greg Chandler Gordon Bicknell Mark Bodossian Joe Fletcher Kris Clayton

Esoteric is a British extreme doom metal band from Birmingham founded in 1992 that incorporates highly acute, somewhat distorted vocals and samples over slow paced riffs and atmospheric melodies.

Biography

Esoteric was formed in 1992, and in 1993, released Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance - a demo tape containing 82 minutes of material with a total of eight tracks. Shortly thereafter they received an offer from Aesthetic Death to record a full-length CD of new material.^[1]

In June 1994, Esoteric entered Rich Bitch studios in Birmingham, UK to record six tracks to be released as a double CD, titled Epistemological Despondency. Soon after the recording of this album, Stuart (guitar) and Darren (drums) left the band, leaving Greg Chandler (vocals), Bryan Beck (bass), Simon Phillips and Gordon Bicknell (guitars). In September of that year, Steve Peters joined Esoteric to complete the guitar section. However, a suitable drummer was yet to be found.

Having only played a handful of gigs in the UK, Esoteric travelled to Germany to play a series of shows. Halfway through the tour, they were forced to turn back after an injury to Steve's leg made it impossible to continue. In June 1995, the band was back on the road with a small tour of the UK. This tour was also cut short after only two shows when their equipment was destroyed by fire. Once the equipment was replaced, Esoteric began to prepare for the recording of their second release on Aesthetic Death Records.^[2]

In 1996, Esoteric entered the studio once more to record The Pernicious Enigma - their second double-CD, consisting of 9 tracks. Towards the end of 1997, one day before they were due to depart for a short tour of Germany, Simon (guitar) left the band without warning. Fortunately, Greg (vocals) was able to fill in at short notice. This has since become a permanent arrangement.

Progress was becoming slow without a full line-up and with increasing work commitments, and the three tracks that were in development over a period of two years were recorded in order to make way for new material; without a permanent drummer, Esoteric was forced to use session drum-work, provided courtesy of Keith York. Eibon Records (Italy) offered to release these tracks which were recorded, engineered and produced without the aid of professional mixing and/or mastering technicians, and in 1999, Metamorphogenesis, was released.

In May 2002, just one week before Esoteric were due to start recording their fourth album, Bryan (Bass) left the band leaving the three remaining members to record the album. This was done in intervals over a period of time spanning across the rest of the year and into 2003, using session work (as with their previous album) involving Keith York on drums and Trevor Lines on Bass. After negotiation with various labels, Esoteric signed with the French label Season of Mist. The album titled Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum was released on June 28, 2004.

Esoteric have completed their line-up with the recent addition of three new members during mid-2003, including Andy Semmens (drums) and Mark Bodossian (bass). In addition, Olivier Goyet joined the band to perform on the keyboards which allows them to better compose their material in a live environment, where the use of an extra instrument has become necessary to emulate the complexity of the studio recordings. Following this was a tour of Europe in April 2004, where the band played in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium and the Netherlands, with bands such as While Heaven Wept, Indesinence, Officium Triste, Mourning Beloveth, Thee Plague of Gentlemen, Pantheist, and many others.

In 2005, Semmens left the band. Steve Peters left the band in 2007. He was soon replaced by Kris Clayton (ex-Imindain). Joe Fletcher joined on drums in 2007.^[3] The 5th album titled The Maniacal Vale and recorded at Priory Recording Studios was released in June 2008.

Discography

• Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance (self-released, 1993)
• Epistemological Despondency (Aesthetic Death, 1994)
• The Pernicious Enigma (Aesthetic Death, 1997)
• Metamorphogenesis (Eibon Records, 1999)
• Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum (Season of Mist, 2004)
• The Maniacal Vale (Season of Mist, 2008)

Members

Current members

• Greg Chandler - Vocals, Guitar (1992-)
• Gordon Bicknell - Guitar (1992-)
• Mark Bodossian - Bass (2003-)
• Joe Fletcher - Drums (2007-)
• Kris Clayton - Guitar (2007-)

Former members

• Darren - Drums (1992-1994)
• Stuart - Guitar (1992-1994)
• Simon Phillips - Guitar (1992-1997)
• Bryan Beck - Bass (1992-2002)
• Andy Semmens - Drums (2003-2005)
• Steve Peters - Guitar (1994-2007)
• Olivier Goyet - Keyboards (2003-2009)

Session

• Anthony - Drums (1997)
• Keith York - Drums (1999 and 2004)
• Trevor Lines - Bass (2004)

Guest

• Tom Kvålsvoll (Paradigma/Dødheimsgard) - Vocals (1999)

References

External links

• Official website
• Esoteric at MySpace
• Esoteric discography at MusicBrainz
• Esoteric (band) at Allmusic