Esoteric - Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance (1993)

   The debut demo of Esoteric Emotions (later simply Esoteric) was something extraordinary in the early '90s metal scene. They experimented with something different from the main trends, and even their basic concept wasn't usual that time.
   Even though death/doom metal was everything but popular in the age of extreme speed and intensity, they went even further and experimented with strong atmosphere, noise, even more extended song lenght and way slower speed. The band counts as one of the earliest heralds of funeral doom. The lyrical concept was also more similar to funeral doom, but the record kept it's death/doom-like heaviness and death metal influenced aggressive touch. Later these features were forced back and experimentings with atmosphere and noises had the main focus, so "The Death of Ignorance" is probably their heaviest record. That may sound weird since it was only a demo, but there are other interesting features too why it could be nominated as a record-holder, like for the imaginary nomination of the longest demo record ever with it's over 1 hour lenght. But it's good sound quality is also everything but usual according to the early '90s and the style they were into. In general it's not so easy to get into this music because of it's heaviness, extended lenght and experimenting ambitions, but by all of these the band showed it's productiveness that also could count as an extremity compared to the main scene. A less known, but exciting classic that is definitely worth to try for the lovers of the depths of heavy melancholic sound.