Esoteric - The Manical Vale (2008)

   A lot have happened since the formation of Esoteric, and that's also literally meant, since the band showed impressive productiveness during their journey. They've tried various ways to combine strong atmosphere with heavy sound, and on their 5th full-lenght album "The Manical Vale" they somehow drifted back to their basics.

   From the perspective of death/doom and heavy sound, it became their roughest record (after the "Esoteric Emotions" demo of course), and could count as the most balanced one if it's about the combination of harshness and melancholy. They've always been known about extended song and album lenghts, and "The Manical Vale" also gives plenty of time to merge into the depths by it's 2x50 minutes lenght. Strong atmosphere gives the basic tone of the album, mostly assisted by simple, but catchy melodies, of course in quite slow ongoing process. Even if it's about funeral doom, to fill such a long time frame with themes in a diverse way (according to the style) to not turn too repetitive and boring, takes a lot of effort. Interestingly the melodies they've operated with often referring to quite old sources ('70s, '80s hard rock and doom metal) that are not really common to find at related bands. As the noisy, heavy riffs assisted by deep growling vocal style frequently switching them, they creating great contrast, but thanks to the atmosphere that unifies the whole album, they completing each other.  Even though "The Manical Vale" might sound rough, and having intense downpulling effect, it's still more like melancholic than depressing. The switches doesn't let the listener to fall to deep, or to levitate too far. Reaching balance in a style like this is evident singn how to master a genre and how to compose a masterpiece.