If Neurosis were Europeans and played doom metal, there is a chance they would sound like that. A more palatable scenario would be if Neurosis went to Finland and hooked-up with the cream of the crop of the local doom scene (Unholy, Skepticism, Thergothon), pumped themselves full of hallucinogens and then headed into a nearby studio for an enormous jam session, together they could very well produce something resembling "Metamorphogenesis."

This is just colossal. An all-embracing vortex of leaden, crawling, dilated doom that is turbulent, grinding, violent, but also slumberous, trippy and mournful - all at the same time. Very psychedelic in other words. There are only three songs that last for 44 minutes, but that is more than enough time for the band to thoroughly petrify your senses. Their sound and production are very maximalistic - a direct opposite to the primal darkness of someone like Thergothon, while the songs themselves consist of loose, serpentine structures and a multitude of interlacing, hallucination-inducing textures. The vocals, ranging from screams to whispers, are pushed to the background, and it seems like they have simply melted underneath the multiple and complex layers of this mammoth sonority.

Esoteric are from England by the way, which, in a way, is amazing since they are completely bereft of the My Dying Bride/Anathema syndrome. I was going to call their music "doom metal for the next millennium" when I realized that this new millennium was already here. Bollocks! Time sure does fly. But it sure comes to a grinding halt when I put this thing on. And the band couldn't have picked a better name for themselves. I suppose a more cynical person might find it somewhat pretentious, but I cannot even begin to imagine this music gaining any sort of mass appeal, even within the metal underground.

Now, do I give this album my highest recommendations? Well, of course, but only if you have a rather, umm, esoteric taste and a special affinity for doom metal.

© 2001 boris