ESOTERIC — The Maniacal Vale (review)

ESOTERIC — The Maniacal Vale album cover Album · 2008 · Funeral Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Warthur
On The Maniacal Vale Esoteric play a death-tinged psychedelic variety of funeral doom, with slow, ponderous riffs, death-grunt vocals and the occasional lapse into spacey, psychedelic territory of the sort explored by early Pink Floyd (say, on the live side of Ummagumma) or Hawkwind. Though the compositions tend to stretch out to vast lengths, we aren't quite dealing with full-on drone metal here; although things happen slowly, there's an awful lot of things that do happen, and the sound of the band is actually extremely varied. As an introduction to the funeral doom genre - which is what it is for me - it's a very capable one and it certainly makes me want to hear more both of the genre and of Esoteric themselves.
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Wilytank wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Admittedly, Esoteric probably isn't the best intro into the funeral doom genre with their two CD albums. It can be a little too much to digest.

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