SUBCONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION into the CONTINUUM

This is musical perfection. - 100%

Ok, simply put, this album is absolutely perfect.

"Morphia" starts with a droning riff, a typically doom metal one, it does not change its extremely slow pace during the first eleven minutes. The guitars are crushingly heavy, the drums are plodding, the vocals are screamed... Now, although this description seems to fit the music, it doesn't reflect what you really experience, not at all! First, the slow pace is genuinely hypnotic, the guitars and the bass form a wall of unbelieveably powerful and droning sound, with a layer of processed guitars in the background which, in an almost subliminal way, creates the atmosphere. It NEVER gets boring, despite the plodding tempos, it rather sucks the listener in and carries him/her away. No need to speak about the riffs here, it's hard to concentrate on what notes are being played - the atmosphere, the hypnotic nature of the music, amazing songwriting, the powerful production in a way distract the listener from what the musicians actually play. From time to time, a melodic guitar part appears which adds to the overall beauty of the music. Yes, this is beautiful music. This is music which manages to be extremely emotional, heavy and hypnotic at the sime time. Words such as complex, technical, simple, etc. are of no value when describing this music, it's incredible how this album (and other Esoteric's works too) manages to resonate on a purely emotional level, to the point that the technical aspects of the music become completely unimportant.

And now the vocals. This is pure genius. Pure fucking genius. Layered and slightly (or more than slightly) processed screams than somehow manage to be in tune with the guitars, which are almost indecipherable, emotional, terrifying, powerful. The way they carry the music is otherwordly, each vowel Greg Chandler utters is the most effective one in the given place of the song. The vocals are almost constantly present but it's hard to really notice it - not that they aren't audible, quite the opposite, they are rather used in a purely instrumental way, merging with the rest of the music.

"Morphia" finishes and then there is "The Blood of the Eyes". The first 4 minutes of this song is just too good to be believed. The album is worth buying for this alone. These 4 minutes is one massive riff, with lead guitar playing along and perfect drums and vocals that are responsible for the dynamics of the passage. Now, the chord progression is astonishing, the lead is agonizingly beautiful and the screams add to the emotional load of the passage. Truly, EVERYONE interested in music should listen to this. It might be the best musical piece ever created and I'm really not exaggerating here.

Listen to "Morphia" around the 5:00 and 6:30 mark, "Grey Day" around 1:54 - how the motives evolve and gain on power and emotion. Astonishing. "Grey Day" is the song which is the most similar to songs from "Metamorphogenesis" as it has more processed guitars in the mix and a bit more busy drumming. "Arcane Dissolution" is an excellent ambient outro.

This album is classified as doom/funeral doom but although this classification is perfectly justified, the music reaches far beyond any genre limitations. It's pure emotion, art as I see it. The notes played, the production, artwork, lyrics, performance, arrangements all melt into a piece of art that is "Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum".

So, buy this. And all other Esoteric albums.

Written by bimu on July 17th, 2006 (Metal Archives)