Epistemological Despondency
| Epistemological Despondency | ||||
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| Studio album from Esoteric | ||||
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Publication |
July 23, 1994 |
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admission |
June 6-16, 1994 |
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| Label (s) | Aesthetic Death Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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running time |
1:28:07 |
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| occupation |
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Esoteric |
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Studio (s) |
Rich Bitch Studios |
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Epistemological Despondency ( English epistemological desperation ) is the debut album by the British band Esoteric . It is counted among the most important publications of Funeral Doom .
Emergence
Songwriting
In the early stages of the band, the musicians were hardly familiar with other projects assigned to Funeral Doom. Chandler named the slow, heavy and dark parts of some early death and death doom bands such as Autopsy , Morbid Angel , My Dying Bride and Cathedral as the original influence on his own early music . Based on these influences, the group endeavored to create “something extreme”. In contrast, representatives of psychedelic rock , dark ambient , post-industrial and industrial metal acted as further influences . Chandler named the performers Pink Floyd , Spacemen 3 , Monster Magnet , King Crimson , In Slaughter Natives , Raison D'etre , Skinny Puppy , GGFH and Godflesh as such influencing factors . So the musicians wanted to create something slow and psychedelic out of these influences, as a reflection of their own emotions and experiences, that they “would not have heard in other bands at that time”.
Label contract
Stuart Gregg distributed flyers during a My Dying Bride concert in Birmingham in 1992 promoting his then music distributor Aesthetic Death Records . Esoteric guitarist Greg Chandler wrote to Gregg and included a copy of the demo tape Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance . Gregg was enthusiastic about the music and design of the demo and called the guitarist. In the ensuing conversation Gregg expressed the wish to develop Aesthetic Death Records into a music label and to cooperate with Esoteric.
"We seemed to trust each other - and had a similar vision. And so we worked on the release of "Epistemological" - I don't think any of us knew exactly how things might turn out, it was just exciting to work on releasing the album. "
“We seemed to trust each other - and had a similar vision. That's how we worked on the publication of ' Epistemological ' - I don't think either of us knew exactly how things might go. It was just exciting to work on the release of the album. "
From the cooperation a friendly relationship developed between the musicians and the label operator. Gregg has since sponsored side projects such as Lysergene or the Musician's Dead Beat Project and hired Chandler for various other releases of the label for mastering activities.
Chandler was positive about the initial contact and relationship with Gregg for years after the publication. Accordingly, the band decided to release the demo Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance in 2017 as an album via Aesthetic Death. Chandler called Gregg "the perfect choice" for this release as he was the only label running that, based on the demo of the band, offered a contract to release the first album.
admission
The band played the album in June 1994 at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham, where the group had previously rehearsed together. According to Greg Chandler, the album was recorded within three and a half days and mixed within a day. Most of the music was recorded in one take . The rhythm sections of drums, bass and guitars were recorded live in the studio. Only a few overdubs , synthesizers and the vocals were recorded afterwards. According to Chandler, this procedure was not a conceptual decision, but a pragmatic one.
"Pretty much everything was first take, since we had a lot to record and very little time to do it in."
"The first take was taken for almost everything because we recorded a lot and had very little time to do it."
In a review for the Doom-Metal.com webzine, Kostas Panagiotou rated the resulting recording quality as "surprisingly low" compared to the demo. This "underground sound" fits better presented music.
Album information
| Track list |
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CD 1
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CD 2
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The album, first released in 1995, contains six separate pieces that have a total playing time of 1:28:07 hours on two CDs. The album was re-released several times. The guitarist Simon Phillips took over the graphic preparation of the accompanying material. In addition to Phillips, the band at the time of recording consisted of singer Greg Chandler, keyboardist and guitarist Gordon Bicknell, guitarist Stuart Blenkinsop, bassist Bryan Beck and drummer Darren Earl.
publication
Epistemological Despondency was released on July 23, 1994 by Aesthetic Death Records as a double CD. It was the British label's first album. Re-releases appeared in 2004 and 2011. In 2011 a first vinyl version of the album was released. Aesthetic Death Records made all re-releases. Distribution as a music download was offered by the band via Bandcamp . The band also sold an unofficial MC version of the album in 1994 .
layout
Guitarist Simon Phillips was responsible for the album design. The album cover is illustrated with an abstract graphic in black and white that creates the illusion of a spatial object in the style of an optical illusion .
style
The music presented on Epistemological Despondency is described by reviewers as " ultra-slow Death Doom " with "terrifying psychedelic echo and reverb effects" and as an early and unique representative of Funeral Doom in a bridge between Thergothon and Disembowelment . The transported atmosphere is described as "the complete immersion in an ultimate depressive atmospheric snail's pace", as "huge and psychotic", hateful, misanthropic, senseless and hopeless.
According to reviewers, the music of Epistemological Despondency has a funeral doom foundation that is stylistically close to groups such as Thergothon, Disembowelment, Skepticism , Evoken and Pantheist . This basis is due in particular to the group's flowing and distorted guitar playing. The band combine this foundation with synthesizer and keyboard sounds that are similar to the dark ambient . The album lacks almost “any melody, with the exception of a few almost ' groovy ' guitar solos that can be related to 70s hard rock and stoner rock ”.
Text and concept
Similar to the atmosphere attested to in the music, the lyrics of the album are described as “intelligent, sincere, sick and bloody negativity” as well as a “journey through a subconscious driven by hate and misery ”. Chandler confirmed and underlined such assessments and additionally pointed to Satanism as the ideological basis of the texts and the music of Epistemological Despondency .
"The disdain we have for right-hand path religions is a product of their oppression, and their absolute ignorance. Their doctrines de-evolve the consciousness of humanity, and stagnate the progression of wisdom, and the evolution of the mind. "
“The contempt we have for right-wing religions is a product of their oppression and their utter ignorance. Their teachings change the consciousness of mankind and slow down the progress of wisdom and the development of the spirit. "
The lyrics on the album form a loose narrative of human history from an isolationist and misanthropic perspective. As indicated by the album title, the narrative revolves around different concepts of knowledge and understanding . The elementary thought remains that humanity is constantly missing its central character. According to the intention and statements of the musicians, the effect of the lyrics on the album is described as misanthropic, hateful and depressing.
"When I read the lyrics for Epistemological Despondency I imagine a faithless person - a person whose love in its entirety is lost, a person bereft of everything that mattered to him and deluded from the promises of others. Hateful towards all society and vengeful against those who caused him pain, scarred, joyless, dreamless - waiting for his death. "
“When I read the articles on Epistemological Despondency , I imagine a person without faith - a person who has lost love in its entirety, a person who has been deprived of everything important to him and deceived with promises. Hateful of society and vengeful of those who caused it pain. Scarred, joyless, dreamless - and waiting for death. "
perception
reception
Epistemological Despondency received little response after its publication. The album only developed its popularity with the increasing success of the band. However, retrospective reviews mostly praise the releases as a “masterpiece”, as “one of the craziest and most demanding albums from the mid-1990s” and as a “unique creation”. However, reviewers point out that the album contains difficult-to-access and bulky music for a select few that would not please every listener.
meaning
The album has received a high rating since its release. In 2014, Decibel Magazine ranked Epistemological Despondency at number 50 on the special The Top 100 Doom Metal Album of all Times . The music journalist Cody Davis dedicated a contribution to the album in 2017 from his series Funeral Friday written for the webzine Metal Injection , describing it as a “bridge between the irreconcilable style of disembowelment and the depressed sound and tempo of the Funeral Doom forefathers Thergothon ” and as a foundation the band's popularity in the genre. The music journalist Scott Koerber described Epistemological Despondency in Decibel Magazine as an early creative climax of the genre, which with "relentless darkness gave the whole underground doom such a big push into the depths of the funeral that the genre made it necessary to think about it for the rest of the 1990s would have."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Mike Liassides and Kris Clayton: Interview with Esoteric. Doom-Metal.com, accessed February 4, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c Kris Clayton: Interview with Aesthetic Death. Doom-Metal.com, accessed February 4, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d 23 Years Ago: ESOTERIC complete recording Epistemological Despondency at Rich Bitch Studios. Daily Noise, accessed February 4, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Kris Clayton: Interview with Esoteric. Doom-Metal.com, accessed February 4, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Kostas Panagiotou: Esoteric: Epistemological Despondency. doom-metal.com, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e Cody Davis: Funeral Doom Friday: ESOTERIC and Their Brilliant Debut, Epistemological Despondency. Metal Injection, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e siLLy puPPy: Esoteric: Epistemological Despondency. Metal Music Archives, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Sleep In Sorrow: Esoteric: Epistemological Despondency. Metalstorm, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Esoteric: Epistemological Despondency. Matalized, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Wotzenknecht: Esoteric: Epistemological Despondency. Guts of Darkness, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ^ A b Scott Koerber: Esoteric: Epistemological Despondency . In: Decibel . 2014, ISSN 1557-2137 , p. 27 .