Esoteric Working On New Full-Length Album

The U.K. experimental doomsters from Esoteric are hard at work on what will be the band's seventh full-length album and the follow-up to 2011’s “Paragon of Dissonance.”

As the band members explain, this means that for the rest of the year they will be concentrating on preparation and recording: “We will be playing a few one-off shows and festivals, but we don’t intend to take part in any tours this year as we want our main focus to be on the album. If all goes to plan we hope to complete the writing by the end of 2015. The cycle continues…”

The departure last year of keyboard player Jan Krause has not affected the ability of the line-up (Gordon Bicknell on guitar, Mark Bodossian on bass, Greg Chandler on guitar and vocals, Joe Fletcher on drums, and Jim Nolan on guitar) to crack on with the new album, nor has it stopped them playing live while they search for a replacement.

As well as the new album, Esoteric also has other releases in mind, which vinyl fans will definitely appreciate, stating: “We plan to release 'The Pernicious Enigma' and 'Metamorphogenesis' on vinyl, which are the two remaining albums from our back catalogue that haven’t yet been released in this format. After that we will be re-releasing our first two albums on CD, but we will have more details about everything we’re planning to do as we go along.

"'The Pernicious Enigma' has actually been transferred from the original multitrack tapes, and remixed and remastered at the Priory Recording Studios for the vinyl release. Having never been happy with the original mix of the album, we were able to go over the tracks and bring out some of the details that were buried or subdued in the original release, without changing the overall feel of the album."

And is there any news about a much-requested live album? According to Esoteric: “It’s definitely something we’ve always had in the back of our minds, but it’s not a question we can give a definitive answer to right now. It’s true that we recorded the show in Brescia, Italy, in January, but finding the time to work on it is going to be very hard, especially with a new studio album in the offing. We will try to find the time to mix the live recording in the coming months and then we will look at the possibility of a release."