The good news is that
Esoteric's fourth album is nowhere near as pretentious as its title suggests. Moving away from the acid rock frenzy of 1999's Metamorphogenesis, which sounded like the anarchic spirit of
Blue Cheer's
Vincebus Eruptum channeled through a horde of Scandinavian death metal bands, the Birmingham-based quintet seems to be going for a cleaner, more precise sound. Weighing in at three and a half songs in 50 minutes (track four, "Arcane Dissolution," is really no more than a becalmed space rock coda to the 17-minute epic "Grey Day"), these lengthy songs feature complex, suite-like structures and artfully composed passages that still manage to rock with maximum heaviosity. One gets the idea that the band would not be offended by comparisons to
2112-era
Rush, or to the achingly slow, steady grind of early, classic
Black Sabbath. Although singer Greg Chandler does assume the usual constipated-Muppet death growl,
Esoteric otherwise steers away from contemporary metal clichés, giving
Subconscious Dissolution Into the Continuum a timeless quality. ~ Stewart Mason