u/Mysst3r11s

Probably a very unpopular opinion, but no matter how many chances I gave them over the years, I never managed to truly get into Esoteric.

They were actually one of the first funeral doom bands I listened to many years ago when I started exploring the genre, but for some reason they never clicked with me like other bands did. And the funny thing is that every few years I come back and give them another chance... always with the same result.

I think the biggest problem for me is the vocalist’s style. Which is weird, because I’ve been listening similar vocal styles in extreme metal for decades and normally I love it. But here it completely breaks the atmosphere for me.

Still, I respect them a lot and I don’t rule out that maybe one day they finally click with me.

Anyone else feels this way about Esoteric for whatever reason? Or do you have another “essential” funeral doom band that you just can’t enjoy no matter how much you try?

I’ve been listening to Runemagick for years, and they’re easily one of my all time favorite bands and one of the clearest cases of a massively underrated band in metal.

Formed in ’91 and basically driven by Nicklas Rudolfsson, almost like a one-man band, they started with oldschool Swedish death metal and gradually evolved into a full-on death/doom machine.

They took that classic Swedish guitar tone and slowed it down into a super heavy, painful crawl. Massive, crushing riffs dominate everything, creating a dark, hypnotic sound that feel like be buried alive. Pure monoliths, for real.

Over the years they’ve build a solid discography with no weak albums and several highlights across both eras:

OSDM ERA:

- The Supreme Force of Eternity

- Enter the Realm of Death

- Resurrection in Blood

DEATH/DOOM ERA (MY FAVOURITE ERA):

- Darkness Death Doom

- On Funeral Wings

- Invocation of Magick

- Dawn of the End

We’ll probably all agree that funeral doom has given us some absolutley incredible album covers over the years, so now I’ve gotta ask:

- Which ones impressed you the most the first time you saw them?

- And is there any cover you didn’t really understand or pay much attention to at first, but later started noticing details in or understood the meaning better, which eventualy made it one of your favorites?

In my case I’d probably say two covers from Ahab:

-The Call of the Wretched Sea, whose cover was created by Kinuko Y. Craft for an illustrated edition of Moby-Dick.

-The Divinity of Oceans, featuring The Raft of the Medusa painted by Théodore Géricault in 1819.

And an example of a cover I didn’t pay much attention to at first would be:

• Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

Funeral doom bands that should be considered genre classics but somehow never got there (poor distribution, release at the wrong time, disbanding too early, etc...)

Not just underrated bands, but bands/albums that genuinly had the quality, atmosphere and originality to become essential names in the genre… yet stayed relativley obscure.

Any bands that come to mind that coud fit this?

NOTE: I forgot to add an example of a band 😅😅😅 My choice would be.... UN Sentiment album is just special

Un - In its Absence

Absolute banger of a doom/death metal track from this Chilean band, loaded with brutal emotional weight.

My fav album from the band along with the Moon in the Scorpio masterpiece.

The album is basically a re-recording of songs from their first demos.

I'm listening to one of my favorite track from this great band right now.

Quite a few times I've had goosebumps when the song surge back at minute 7, after let myself get carried away by the slow interlude between 4:15 and 7:05.

Absolute banger 🤘🤘

In my opinion, this track is just a huge masterpiece of black metal in general, and specially of Avant-garde Black Metal

I was thinking about Fury Fest 2005, basically the precursor to Hellfest, and man, I take another look at the lineup. Holy shit, it was insanely stacked. No fest I've been since has even come close, specially for 2005.

I was there and with that ridiculous many bands plus the brutal heatwave, I barely had energy for catch half the sets I wanted. The hangars were a total oven. Staff kept giving out water bottles for people wouldn't pass out. Lemmy still went all out during Motörhead and needed oxygen halfway the set and after. Absolute legend.

Anyone else at Le Mans that year? Got any favorite memories or surreal moments from those three days? What do you think about the lineup looking back?

NOTE: The second pic is the original one from the festival. I made the first one with AI using the original as a base, mostly 'cause I wanted the band names to be way easier to read. The original is a bit of a mess to look at lol.