Esoteric (band)

Esoteric
Esoteric at Brutal Assault, 2015
Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England, UK
Genres	Funeral doom
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Season of Mist Eibon Records Aesthetic Death
Associated acts	Camel of Doom
Website	Official website
Members	Greg Chandler Mark Bodossian Joe Fletcher Jim Nolan Gordon Bicknell Jan Krause
Past members	Kris Clayton

Esoteric is a British funeral doom band from Birmingham founded in 1992.

Esoteric was formed in 1992, and in 1993, released Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance - a demo tape containing 82 minutes of material with a total of eight tracks. Shortly thereafter they received an offer from Aesthetic Death to record a full-length CD of new material.

In June 1994, Esoteric entered Rich Bitch studios in Birmingham, UK to record six tracks to be released as a double CD, titled Epistemological Despondency. Soon after the recording of this album, Stuart (guitar) and Darren (drums) left the band, leaving Greg Chandler (vocals), Bryan Beck (bass), Simon Phillips and Gordon Bicknell (guitars). In September of that year, Steve Peters joined Esoteric to complete the guitar section. However, a suitable drummer was yet to be found.

Having only played a handful of gigs in the UK, Esoteric travelled to Germany to play a series of shows. Halfway through the tour, they were forced to turn back after an injury to Steve's leg made it impossible to continue. In June 1995, the band was back on the road with a small tour of the UK. This tour was also cut short after only two shows when their equipment was destroyed by fire. Once the equipment was replaced, Esoteric began to prepare for the recording of their second release on Aesthetic Death Records.

In 1996, Esoteric entered the studio once more to record The Pernicious Enigma - their second double-CD, consisting of 9 tracks. Towards the end of 1997, one day before they were due to depart for a short tour of Germany, Simon (guitar) left the band without warning. Fortunately, Greg (vocals) was able to fill in at short notice. This has since become a permanent arrangement.