ESOTERIC formed in July 1992, after the gathering of five individuals, inspired to create dark, innovative music that was evocative to and expressive of the contents of their psyche. The lyrics and music are reflections and transpositions of their thoughts, philosophies, emotions and experiences. The music captures the essence of the word 'esoteric'.
1993 saw the release of "Esoteric Emotions - The Death of Ignorance" - a demo tape containing 82 minutes of hateful - drug influenced tortured doom (from the linguistic definition - not the metal sub-genre) with a total of 8 tracks. Almost immediately, this brought about an offer from Aesthetic Death to record a full length CD of new material.
In June 1994, ESOTERIC entered Rich Bitch studios in Birmingham to record 6 tracks (lasting almost 90 minutes). This recording was released as a double CD, titled "Epistemological Despondency". Soon after the recording of this monumental album, Stuart (guitar) and Darren (drums) parted company with the band leaving Greg (vocals), Bryan (bass) , Simon and Gordon (guitars) . Their departure made little difference in terms of creativity as they hadn't contributed anything to the writing process. In September of that year, Steve 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. Half way through the tour, the band were forced to turn back as an injury to one of the guitarists made it impossible to continue. In June 1995, the band were 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. Nine tracks lasting a mind-debilitating 115 minutes. "The Pernicious Enigma" proved to be a more complex, sinister, intense and dissonant release, yet it still maintained the ESOTERIC essence throughout. Towards the end of 1997, ESOTERIC decided to go on tour once more to Germany, one day before they were due to depart, Simon (guitar) left the band with no warning and no apparent reason. Fortunately, Greg (vocals) was able to fill in at short notice. This has since become a permanent arrangement. Aside from the fact that ESOTERIC were now two members short (still surviving without a drummer), the tour was relatively successful.
Progress was slow after Simon's departure and the three tracks that were in development over a period of two years had to be recorded in order to make way for new material - Eibon Records (Italy) offered to release these tracks which were recorded, engineered and produced entirely by the band themselves. In 1999, "Metamorphogenesis", was unleashed. This release, containing only three tracks, is often described as a Mini-CD in comparison with the first two albums, yet with a total playing time of nearly 45 minutes, "Metamorphogenesis" shows ESOTERIC to be more extreme and diverse than ever - displaying levels of perception that are not normally expressed in such a genre (if it can be described as part of any genre).
ESOTERIC are currently in the final stages of recording a new CD which will be ready for release mid 2003. The new material is not bound to any label/distributor and are open to offers for releasing the new CD. Any record labels/distributors interested in this recording may contact esoteric@bereft.co.uk for more details.
ESOTERIC are currently unable to promote the music with live dates since they require a drummer and bassist and urge those that are interested in taking up the position of guitarist, bassist or drummer to contact them via this site (or at esoteric@bereft.co.uk) as there is great demand world-wide for the band to play live but no practical means of doing so until the line-up is complete. ESOTERIC intend to play more live shows as soon as they are able.