2 out of 5

Label: Prosthetic

Produced by: Ed Rose

Pretty generic stuff.

There’s something pleasing about the mechanical precision The Esoteric brings to the hardcore game, but over the course of 13 tracks, the repetitive riffing and drill drumming and monotone vocals simply don’t vary enough to make an impression.  The opening track hits, because it’s the first of its kind, but all that follows is pitched at the same levels.  Noise like that can still certainly work when its short and ear-bleedin’, but The Esoteric are going more for smart man’s hardcore, with respectable lyrics that, for better or worse, generally take 4 or 5 minutes to get through.  The group has musical skills, undoubtedly, as the fast pace and constant time changes never stutter, and compositionally there actually is a good amount of stop/start/bridge jumping about that works in small doses, but it just seems to stall as recorded.  Which could either mean this is a live act, or… very likely, Ed Rose just did another one of his too-clean recording jobs, as the rounded edges of the production share his mark.  The band admittedly breaks through with some change-ups to the hardcore template, such as the post-punkier Your New Burden, which is followed by a head-bobbing instrumental track, Unavoidable Conclusion, it’s just not enough to really set things in motion.