Bane – Esoteric Formulae

Band: Bane
Title: Esoteric Formulae
Labels: Black Market Metal
Release date: 30 November 2018
Country: Serbia/Canada
Format reviewed: High Quality Digital Promo

Originally formed in Serbia in 2006, now Bane are located in Quebec, Canada. Two times the band ceased its activities – in 2008 and 2012. The later just because Branislav Panic, the main man since the beginning, moved to Canada. Reformed in 2013 again, the band is now back with its third full-length album in its history – “Esoteric Formulae”.

“Esoteric Formulae” is the typical melodic black/death metal album, combined in itself frosty atmosphere, dark melodies and variety. There are two main matters to be shared here though. First of all, in all honesty, the music of the band includes so much from the likes of Dissection, Gates of Ishtar, Dawn, Sacramentum. For some reason I also thought about bands like the modern Euphoreon, Nor Scorpii etc as well. The sound and the musical approach of these classic bands have definitely left a solid mark on Bane’s compositions and vision about how their music should sound like. Second of all, in search of bigger variety and diverse melodies, somehow the overall atmosphere drops down and the tracks become uninteresting. The songs include typical for the style formulas for of riffing, blast beats with appeal to more technical approach, and double type of vocals – screams and growls. The bass is left somewhere behind. That said, soundwise the overall mix is bit cheesy for an underground album, missing the rawer or at least more powerful sound, especially for the blackened parts.

“Esoteric Formulae” contains ten tracks (intro and outro included), or almost 36 minutes, which encompass something which either could be enjoyable for the fans of melodic black/death metal, or something which we have already know. The songs are with normal length, even shorter, with standard for the genre structure and even finish soon after some twists and turns. My favourite track is definitely “Bringer of Pandimensional Disorder” with so good and memorable main riff and furious tempo. It definitely stands out from the rest of tracks, which are good but didn’t quite convince me about their inner power, especially having in mind Bane’s main teachers.

As always, we at Blessed Altar Zine always take the high end, here it comes – the fans of the melodic black/death metal should give a chance to the band and explore “Esoteric Formulae”. All the song titles provide the necessary darkness and seem to be wrathful reflections and invocation of evil forces. The atmosphere of the album brings vision of the vast cold lands, far away from the sun – somewhere on the blood red bath, where the light is baned. Although the coming of chaos is not perceived at this point of time and the evil forces are not all around… 6.5/10 Count Vlad

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 6.5/10 We may survive
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