Eso-Charis

Item: Setting Roots for the Winter
Author: Adam

Setting Roots for the Winter

(2000)

Reviewed by Adam

Discogs YouTube

Label Deadself RecordingsDead Zine2000

hardcore metalcore

When I review any album, I always have it in this environment- the whole place completely dark, about 300 screaming people ready to tear the place up, the whole stage a little bigger than the band itself, and the only thing that you can see is the LED lights from the amps. Then suddenly, there are two hot, red flood lights turned on, both are on each side of the band pointing directly above them, so you get this evil looking band in front of you. And Eso-Charis is the perfect band for this setting.

The first song "The Absolute Progress of a Nothing Day" starts off with a little guitar feedback for nearly one and half seconds, then RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! Heavy as 400 billion dumptrucks crushing a single ant! Man I can't believe how chaotic this is. If you thought this was going to sound like the self titled album- you are dead wrong and a CATscan! Cory (singer/guitarist) is nothing like the first release. He sounds like a Where the Wild Things Are beast, ripping your head off with his two front teeth (All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...) This has to be the closest vocals to sounding like satan without being satan himself (notice I didnt capitalize "satan" cuz he sucks). The drums are pretty darn heavy, and there's not a whole lot of double bass, but who needs it when you sound really horrifying. The guitars are lower tuned than, and still have some of the same aspects of guitar playing as they did in their first album, like the split guitar parts playing two different things, and sounding awesome at the same time! I think what made Cory sound so beastrous was a voice processor (maybe.. I don't know). But back to the song....... From the beginning, it is pretty much the same until the middle of the song where it completely cuts off, making you think it was a totally different song. But it goes straight back into a semi-distorted guitar and the rest of the band is a little quieter than before, then they go back to sounding like they started off the song. The track lasts a GOOD six minutes or so, and ends with something that sounds like a horse gallop (gitty up).

The next track (and unfortunately, the last) "Home Left Empty" starts off with this tribal sound to it and a soft guitar thing going. Then BAMM- CHAOS!!! This track has the bassist Arthur (now playing bass for Living Sacrifice) and the other guitarist Jayson doing background vocals, heavy as well, but not as beastrous as Cory, but still really awesome. One part on the bgv's end is sung at some point during the first fourth of the song. A tom and guitar thing in the middle of the song breaks in with the occasional heavy guitar/vocals, then back to the soft breaks, then chaos again. Then in another part of the song, this thing like you hear off the radio comes on, and soft drums and clean guitar come in behind it, and does that for about a minute or so, the AAAAAH! (one bgv)... AAAAAHH!! (the other) then RAWWWWWWWWWWWW!, and then the song closes with the band slowing down to a halt. The song is about eight minutes long.

If you have a record player, SERIOUSLY, I MEAN SERIOUSLY, consider adding this to your collection. Even though it only has two songs on it, both of which are superb, GET IT NOW, it's out on Deadself Records!

10/10