How does one begin to write about Esoctrilihum? Well, by mentioning the project’s, nay, its label I, Voidhanger’s, album covers, of course. Where else to start? Vibrant esoteric album art is a staple marketing tactic for I, Voidhanger releases – to the extent that I’m surprised every time I come across an album that does not adhere to this status quo. How does one not feel all the more drawn to cover art that puts every single Cannibal Corpse cover to shame with its occultish horror? This is how I came to know Esoctrilihum.

Astraal Constellations Of The Majickal Zodiac is an unsurprising yet unnaturally pleasing offer from the French one-man project. It starts very strongly, right off the bat, no intro nor preamble. One would think that such a long album (14 pieces and 2+ hours!) would be plentiful of ambient fillers and interludes, but here that’s certainly not the case. Yet, it’s almost as if the chaotic energy has been tamed – or as close as it could be in the context of Esoctrilihum. I mean, Constellations is still limitlessly chaotic, but much more listenable in comparison with the band’s prior releases.

The second piece, Saturnyôsmachia even has a groovier, more laidback and rocky sound to it. It’s quite Mare Cognitum meets Oranssi Pazuzu. Third piece Atlas Eeïm takes orchestral instrumentation to new levels, with the guitars following suit, and the drums and the vocals framing the whole into an obelisk of sound. This is where I started really getting impressed. See, I’ve never been particularly interested in Esoctrilihum. It was just one of the many chaotic wall-of-sound-y projects with pretty covers on I, Voidhanger’s roster for what felt like an eternity. But it seems like it’s finally calmed its expressionist urges and transformed them into a listenable whole.

Fourth number Tȃimonh Ѳx is just as impressive, or even more so than the previous. It’s Alcest, Lifelover, Xasthur, and Gehenna in one. An unrelenting barrage of punches that nonetheless manages to be just as depressive, symphonic, even rocky, yet still unmistakably Esoctrilihum. That’s the thing about the project’s influences: they are clearly recognisable, even mashed up painstakingly together, yet rather than that being as boringly egocentric as it was in previous releases, here it’s a masterpiece in analytical conundrums.

Next piece Ѳxphiliastisme actually reminds me of Urfaust mixed up with a sprinkle of Death Mantra. It’s actually such a sexy combination. The kind of stuff you put on to get your partner in the mood. Or, at least, if that were me. The following Uran-Ѳx Death Star, retains this sexy mellow concoction, and it’s really a breath of fresh air to have the two together. This is where the first part of the album ends.

The second begins with seventh track AlŭBḁḁlisme, the kind of fast piece of chaos that I have normally come to expect from Esoctrilihum. The track slows down midway then goes back to throwing punches. This is my least favourite so far and generally a weak middling piece. And here I started thinking: Esoctrilihum’s vocals really remind me of Circle of Ouroborus’, and in some cases, like the eighth track Shadow Lupus of Sæmons-Tuhr, that’s an advantage. But not always. There’s just not much variation to them, and in the second part of Constellations, where the sound is generally more formulaic than in the first, this lack of vocal diversity really shows.

Indeed, I’ll spare you a piece by piece discussion, as I genuinely don’t have it in me to keep up with one anymore. The second part starts off boringly fast, and by ninth track Skorpïus Nebŭlah Tyrant, it slows down significantly. I do actually enjoy part two quite a lot from there onward, but it quickly starts to sound too samey. From samey fast so samey semi-slow. And then ending with the third part – a cataclysmic grand finale that could, and probably should have been, a standalone release.

I don’t think I can end here without mentioning the elephant in the room. Indeed, the length of the album is positively elephantine. At over two hours, Constellations is near impossible to follow all the way through in one sitting – yet it’s equally impossible to listen to its composing parts separately. And this comes from someone whose most listened to album is Alrakis’s Echoes from η Carinae. But there’s a clear difference here: Echoes is a single self-contained composition of approximately 50 minutes, with your typical basic structure of intro, climax, and outro. Constellations, on the other hand, is 14 compositions of constant climax, without much of a transition in-between. Now, it’s not unheard of to have such long albums in the realm of black metal. And indeed, Constellations is separated into three parts. But this barely makes a dent in its overall tediousness. By the time I got to the thirteenth Zi-Dynh-Gtir : Eon Devourer – my favourite – I was already too tired to follow what was happening. I ended up imagining I was listening to Circle of Ouroborus instead, and lo and behold, the overall listening experience improved tremendously.

But despite Esoctrilihum trying his very best to make me dislike this album, I ultimately didn’t. A feat indeed! I acknowledge that others might have a much higher opinion on it than I do, but I’m too deep into my own elitist tendencies to eschew my qualms with Esoctrilihum. That being said, Astraal Constellations Of The Majickal Zodiac is a great starting point.

(7/10 The Flâneur)

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