''The Pernicious Enigma'' is the second studio album by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band

Esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

. It was released in 1997 through Aesthetic Death Records. ''The Pernicious Enigma'' comprises two discs with a total running time of an hour and 55 minutes. The album has received much praise since its release, and is seen as one of the band's best works. It has been cited to have helped influence the

funeral doom Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

and

death-doom Death-doom is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal. The genre emerged in the late-1980s and gained ...

genres. The album would later be remastered and released as a three-disc vinyl set in 2016, limited to only 600 copies. A CD edition based on this remaster was issued in 2018.

Production

The album was recorded at Rich Bitch Studios during the month of July 1996 and was mixed in October the same year, starting on the 9th and ending on the 15th. Mixing duties were held by the band itself, while the production and engineering featured the band being assisted by Steve Wilson. Anthony Brewer was hired as a session drummer to record on a few tracks on the album. The album was mastered at Strype Audio Studios,

Oslo, Norway Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of i ...

by Tom Kvalsvoll. The track "NOXBC9701040" was improvised in studio on 21 July 1996. For the remaster, the album was mixed and mastered by Greg Chandler in 2015. Kevin Metcalfe also helped cut the lacquer used for the record manufacturing for the album at Soundmasters,

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Track listing

Credits

;Original 1997 edition personnel * Bryan Beck –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, and

bass synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

* Gordon Bicknell –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

, effects,

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

* Greg Chandler –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, effects * Simon Phillips –

, effects, samples * Steve Peters –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, samples * Anthony Brewer – session

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

("Creation (Through Destruction)", "Dominion of Slaves", "Allegiance", "A Worthless Dream", and "Passing through Matter") * Steve Wilson - engineering, mixing * Tom Kvalsvoll - mastering ;Additional 2016 remaster personnel *Kevin Metcalfe - vinyl master cutting *Mauro Berchi - layout *Greg Chandler - mastering

References

External links

''The Pernicious Enigma''
on

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

''The Pernicious Enigma''
on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

1997 albums Esoteric (band) albums {{1990s-metal-album-stub