More mystery and intrigue from Ea a band who are rumoured to be from Russia but this could just be due to the fact they are on Russian label Solitude Productions. Little is known about them apart from the fact they have left three previous albums in their wake prior to this. The last of which Au Elli, impressed me a fair bit on review in 2010. Having already released an album Ea II they have forgone all chronology and are now bringing out Ea and even more obtusely this is a one track, self titled album weighing in at a whopping 47 and a half minutes.
The charcoal cover is bleak enough and the music within is at times torturous and difficult to all but those who dwell in utmost darkness. Some light and airy keyboard work leads into a ponderous and sluggish melody which literally sucks all remaining light out of your soul. This is funeral doom, either you are going to appreciate this for what it is or just avoid it, it is not for you and it is no quick easy to grasp listen. You can easily mention others within the genre such as Thergothon, Skepticism and even Esoteric but nothing will particularly prepare you for this. Guitar sound is very much at the front and meandering along in no hurry whilst vocals are almost incidental, at times they growl in the background and at others they are only noticeable after a long period of instrumentation, when they suddenly come back in. There is a fair bit of melody riding over the thick and treacle like sluggishness of the bass sound and it unravels with precise definition.
Changes do occur although this flows as one and it works well in this way as a singular track. There is a passage of organ work lifting this to grandiosity and it is not all doom and gloom, there are times, that like the eventual light of a new day filtering through we are offered a glimmer hope. Choral strains in the background are one such example of this, angelic relief in the domain of pitch blackness. On repeated listens you will possibly find yourself looking out for certain nuances within the general sound, some pizzicato strums quirkily uplifting the mood or some more low growls rendered apparently in a dead language recreated especially according to the results of archaeological study.
It is almost a relief when at just over the half way mark things are defined more clearly and the music goes into sedentary trot and the vocals rise in a harsh and gravid (albeit it still in the background) fashion. You may not be banging your head in time to this but hopefully it will have reminded you to breathe. Surprise at the addition of lilting female vocals is the next thing to be embraced.
Your ability to cope with despair is probably going to reflect on how much you enjoy (for want of a better word) this. What is torture to some is delirium to others so it is a case of endure or avoid. Even when you think the track has finally finished it is one of a couple of false promises as this takes an age to die and even if its death throws are not climatic you are fully aware of its passing as silence is once again installed.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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