Ea



2006 - Ea Taesse

Reviews:

My Last Chapter
(april 2008)
(8,5/10)

One 55 minute long song divided into three parts, by a band with origins and members unknown (although I’ve read they’re American, but I can’t be 100% sure), that is said to utilize dead languages of ancient civilizations. That sounds mysterious enough to be intriguing, but unfortunately no information’s provided as to what civilizations nor languages are supposedly used. So it doesn’t deliver on the high expectations born by this utilization. Music wise it does however definitely deliver the goods. A sort of drone-like funeral doom metal, reminding me quite a lot of Shape of Despair, but with a much higher drone aspect, and also with moments of ambience. These songs (and I say songs, not song) seems to be built around a repetitive notion, where elements are constantly added until it reaches a sort of crescendo, which slowly fades out into the next track. ‘Cause there is no real crescendo, just built up atmosphere that seems to wanna explode, but instead does the opposite and is inhaled again. The elements that are added can be anything from piano and keyboard to some form of tinkling that I can’t identify, but that gets me thinking of 80ies slasher and horror flicks. The riffing is slow and heavy, letting the drumwork take its full effect, where the deep growls are only sparsely used. It results in a quite bombastic album, that I have problems to resist. But as a listener you can’t be afraid of drone-like repetition, as you’ll probably just get bored instead.


Reviewed by: Unknown

Metal Reviews
(march 2008)
(8/100)

As is customary for the first review of a new band, you would generally find that the first paragraph is used by most reviewers to give a little background on the band, and I am no different in this regard. Unfortunately, in this case, I won't be able to give you much information. This is because there is very little known about the mysterious band Ea, and by very little, I mean jack shit. Ea is by far the most vague band I've ever come across, surpassing the likes of Deathspell Omega and Orthodox. I can't tell you their names, what country they hail from, how many members comprise the band, or even what subjects they focus on with their lyrical content. I have read rumors that the band hail from the US, but none of these are substantiated in any way. All I can tell you is that every aspect of the band and their debut album, Ea Taesse, is based on sacral texts of a dead language recovered during an archaeological study. I have no idea who performed the study, or where and when the ancient texts were found.

Now that I've told you what I don't know, we can focus on what I do know, the music. Ea play a very atmospheric and emotional brand of funeral doom, similar to Shape of Despair or Skepticism. Ea Taesse is listed as containing three tracks, though I have no idea what the purpose was in that decision, as it feels and sounds like one big 54-minute epic song. Seriously, if you didn't have a CD player to refer to while listening, you would have no idea when one "track" changes to another. In addition, trying to listen to the tracks out of order defeats the purpose of the album. I treat Ea Taesse as one song, as any listener should. I consider the song titles, Laeleia, Mea Ta Souluola and Ea Taesse, to be movements or acts in the overall presentation.

This album is absolutely oozing with atmosphere and emotion. The guitars have the perfect tone and heavy sound for the situation, and the drums are generally very well done. Towards the earlier stages, I was a little underwhelmed with the drumming as it seemed a little too safe for my taste, but the fills become gradually more complex and intriguing as the album unfolds. The vocals are sparse at best, ranging from a deep growl to harmonized chanting. Furthering the atmosphere, ambient effects are all over the place. Sounds of winds on a desolate mountain, piano, and xylophonic ringing can be found, to name a few. Great effort is also made to ensure that the listener's focus is kept throughout the 54+ minute runtime, as Ea switch from soaring, borderline uplifiting moments to dark, horrific feeling portions to clean guitar and piano passages nearly effortlessly. Each style gleans a distinct, yet entirely different emotion from the other, resulting in Ea Taesse resembling an epic journey. There are a few times when I lost focus on the music and drifted off, but these were very minimal, which is impressive considering the style and length of the album.

Perhaps the band and their label, Solitude Productions, have gone to great lengths to keep Ea shrouded in mystery to add to the atmosphere of Ea Taesse, but we will probably never know. What I can say with great certainty is that this band has crafted one of the freshest takes on funeral doom I have heard in recent years, tapping from all the various emotions the genre can impart.


Reviewed by: Zadok

Maelstrom ISSUE 56
(8,5/10)

It’s one of the great mysteries how some bands seem to come into existence fully formed, either through divine or infernal interference, springing to life, a graceful and predatory animal so self assured in its abilities that self-doubt is a completely alien concept. In this respect, Ea’s debut, Ea Taesse, is one mighty behemoth in a world populated by lesser beings and woe to anyone who questions otherwise.

Ea Taesse is funereal doom of the highest order; no debates, questions, ands, ifs, buts, or hold-on-a-secs. They haven’t reinvented this (miserable) wheel, but they’ve stolen the blueprints drafted by the likes of Skepticism, Shape of Despair and Evoken, memorized all the best bits front to back, upside-down and sideways and trimmed off all the extraneous fat. Nothing shabby in that achievement, but Ea distinguish themselves further by bringing black metal sensibilities to the table. Ea Taesse is basically a symphonic black metal album on downers, like Anorexia Nervosa or Dimmu Borgir played at half or quarter speed yet retaining all the dynamics and sonic clarity.

Composed of one fifty-four minute track divided into three parts, the album serves as a soundtrack for all things mournfully grim and dismal (or "grismal," as I’ve heard a purported wise man utter from time to time). It’s a sodden march through foggy moors dotted with ephemeral beings, traipses through crumbling mansions filled with restless ghosts, tours of dusty and abandoned churches that deities have long ago forsaken, processionals through rain-swept graveyards, or meanderings through the catacombs of your own despondency.

The riffs plod along with no intent other than forward motion; no build or release. They take on a drone-like quality, hypnotic and eternal, without beginning or end. The vocals add the appropriate degree of world weariness, a raspy bellow that elicits enough energy to push out a few phrases from time to time before retreating to gather strength until called upon later.

Bleak stuff, to be sure. But what keeps the album from miring itself in wrist-slashing territory is its austere and pervasive beauty. The keyboards — minor key swells, haunted house plinkings, single note dirges, melodic progressions — have as much to do with this as the female vocals that weigh in at various intervals and are, by turn, concrete and ethereal, verging on the operatic or chorused as to resemble a plague of angels. Ultimately, though, it’s the underlying promise that there’s light shining underneath the layers of darkness and rather than succumbing to the lure of the abyss, one can celebrate and revel in the precarious dance along its edge.

Reviewed by: Joshua

The Streets - Metlal Webzine
(may 2007)
(8/10)

The only thing you get to know from the booklet is that this record is based on the sacred text of ancient civilazations and that their texts were composed by using this dead language. “Ea Taesse” starts off with a-choirs and church bells, and immediately you know that you have brought yourself to an end. You want to leave this earthly shell behind, because everything has lost its meaning to you. Every memory is now bleak and there’s only darkness surrounding you, but wait! There are a few glimpses of light, courtesy of piano themes that occur in between all the miserable existence. And when the aching is so painful that it tears a hole in you and ravage savagely on your soul, there’s the sound of a fragile glockenspiel making it easier to accept you fate. Each time I play this record there’s something inside that withers away, and a part of me wants to surrender completely to the void. And isn’t that the effect funeral doom is supposed to have on you?

Reviewed by: Rune

Live 4 Metal
(may 2007)

If you'd like a little background info on Ea, then I'm sorry, there isn't any. The label aren't forthcoming with any details, deciding to add a little mystery to the band and a quick search on Google only showed up that they might be from the US. But who cares, because if it's released on Russia's Solitude Productions, you know it's going to be good and of course Doom laden.
With one song broken down into three parts and with a running time of just under 55 minutes, this could only be Doom, yet I'd say this album was still pretty original. Yes the pace is slow, in fact I'd say it's comatose and there are the occasional gutteral vocals to drag everything down a little further, but there's a wonderful ambience shrouding the whole affair that just gives the album a certain touch of class that's absolutely fucking glorious. I think the ambient parts are created by vocals, these days it's hard to tell if they've been sampled onto a keyboard/computer, but either way it reminds me of John Foxx's ambient work (which is something I've remarked on at least a couple of times recently) And it's the whole ambient slant that makes this album a winner for me. You can either drift off to the atmospheric wonder of it all, or if you are driving in your car, you can think your car if breaking down because of the huge undercurrent caused by the monolithic bass. We had to turn this off as it was causing us to panic, which ain't good when you are hurtling down the motorway. So don't play this in your car, you have been warned.
This album is a little different than your average slice of misery, mainly due to the minimalist approach, so listen to it with an open mind. For me it could quite possibly be one of my albums of the year.

Reviewed by: Steve Green

Tartarean Desire
(may 2007)
(9/10)

Thus the mythic goddess Ea chose this band to carry the flag of her arcane name. Her majestic presence, her unfathomable chasm-like power, her legacy taken by mortal sonic devices. So it shall be written. So it shall be played... I thought for a moment Ea came from an exotic country like Estonia, according to the strange tongue utilised in the songtitles. The ultra-minimalistic booklet revealed it was a “dead language according to archaelogical researches results” what they used to compose the texts. Pretty eerie... Anyway, according to (un)reliable sources, the US seem to be the origin of this occult band... Start. An opening consisting of a weird mixture between funeral doom and chamber music ushers my weary ears. From the very start we see something unique looming behind these notes. The listener can easily fall in the abysmal textures, a continuous descent to the deepest emotions, a monument to bleakness is erected with “Ea Taesse”. The relative clean lines are a distinctive trait of Ea comparing their sound to other artists of the same league. Not only loose piano raids diminish the harshness; the general focus of guitars are the emotional kind; lengthy lead lines conform the guide of this melodic journey as the distortion drives the rhythm. The drumming is not scarce in beats and endeavors to escape from monotony, succesfully in my opinion, through a nice set of fills, double bass drums finesses, untypical cymbal hits and so on. The balance in the presence of guitars and keys to conduct the body of the sound is excellent. The range of synths is manifold: chimes, organ, “ooooohs” choirs... thanks to all these gimmicks, the whole album depicts a varied palette of textures, always floating in the spectral range of ambient-emotional-funeral doom. Far away from desperation or suicidal feelings, these tracks suggest most of the time solemn and evocative sentiments. Bombastic and grandiose, “Ea Taesse” is rather akin to an awakening than a nightmare. Looking for a possible reference when analysing the band?s sound, I hardly find a name or two. Yes, those drums are like Skepticism, that guitar line reminds me some Esoteric... However, some traits here and there, and the most important thing, the whole transcedental meaning of this album, quickly diminish the possible similarities between acts. Ea are endowed with a personality, hard to believe in a band nowadays, fortunately for us all and for music. Awesome.

Reviewed by: Fjordi