Ea - Ea Taesse
Solitude Productions
Epic Atmospheric Funeral Doom
3 songs (54'24")
Release year: 2006
Solitude Productions
Reviewed by Adam
Surprise of the month
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.
Killing Songs :
This is, in reality, one long killing song
Adam quoted 86 / 100
Other albums by Ea that we have reviewed:
Ea - Au Ellai reviewed by Kyle and quoted 88 / 100
Ea - II reviewed by Adam and quoted 76 / 100
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