Ea - A Etilla (CD)

Review
Chronicles of Chaos
5.5/10
12.08.2014

After trudging the mire for nine years now as the entity that goes by the name Ea, recording four studio albums prior to the current _A Etilla_, this mysterious American band still haven't cracked the code for delivering good funeral doom. I must disclose the fact that I am familiar with only the band's previous, self-titled recording _Ea_; however, from the bits and pieces of information gathered regarding this band's activity in the field of music, an educated guess would have to be they have learned nothing -- or if they have learned something, it is how to ruin perfectly potent, promising and intriguing song prologues that could have developed into something truly grand -- and instead, allowing the inevitable, uninspired funeral doom clichés to reign supreme, time and again.
_A Etilla_ has nothing new to say; not as an aesthetic statement in general, nor as an evolutionary step compared to the previous album, however minor. This band makes one feel suspicious in regards to whether or not the only excuse for its existence is the gimmickry: using an alleged ancient text from a dead language, not disclosing the lyrics (obviously), keeping the band member(s) unknown. The only technical information one can derive is that the band hail from the United States; that they have been active under this moniker since 2005 and that they are signed to the Russian label Solitude Productions, who's been endorsing them since the beginning.

And still, Ea is rather a big name in the doom circles; a highly respectable band. The question is why? Not because of the band's musical merits, I can tell you that much. Is imagery (or non-imagery in this case, which is also sort of a gimmick) such a strong notion it can overshadow the better judgment of the listeners regarding the quality of the music? In one word: yes. In more than one word: look at the power of imagery / gimmickry (coupled with Internet hype) in relation to the Australian band Portal, for instance, and how much this band is being praised despite their utter lack of talent. It's like the Emperor's new clothes fable: we are being convinced there's something so unique and elated going on in there, that is completely beyond our grasp, and it is our feeble mind that cannot understand the genius behind their "music". But hey, Portal force-feed us with their unearthly image; they wear bizarre costumes on their shows (strange robes and pointed hats), and they remain anonymous (how cool!), and they are into Lovecraft and shit, and the cover art of their albums is so wretched and mysterious. So the music -must- be good, right?! Right...

Remove the image, forget abut the gimmicks Ea use, pull down the shroud of mystery, and all you are left with is an album that's nothing but a pale, unattractive, dull and tiring funeral doom of the lower kind, that drags on and on for 50 minutes with absolutely nothing that's going on in there to call this album worthy. You can't even skip a track, as there's only that one, single, almost-fifty minutes track, forcing you to sit through the whole recording and wait until something interesting happens.

If you had known better, you would have come to realize the wait was over after the opening five minutes of the album. It's uncanny how such a grand and utterly beautiful album opening dwindled into these watered-down remaining 45 minutes. I'm almost tempted to say the album is worth keeping in one's collection just based on those first, purely magical five minutes. Almost.

The album starts off with a sample of water ebbing and some monk-like charming, high-pitched religious chants, coalescing a heartbeat later with a distorted electric guitar playing some beautiful riffs comprised of few, simple, sustained chords, and very basic keyboard tunes that wrap everything in this velvety, dreamy darkness. The outcome is mesmerizing, perplexing and infinitely beautiful.

From there the music deteriorates fast into being one big lump of cliché, and the downfall from that radiating crest Ea have established during those mere first few minutes of the album is painful and virtually heartbreaking.

If you happen to like your doom metal mysterious and extremely melodic, and you're a fan of a heavy usage of keyboards -- go and listen to the new The Howling Void album, for instance. If you like your funeral doom shallow and pedestrian, check out _A Etilla_, by all means; or the band's previous work, _Ea_, which is basically the same.

_A Etilla_ is melodic funeral doom by numbers, almost. Taken straight out of the manual, this album is an aural sketch painted by numbers. If Ea had only kept up with the magnificent album introduction, we would have had an entirely different conversation here.

Author: Chaim Drishner

Review
Miasma
8/10
30.04.2014

A Etilla on venäläisen funeral doom yhtyeen viides täyspitkä julkaisu. Yhtye pitää pientä salaperäisyyden verhoa yllä, sillä kokoonpanon jäsenistä ja heidän identiteeteistä ei olla kerrottu mitään tietoa julkisuuteen, vaikka yhtyeen ura on jo kestänyt lähemmäs kymmenen vuotta. Ean konsepti tuntuu muutenkin ihan mielenkiintoiselta; tekstien pohjana on käytetty vanhan kuolleen kielen pyhiä tekstejä. Tietysti tällaisessa tapauksessa niiden sisällöstä on myöskin hieman hankala sanoa yhtään mitään.

Hautajaismusiikiksi Ea ei ole kuitenkaan koko ajan mitään laahaavan raskasta tai mustaa, likaista ryömintää, vaan kappaleesta löytyy mukavasti ilmaa ja se on välillä hyvinkin eteerisen oloinen. Vokaalit ovat raa’asti ärjytty, mutta välisoittojen aikana käytetään välillä myös kuoromaista hyräilyä mikä toimii hyvin ja tuo kaivattua tasapainoa raskauteen. Kappaleessa on vaihtelua tarpeeksi ja instrumentit on miksattu kuulostamaan hyvältä.

Musiikkiin on myöskin vangittu kiitettävästi pieni itämaisen mystiikan tunnelma ja se on ehkä se pääasiallinen syy kuinka Ea saa lähemmäs viisikymmentä minuuttisen kappaleen kuulostamaan mielenkiintoiselta ilman, että siihen turtuu.

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A Etila is the fifth full-length studio album by the Russian band Ea. The band and it’s members have veiled themselves in the shroud of secrecy, because there is no publicly released information available about the individuals behind the band or what they do, even though the band has been up for nearly ten years already. Anyway, the concept of Ea seems pretty interesting; the basis on the lyrics are the sacred texts of some archaic and dead language. Of course, in cases like these it’s pretty hard for me to say anything else about the lyrical content.

For a funeral music Ea is not the most dragging one there is, they neither represent the black and dirty kind of crawling either, but instead they have pretty much air in their song and from time to time it feels very etherical. The vocals are growled quite harshly and raw, but in the interludes there are used for example some choruses and all, which really works well and brings needed balance to all heaviness. The song has enough variation in my opinion and all the instruments are mixed to sound really good.

The music also captures pretty well that small eastern mystical vibe, and maybe that is the reason how the band achieves to play a full song that last for almost fifty minutes and make it sound interesting, without making it boring at all.

Author: Aleksi Vaittinen

Review
Darkview
8/10
03.04.2014

Ea is zo’n beetje de Russische tegenhanger van het Franse Monolithe.

Wederom hebben ze een plaat gemaakt die slechts uit één nummer bestaat dat breed uitgesmeerd wordt over 52 minuten. Waar hun Hexagonale stijlgenoten hun inspiratie uit de kosmos halen zoekt deze in mist gehulde band haar heil bij lang vervlogen beschavingen..Sinds hun tweede album banen ze stoutmoedig hun eigen pad, los van de traditionele Finse school van Skepticism, Shape of Despair en Tyranny met ‘A Etilla’ al hun vijfde plaat ondertussen. De megalithische funeraldoom is in wezen hetzelfde gebleven maar mondjesmaat zijn er aan de monochromatioche synths en de ondoordringbare gitaarmuur gaandeweg andere elementen toegevoegd zoals heldere, klassieke gitaarleads en nu koorzang, iets waar Monolithe op ‘IV’ ook net mee aan het experimenteren is. Een band die zich op haar eigen wijze toch weet te ontwikkelen in een vrij strak gedefinieerd genre.

Author: Samoht

Review
Ave Noctum
7.5/10
26.03.2014

It’s never easy to remain completely anonymous in the Internet age and as many will agree a lot of the mystique has disappeared with bands eventually finding themselves unmasked. We are naturally not talking about the big arena playing group’s whose name I won’t sully this serious band’s art with in the same review but even those lurking in the underground eventually get rumbled. Ea are a good example of one band who probably never will be. Now reaching their fifth release they are still shrouded in complete mystery and not even country of origin is known for sure. Some think Russia no doubt due to location of their label who have housed them since that first album, others America but hopefully nothing more will ever be revealed. I have enjoyed the group’s (if it is a group and not just one person which it theoretically could be) work for some time. Their music always seems to take me on a journey and without wanting to sound clichéd one through time itself as listening to it feels like civilisations are coming and going in its wake. As with last self-titled album ‘Ea’ we are taken on one long completely immersive journey spanning 49 minutes of music. Before playing it is essential to shut out the outside world and give it your complete attention.

A rumbling sound and splash of waves takes into dark waters and choral chanting devotionally ebbs in. Are we in some Lovecraftian void? What is being worshipped? The touch of Dagon perhaps? But there are no answers forthcoming, certainly not from the monochromatic shades of the album booklet although it does look like it is illustrating stones under water. It is basically left to you the listener to do your own homework and unlock your own imagination here. That is what to me makes this all so compelling. The music expands naturally as guitar chords and slow drumming join and eventually a mournful solo wraps itself around and the pace picks up. There are low growling vocals, you won’t make out what is being said; that is further mystery for you to ponder. The rigorous riffs have attention and the bass definition is well pronounced. Although essentially if this has to be categorised it would probably be labelled as funeral doom it has reached slow doom death territory here. You can name all the likely names if you want to and looking back I did last time I reviewed Ea but it is kind of superfluous doing so and unnecessary and just lead you into wondering if the band are members of any of them.

It is music that is heavily ritualistic and it gives the feeling if it were ever played live a church, possibly a deconsecrated one would be the perfect setting, not that this is ever going to happen. It’s not long before the music builds to a peak becoming really strident with guitar riffs at a frenzy that you could easily head bang to. This is not a piece of music that is going to take the entire length of to hit the fastest point but one that will play with moods of pace like it does with your very emotions when digesting it all. It’s a brief flurry but one that’s welcome and breathes life into things making it more than one dimensional. Having played this at length quite a few times the good thing about ‘A Etilla’ is not once have I found myself in the slightest bit bored, which can be an all too easy trap to fall into as far as playing a style like this over such a long track. The choral parts are left as the only loud harmonious part at one point and they suddenly drop completely out leaving you realising just how loud they were when you are left with just a lone maudlin strum in their place. There are many shades of light and dark here, the uplifting choral surge being the former and this the latter. Rugged and weathered vocals suddenly snap out of the melancholia and essentially we are still not even at the half way mark, there is plenty more to be unveiled within the depths of the piece. I don’t at all feel like I am copping out by leaving further descriptions and the review at this point, you should by now have got a very good taste of what to expect here and no doubt formulated whether this is a journey you would be willing to partake in yourself. Besides it would be completely wrong to ruin all sense of mystery behind such mysterious work now wouldn’t it? Enter this enthralling world at the link below.

Author: Pete Woods

Review
MSATC Zine
8.5/10

El año empezaba fuerte para los amantes de los ritmos más agónicos con el lanzamiento del quinto trabajo de la misteriosa formación Ea, que sigue guardando celosamente la identidad de sus componentes. Este proyecto ruso, que lleva casi una década sorprendiendo por su impronta personal, ostenta un nivel creativo muy superior a la media y una fascinante habilidad para envolvernos en atmósferas irreales propias de otros mundos.

Sin alardes ultra-ortodoxos (no son ni los más lentos, ni los más guturales de su género) Ea vuelven a crear un lúgubre espacio propicio para la introspección, con un sonido denso y profundo que penetra hasta el tuétano pero a la vez, nítido y muy fluido. Quizás en este sentido, se muestran algo más accesibles que en sus anteriores discos. Esto no evitará que los que amamos sus predecesores nos sintamos automáticamente atraídos por el abstracto universo mitológico de este nuevo CD.

Empeñados en cruzar los límites espacio-temporales del estilo, Ea han concebido un lugar donde convergen dinámicas oscilantes que van desde el fino trazo de cromatismos sutiles a los machacones ritmos de bombo, manteniendo siempre una gran cohesión (utilizando mismos nexos y marcadores instrumentales así como repeticiones a modo de leitmotiv que mencionaré más adelante) y coherencia compositiva.

“A Etilla” se compone de piezas que recuerdan a los insistentes riffs melódicos de Katatonia, mientras que en otras, su majestuoso sinfonismo coral nos trae efluvios de Shape Of Despair o Colosseum. Interludios acústicos y un ligero aporte progresivo, despliegan robustas estructuras y líneas harmónicas más complejas que también incluyen solos melódicos, sostenidas por un omnipresente sintetizador. Así como una voz con la guturalidad del death entre el lamento y el susurro. Todo bien trenzado y hecho con un gusto exquisito. Por este motivo, pienso que puede gustar a seguidores de estilos muy diversos, con preferencia por los ambientes calmados y la belleza de los paisajes abisales.

Un paso más allá respecto su trilogía inicial y siguiendo en el marco arquitectónico de su anterior “Ea” (Solitude Productions, 2012) los rusos despachan un único e hipnótico corte de cincuenta minutos. Como lograr no caer agotados sin una sola pausa en el camino? Simplemente no la echareis en falta. El despliegue de su técnica mosaicistica, los cambios de tempo solapados (algo en que pocas bandas salen airosas), la cálida melancolía de sus brillantes tonos que nos abrazan desde otros tiempos o la mística arcaica de sus oscuros fonemas, serán elementos que os subyuguen hasta tal punto que os olvidareis de todo cuanto os rodea.

Ea sondean las profundidades de la memoria colectiva humana, con una poderosa carga épica y emocional similar a la intensidad que los franceses Monolithe o sus compatriotas Comatose Vigil (también en su mismo sello) imprimen a sus obras.

Dentro de su circularidad, en “A Etilla” percibimos algunos motivos que se repiten: los cantos gregorianos, la estrofa principal sobre unos ceremoniosos acordes, y que nos sirven como referencia para no perdernos dentro de este jardín laberíntico.

“A Etilla” consigue el equilibrio entre oscuridad melódica y eufonía ambiental. Un fascinante viaje al pasado donde se mezclan desde cantos medievales hasta melodías orientales provenientes de la antigua Babilonia, evocando el espacio baldío entre nuestras civilizaciones. En este aspecto estamos más acostumbrados a que grupos death jueguen con escalas exóticas, sin reparar en que muchas otras bandas doom como Fallen u otras más actuales por ejemplo Arcana Coelestia o Aabsynthum también recurren a este tipo de sonidos y bases orquestales.

Como único aspecto a mejorar, el sonido de la percusión. Los graves se salvan, pero los agudos suenan apagados, sin brillo. Como suele decirse en estos casos, es cuestión de gustos, pero siempre es preferible aproximarse a un sonido más natural y notar como las ondas de los platos se esparcen uniformemente dentro de nuestro cráneo.

Uno de los discos más recomendables de la formación desde aquel sorprendente debut “Ea Taesse” en 2006. Esperemos que sigan componiendo a este nivel, si sentir la necesidad de mudarse de una escena, tan ignorada por muchos como amada por unos pocos.