Ea II

I'm real ambivalent on this band; they generally avoid the worst funeral doom cliches, but at the same time they certainly aren't great songwriters. Generally, its adequately immersive if you're just lying in your room in a stupor, but seeing as pretty much all slow music fits well in that context that's neither a compliment nor an insult.

I think what works in Ea's favour is that they have a real maximalist approach. Even the new-agey synth section in the first "movement" is stuffed full of synth layers and samples, and when they're doing the trademark funeral doom crawl there's at least a bit going on asides from guitars playing one chord every bar and quarter time snare hits. Not that the extra layering is really used properly, mind; the piano being a good example. It gives things some nice sonic variation, but seeing as it doesn't really do anything piano-y (most of the parts on it could be easily played with a guitar) you've got to wonder why it's there. This layering could be described as pointless, as despite there being lots of it the songs aren't really helped because of it, but if you're feeling charitable you could probably say that the many layered morass is very "dreamy". Some parts of this are indeed rather relaxing.

Basically, this is polished aural furniture. I put it on at home whilst cooking, and none of the housemates commented beyond a "well this is pretty boring"; not the screaming "turn it off!" reaction you'd get it if you put on, say, Thergothon, or for that matter most other funeral doom bands. It sounds like a video game soundtrack slowed down a lot. Dungeon area! Town area! Plot point where there's a +5 sword and some mystical looking backdrops. Not meant to be listened to by itself. This could work, maybe, with a neat fantasy RPG, although it'd need a desert setting.

This isn't bad, but isn't good either. Elsewhere on MA there's been a philosophy espoused that a blank tape is worth 50%. This has a very similar end result, but seeing as I wasted a bit of my life as I could've been listening to something else, imma lower the score a little bit.

(originally written for www.heathenharvest.com)