Eye Of Solitude - Cenotaph - review
Eye Of Solitude - Cenotaph - review
Tracklist
01. Cenotaph02. A Somber Guest
03. This Goodbye. The Goodbye
04. Loss
A review by
ScreamingSteelUS January 13, 2017
Comprising only four songs between 10 and 16 minutes in length, Cenotaph is fairly lean for an Eye Of Solitude album, but it is no less intense than what the band has been known to deliver in the past. There are very few bands in this world that can so perfectly capture the pure, unfiltered sound of utter, abject despair as Eye Of Solitude. How does Eye Of Solitude achieve such a level of emotional energy? The songs move at an agonizing pace, taking evident pains to wring lasting echoes out of every last note. Each movement strains the musicians, accentuating the crushing heaviness with the groans of some ancient, unfathomable misery.
Occasionally, the songs escape the cruel taskmaster of percussion, which forces the band to trudge forward wearily. "A Somber Guest" opens with a quiet, but by no means calm, mixture of guitar leads and ambient keyboards; inevitably, however, it crescendos into a volcanic mass of sounds that fills the air and still leaves the listener hollow. Cenotaph has an impeccably constructed atmosphere that overflows with depression. Sparse melodies take dark turns at every opportunity, on those rare occasions when the songs break free of endless cycles of drudgery and actually bother with whims like melodies. The enormous void of Cenotaph threatens to engulf the listener. Musically, the album is very simplistic, utilizing only a bare minimum of sonic interference most of the time, but the sheer voluminous presence of the band creates enormous weight behind every touch of sound.
"This Goodbye, The Goodbye" is easily one of the best songs Eye Of Solitude has ever produced. The piano interlude in the middle practically induces the song itself to shed tears, and Daniel Neagoe's wails of grief pierce all barriers of the heart with their tones of pure grief and anguish. Neagoe's deep, wrenching gutturals typically sound more like the howling wind than a human singing. Protracted screams tear from his throat and slowly fade into the fabric of purgatorial doom, leaving scars and blisters wherever they appear. His clean vocals, too, sound more like mournful chants or a man reading his own suicide note than someone singing a song. There is no space for normal conventions of music here. This is funeral doom: ugly, inexorable, creeping, terrifying, awe-inspiring, monumental, unending funeral doom. The wretched funeralia with which Cenotaph opens could soundtrack the first cold sunrise on a field of slaughter or a landscape wracked by famine and pestilence. It takes only a moment to recognize the genius of Cenotaph, but to experience it takes an eternity; this album will not soon leave your memory.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 13.01.2017 by
Written on 13.01.2017 by
Dull Music for Dull People Comments
Comments:
6
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Posts: 9593
A new Clouds and a new Eye Of Solitude in the same year is a blessing
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| LuciferOfGayness
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LuciferOfGayness
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I am not particualy miserable but I like this album  Great review as always and when it comes with a good album it makes things even better. This or Funeral Moth for best funeral doom 2016 for me.
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 Posts: 64328 |
Posts: 64328 Written by RaduP on 13.01.2017 at 13:33 You cant compare those 2 bands musically
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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Posts: 7892 Written by Bad English on 03.05.2017 at 00:55 He's mentioning those two bands with no comparison at all. Even if they put in the same bracket, I still don't see any harm here.
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Posts: 40071 Written by Bad English on 03.05.2017 at 00:55 you actually can because Daniel is the mastermind og both bands
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Posts: 64328 |
Posts: 64328
Clouds are softer , this is more slower funeral doom when it goes to extreme side, more Ahab as When Nothing Remains or Elysian Blaze
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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