### Eye Of Solitude: Sui caedere

#### 23/08/12 || Averatu

I volunteered for this review of my own free will, I was not coherced by anyone that may or may not be taller that me. But only later, when it was all too late, did I realise what I had done. This is supposed to be funeral doom. I don’t like funeral doom. I like the concept of slow dark brooding music stewing for 10 minutes at a time, then moving on to the next 8-minute slab of melancholy, yet I find it always falls flat in execution. Even albums that are rated as classics on this very site bore me to tears, and then sleep, the restless sleep of boredom. When all the instruments play together at the same time, one note slowly following the next on every successive drum beat, with every beat grows my frustration as it seems so lazy, a band of five supposedly competent musicians, and all they can come up with is one note, after another note, dooooom.. doom.. doom… dooooom……..

First I have to mention this squawking crow intro, as stated here, I was compelled to walk out my front door into the forest and take a squat under a snow-covered tree. Here in Africa you can’t hope to see much snow even in the coldest winter (and irony strikes again as Johannesburg had its first snowfall in 30 years, just after I typed that, ffsakes), and the nearest forest is a days travel over the savannah, following your afternoon shadow as the crow flies. This intro did not carry on too long, so I shall overlook it just this once. Well, something interesting has happened here. I started listening to this album, and neither tears nor sleep followed. It is slow and dark and morbidly fascinated with its own solitude in the middle of London. The first track already steps out of the mould, its almost down tempo symphonic black-metal, and this theme makes a few welcome appearances throughout the album. The songs seem to follow a different doom formula, one where nothing is rushed and melodies and harmonies are allowed to develop, rather than just doing everything deliberately slow.

The infernalweb (I stole that from my ladylove) provided no mention of who performed the drums on this album, so I contacted the label for information, who promptly informed me the it would be Ewan Ross, who does not seem to be a member of the band, either that or I cant read. The drumming is a mentionable strength of this album which is not generally associated with the genre, keeping things alive, not allowing the momentum to succumb to inertia. I’m no tone chaser, but I liked the guitar tones and use of effects quite a lot, subtle and effective.

This is probably an atypical album of the genre, perfect for non funeral doom purists and aficionados, or people like myself who suffer from some type of disorder that makes paying attention to some boring crap for prolonged periods of time almost impossible.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Kaotoxin
- Website: Eye of Solitude MySpace
- Band
- Daniel Neagoe: vocals
- Indee Rehal-Sagoo: guitars
- Tristan Jefferies: guitars
- Ewan Ross: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Awoken by crows
- 02. The haunting
- 03. Strigoi
- 04. A note to say farewell
- 05. Depths of a sick mind
- 06. Those who don’t return
- 07. Performed in graphic pain
- 08. Totem of a pagan thought
- 09. Yet I breathe
- 10. Departure