Coming out of nowhere earlier this year, Ea Taesse is a breathtaking album of impossibly slow and crushing heaviness that at first you can't help

but think of the classic funeral doom sounds of Skepticism, Shape Of Despair, and Evoken. Once you dig into the epic 55 minute track , divided into three

chapters, Ea displays an ethereal, transcendent beauty that is quite different from the aforementioned doomsters. There is virtually no information to be

found on the enigmatic Ea, no band website, no clues as to who plays in the band, or even where they are from. It's possible that the band is from the U.S.

and found their way onto the Russian doom metal label Solitude Productions, but not even that can be confirmed. All we know about Ea Taesse is from

the message printed in the album's booklet, describing the music as being "based on the sacral texts of ancient civilizations" and the lyrics as being

written in "texts...composed using the dead language". Your guess as to what they're talking about is as good as mine, but that doesn't detract at all from

the monolithic power of this music, a meeting of glacial doom metal and austere chamber music ambience, occasionally surging with monstrous gutteral roars

but for the most part rolling out as huge stretches of crushing slow motion riffage and billowing epic melodies with gorgeous angelic choir voices shining

through the fog. The music is as mysterious sounding as the band's image, the hypnotic, melodic riffs grinding away, spotted with tinkling piano melodies and

glockenspiel, eerie Hammer horror church organs, and the crushing detuned guitars giving way to atmospheric synth ambience and sparking electronic sounds

then being swallowed back up again. Immensely heavy and emotional, with soaring slo-mo melodies that feel closer in spirit to the triumphant crunch of Jesu

than the slashed-wrist gloom of funeral doom. Highly recommended.