Band:	Eye Of Solitude
Album:	Sui Caedere
Style:	Death doom metal, Funeral doom metal
Release date:	June 2012

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

As I've probably gone over in countless reviews before, there's some genres that are typically just a little more difficult to get into. Funeral doom, for one. Yet, there are certain bands which seem to defy laws of accessibility while still keeping the integrity of the music they play in tact. In the case of funeral doom, Ahab is probably the most well-known example, now we can add Eye Of Solitude to that list.

When dealing with genres that put a not inconsiderable amount of emphasis on ambiance, it's really not uncommon to sift through dozens upon dozens of horribly contrived crap. Pointless creations born of pretentiousness it seems a lot of them are. In fact, it really seems playing "subtle", ambient, down-tempo music has become an acceptable cover-up for lack of talent amongst aspiring musicians. Now an album like Sui Caedere comes out, and those lazy asswipes who compensate lack of songwriting ability with faux-musical intellectualism just got their dicks shrunk. Significantly.

The layout is fairly simple; some crunchy death metal overtones played at glacial speed with a layer of symphonic keys underneath, with the main attraction - that being dark, sorrowful melodic guitar leads - riding along on top. It's simple, and from the description probably sounds pretty familiar, and it really is, it's just executed in a very impressive manner. Sui Caedere is as heavy as it is menacingly haunting, and instantly memorable as it is subtly detailed.

The sound - the production - is a bit too in-your-face at times. While certainly not atrocious production by any measure, and definitely not something that's noticeable upon first listen, but Eye Of Solitude would have been smart to try and add a little more depth here; you know, spacing the various layers a little further apart to give it more of that cavernous feel. It sounds incredibly petty to have that as the main complaint, but hearing an album as solid as Sui Caedere, you can't help but start imagining ways it could be just that much better.

In short, Eye Of Solitude are 100% great songwriting, riffs and ambiance with none of the snobbery.