Eye Of Solitude - Slaves To Solitude

Share this on Facebook | Share this on Twitter

Daniel Neagoe is back with another immersion in the bleak and torturous world of confinement that his Doom metal inspiration has to offer. Being a PANTHEIST and SHAPE DESPAIR fan, I know what he's capable of. After releasing "Cenotaph" in 2016, and proud of releasing their sixth full length album, they are back and ready to spread the solitude and the despair that all great doom acts are well known for, especially them. They also did a split with Belgium's MARCHE FUNEBRE and toured with them in North America in early 2018.They shared the stage with OFFICIUM TRISTE and MY MOURNING BELOVETH. From EVOKEN or SHAPE OF DESPAIR to PANTHEIST, they prove their talent in manifesting all the right way. Daniel's voice is versatile and he's comfortable to do massive cavernous growls and morph himself into a melancholic clean singing provider, as easy as flipping a coin. This albums is about 52 minutes, consisting of five tracks at around ten minutes each. I love long pieces in that genre of metal, it helps create hollow environments and substance.

EYE OF SOLITUDE have mastered this art through the years."The Blind earth" starts it all with cold atmosphere, very dark piano, voices from the void and Neago's powerful growls. Bleak and desperate, the guitars are used wisely to provides intensity in ambiance and a little more rhythm to the song. There is no going back. "Still Descending" continues this pilgrim of desolation with Daniel filling the space with his powerful voice and backed up with guitars that transcend the emotion to our heart and leave us cold-hearted, lonely, and desperate, but with a kind of liberation from this all. The clean vocals are excellent, the back vocals too. Preparing the growling blast to curse us back again with even more efficiency.

In "Confinement" we can hear a narrative that is pretty much reminiscent of MY DYING BRIDE's "Like Gods of the Sun" era. Background chants can be heard that add to the bleak atmosphere. We are gaining more levels of grief and loneliness. This is very intense and powerful. We have an ESOTERIC (the band) vibe here. Very interesting song…I really like this one. The second part of more harsh and aggressive , drums are faster , growls are combined with a second growler which leaves a more profound mark in the song. "The Cold Grip of Time" is using piano to let us enter another piece of EYE OF SOLITUDE realm of madness and nostalgic sufferings. The guitars are well assembled with the piano, the vocals, and the frozen piece of time that expressed here. The piano also reminds me of latest SUMMONING album. Around six minutes in, we can hear another narrative passage explaining more of the protagonist's thoughts.

"Boundless Silence" the last track and not the least, using the same approach in similar ways for like the first half of the song but unleash a more "doom-death" faster delivery like their earlier stuff to come back to known territories and end it all like it should be, leaving us troubled from this journey into insanity, frozen landscapes of torment, inner-self angered depressive rage releasing, to the soothing peacefulness of the boundless silence…..

Songwriting: 9
Originality: 8
Memorability: 8
Production: 9