Band – Ennui
Album – End of the Circle
Country of Origin – Georgia
Genre – Funeral Doom/Death
Release Date – September 5, 2018
Label – Non Serviam Records
Author – Hayduke X
The image of a glacier slowly encroaching upon the earth is an overused metaphor for this style of slow, exceptionally heavy music, though perhaps an apt one here. A better metaphor, however, may be the image of Atlas, slowly weakening, slowly collapsing under the weight of the world upon his shoulders. The immensity of what the duo from Tbilisi present here on End of the Circle is cosmic in size, crushing in delivery. I find it difficult to focus enough to type this review, for Ennui appear to attenuated raw human emotion to its highest level, and diffused it through their exceptional album. It is rare that a nearly 34 minute long song would be able to hold my attention (I mean, The Ramones were a seminal band in the development of my musical tastes), but opening (and title) track does so with ease. More precisely, it captures my attention in the vice of its exceptionalism.
The only thing I know about the heavy music scene in Georgia is that it contains a monumental project named Ennui. Formed in 2012 by David Unsaved (guitar, keyboard, vocals), the duo also features Serj Sengelia (guitar, keyboard). End of the Circle is the fourth full length for the band, in addition to two 2014 splits. They have also been frequent headliners of the Shadow Doom Fest in Russia, giving the duo plenty of experience to draw upon. Said experience shows to great effect in the remarkable composition of the three tracks found herein, which total roughly 75 minutes of music. Every second of the album is spent drawing you in and wringing you emotionally spent.
As has been well documented by my choice of albums to review, I primarily focus on more upbeat, yet extreme styles. Black metal and a faster paced death metal are my forte and generally more to my taste. For End of the Circle to grab me so completely and bend my thought to its will so completely, is a statement of exceptionalism. Regardless of your preferred genre, this album is worthy of your time.
Recommendation – Top tier funeral death/doom. Scratch that. Top tier music.
Rating – 5/5
Biography: Hayduke X has been writing for MoshPitNation since June of 2016. Prior to joining the MoshPitNation team, Hayduke published reviews on his own blog Rage and Frustration. In addition, he has DJ’ed an online metal radio show of the same name as his blog, written for TOmetal.com, done interviews for Metal Rules, and collaborated with The Art of B Productions to create video interviews with a wide variety of bands.
