To listen to a band like Eibon is to possess that hint of masochism, inherent in the DNA of fans of doom, sludge and the like, capable of turning suffering into pleasure. II is yet another tormented journey to an end that provides no acts of mercy or religious solace: to test their listeners’ pain threshold, the Parisians, while relatively shortening the overall duration, channel their extreme and feral mixture into just two tracks of about twenty minutes each. Georges’ voice, which well represents the mix of rage and despair of those who will never see the light at the end of the tunnel, appropriately leaves ample room for passages of corrosive ferocity alternating with slowdowns that make the atmosphere as rarefied and venomous as that of a planet devoid of oxygen. Excellent drum work on the part of Jérôme contributes to providing Eibon‘s sound with sufficient dynamism, evidenced more in the second track Elements Of Doom, which is decidedly more animated if one does not contemplate the final seven minutes of pure ambient, than in The Void Settlers, which, on the contrary, unfurls in the initial part with a sickening slowness to then launch into a much more rhythmic second half marked by a gloomy psychedelic mood. But, after all, this second long-distance effort by Eibon should only be listened to, words can only serve to provide a somewhat vague idea of its content: give this excellent transalpine band a chance.

2013 – Aesthetic Death 2014 – SYSR