Hi everyone, welcome to a new review. Today's offering is one which I’ve actually been looking forward to since pretty much the very end of 2023.

Today we will be covering the new release from one of my favourite solo BM/doom projects ever, Exitium Sui, with his new album titled “Unravelling”.

There are 7 tracks on this album which span from 2:32 (the shortest track) to 10:53.

Whilst this review won't be going over every single point from the album, I will however point out some of my top moments and a few other parts which truly stood out to me.

After listening to the album in full, my impressions are as follows.

The general atmosphere/portrayal of the music hasn't changed from the previous album, which is great as a fan of this project. The atmosphere is still seriously deep and whilst lots of Blackened Doom gets repetitive, I feel this album does the very opposite of that, keeping things fresh with different layers and other effects.

Draped In Black Flame was a personal favourite track of mine. The opening moments with that really cool dark and oppressive riff set the tone immediately: extremely bleak, spacious, meditative, and despairing. I feel like the slow but loudly executed drums found in this song really bring out the character, making the vocals of “singer’s name?” stand out even more through all that is going on.

I’ve also always loved how bittersweet the piano passages sound in the music of Exitium Sui, and a perfect example of this can be found in the opening moments of Track 3: Drowning Viracocha, which is a perfect example of why I think these passages sound so good, especially when they are played as a solo piece then transition into a song so easily and smoothly. I feel this is a thing that Exitium Sui has always done super well and is able to make so much mood and emotion when doing so.

Another part of this song that I enjoyed was the fact that when the “main track” subsides around the 2:30-ish mark, you are left with an interesting “transmission sounding segment” with talking-styled vocals that are played along to with some subtle ambient noise (couple of notes) and some nice hammers of the toms of the drums in groups of 6. When the last vocal line sings the word “departing”, the music all comes together and bursts out from its denseness and blossoms into full life with some truly spectacular warmth.

Sickness Flooding Nihil was unbelievably soothing. Such a sadness-laden track, but the guitar playing/execution was perfect. I’m such a sucker for these interlude tracks which help break everything up. This specific part has some amazing twists and turns which stray away from the typical “norm”, going an unconventional route which helped make it stay fresh and interesting.

Even though this track was the shortest on the album, I feel that its significance was great and the track choice placement was great.

My favourite from the album was actually Track 7: Until The End Hath Found Us.

In my opinion, this is Exitium Sui at its best. Everything about this song in my eyes was pretty much spot-on perfect. I also really enjoyed how brilliant the music video for this track turned out.

This song for sure carries the most weight from the whole album, and where I personally find that E.S.’s vocals stand out and shine the most. This track in my eyes has to be one of the most emotionally ridden songs to come out of the E.S. discography. The way the track begins with its slow and memorable parts slowly opening up into something which has so much life breathing under it.

Although I don’t know EXACTLY what is going on in this music video, I get the sense of utter longing and a massive feeling of dismay. Although the song is wrought with sorrow, I find something very calming about these kinds of tracks, which is a showcase of how well it can do if you give these a chance to change character.

When you are looking forward to something as I was with this for a good while, your expectations tend to go up, even if you don’t notice it yourself. The longer you wait, the more you build it up in your head, and sometimes that can make the end result feel a little underwhelming when you finally get your hands on it. Thankfully, that is absolutely not the case here.

It’s even better when the thing you’ve been waiting for, for so long, actually ends up exceeding those expectations. This is absolutely the case with “Unravelling” from E.S. From the moment I first heard what was coming, I had a feeling this was going to be something special, but the finished album has genuinely delivered on that promise and then some.

I’d like to say a massive well done to E.S. on how this album has turned out. It’s clear that a lot of time, effort and passion has gone into it, and that really comes across in the finished product. “Unravelling” is an album that was well worth the wait, and one that has more than lived up to the expectations I had going into it.