Settling as glowing dust upon a plane stilled by abjection Tbilisi, Georgia-based funeral doom metal quintet ENNUI muse upon existential resignation from a stoic point of view within this lushly atmospheric fifth full-length album. Igniting a candlelit path through realms of slow-sauntering fade ‘Qroba‘ washes over the listener with its own dread-filled humidity, less a head-hanging march and moreso a drenching of the senses into sombre, slow-melting meditation on impermanence and loss of vitality. Sonically rich beyond belief and yet leaning away from the band’s death/doom metal faceted languish to some notable degree this work is both riveting and suffocatingly contiguous in its slow-circling drainage, a growling beast generating a beauteous hourlong death-scene in five acts.

Ennui formed circa 2012 by way of guitarist, bassist and vocalist David Unsaved (Comatose Vigil A.K.) who has retained guitarist Sergi Shengelia (Angel of Disease, Signs) as the only other core member since then. Inspired by Skepticism and especially Esoteric they would quickly achieve a melodic death/doom metal etched form of funeral doom metal having experimented with those extremes of aggression and lament via their third LP (‘Falsvs Anno Domini‘, 2015) a la Mourning Beloveth or similar. I’d written a more expansive response to their discography in review of their most recently full-length (‘End of the Circle‘, 2018) praising the enormous length of its three main pieces as richly immersive, emotionally tumultuous but also far from accessible per its ambitious longform format. It was a new high bar for their work and remains a daunting achievement in their discography.

To some listeners that fourth album signaled a quasi-return to Ennui‘s original sound but I’d seen it as an intense evolution of their ideal as well as a pro-level recording/render as the band had sorted the flow of their songcraft into a more singularly stated voice. Eight years later we find an even more focused set of pieces from main songwriter Unsaved and ultimately a more polished and normative strand of funeral doom in ‘Qroba‘ an album which speaks to an individual coming to terms with mortality, essentially an acceptance of dissolution which reads as both fatalistic at a glance and wise under inspection. Granted a song title like “Antinatalism” pushes us to one extreme right away in terms of subject while oozing with its own elegant tone-setting sonic enormity. In fact it manages to be one of the heavier pieces on the full listen in terms of riff count (esp. beyond ~7 minute mark) and pushing beyond their heavier focus on slow burnt melodic doom inspired movement.

The opening song’s momentum is only reinforced from there in terms of tone as a sombre yet ethereal pulse creates thickly atmospheric resonance which is upheld throughout ‘Qroba‘. Keyboards and the frothy unlimited sustain of leagues of guitar channels carry the veil from there as we step into the long-droning intro to dramatic standout “Becoming Void”, a piece which takes roughly seven minutes to strike its first real blow and only briefly stirs up its core mid-paced riffcraft. The impact of this song then becomes both melodic and soaring leads which carry it beyond that brief mid-song salvo. Taken piecemeal the first two songs from Ennui achieve a collective standard any modern funeral doom metal adjacent band should appreciate though as a fan I find any movement toward death metal more of a thrill. Much of this album veers toward patient atmospheric saunter rather than extreme aggression.

Putting violently ground riffs out of mind for the moment ‘Qroba‘ instead darkens the sky and ramps its plodding dramatism within each of the remaining three pieces. The surreal, thunder-footed step of “Decima” strikes as the opening chords on a funeral dirge for that reason, using unreal sounds beside folken instrumentation to create a sense of passage. This type of voicing carries into the next piece likewise bringing circularly cut melodic leads into each song’s more intense movement. The lyrics for “Decima” and I believe the final two songs otherwise take from writings by Konstantine Makashvili, each reads as fittingly evocative in translation though I don’t know their context or anything (easily accessible) about the writer which I can speak on.

Settled deep into the back half of ‘Qroba‘ it begins to smack of the type of album I’d want to sit down with and delve into the lyrics in the moment for a few passes before settling upon my own interpretation, a sign of depth which speaks to the best of the sub-genre’s lyrical intensity. Those words only help the already emotionally driven intent of funeral death/doom find its characterization in Ennui‘s hands as piano tones and slow strummed distorted guitars create a backdrop for one of the band’s best moments as I believe Unsaved provides panduri accompaniment on the introduction to closer “Mokvda Mze”. Those first ~4 minutes or so serve one of the more hypnotic moments on the full listen and help to further distinguish the starting point of the album from its destination, a gloomed-over fade into the aether. I’d prefer a haul of death metal riffs in general but it is a fair trade to get to watch the soul leave its vessel in the end.

Considered as a whole package the end result is well-polished, thoughtfully composed and still has enough of a death metal edge to stir Ennui‘s atmospheric sound into interest. The effect is nonetheless a draining arc, a long and wandering passage out of life which suits expectations for a funeral doom metal release while excelling in its finer personalized qualities, such as the folken accompaniment on certain pieces. As a fan of the band’s previous album I’d found ‘Qroba‘ rightfully traded some of that extreme immersive value for approachability and in doing so better communicated (and resembled) their overall theme. A high recommendation.

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