From: Deaf Sparrow Webzine
Published: July 5, 2014
Original Link

Hypnotic Dirge Records from Canada likes to sign artists from all over the globe including Russia, France, Italy, Ukraine, and Germany.  Ekove Efrits is an Iranian band helmed by the Count De Efrit, the ominous mastermind who has experimented with depressive black metal, Gothic metal, and trip hop, creating an eclectic selection of work. With his latest effort, Nowhere, Ekove Efrits focuses more on the Gothic, and has combined efforts with Megan Tassaker – one of the female vocalists for fellow Hypnotic Dirge labelmate Lycanthia.  Her voice is fucking beautiful.  She will serenade you like Jack Dawson and you’re her Rose DeWitt Bukater (had to Wiki this shit) as she holds you up at the front of the ship and you head deeper into the Atlantic on the Titanic.  If this is your dream, Lycanthia should be where you’re looking if you can still be serenaded with some Gothic/doom/death metal straight outta’ Australia.

As for the album itself, it starts out pretty good and begins to sound like Ekove Efrits previous effort, Conceptual Horizon, with its black/Gothic/trip hop sound with an added bonus of Tassaker’s voice.  However, this soon begins to sound entirely the same.  This is deeply unfortunate because Count De Efrits’ experimental nature is vastly underrated but it seems with Nowhere that he really didn’t go, well, anywhere.  It’s pretty reserved with some brief moments of excitement but they don’t last for long and leave you wanting.  If the Titanic analogy can be continued, you’re in the back of the car getting rammed by fuckin’ Leonardo DiCaprio but then he climaxes just a bit too early so the sex is…meh.  The black metal just doesn’t get very black and shines only briefly in songs like “Parallel Presence,” “One Truth and One Confession,” and “Sword and Wound.”. There is a bit too much reliance on trip hop to fill the gaps and songs like “Infinitesimal,” “Metamorphosis,” and “At the Gates of Oblivion” are too slow-paced, non-metal and do not add much to the album other than making it longer.

It becomes more and more clear that Nowhere is like Titanic’s PG-13 rating and should be considered very entry-level due to how few there are metal moments that exist.  This doesn’t mean it’s a lost cause but that it might not be relevant to a lot of metalheads.  It’s a shame because Ekove Efrits has a lot of potential to do great things but this album just doesn’t make the cut.  All we as fans can hope for that maybe that he just needed to get this out of the way and that more efforts like Conceptual Horizon are, well, on the horizon.

Rating: 3/5
Reviewed by: Cole Olson