Exitium Sui - Unravelling

Exitium Sui is a one-man blackened doom metal band Germany, who formed in 2020 but has now reloaded to Australia. The musician behind the project is E.S., also from Deadspace, Humanitas Error Est (among others).  The latest album, “Unravelling,” is the band’s/project’s third full length (if you count the expanded edition of “Endless” as a full-length).

I didn’t review it, but I enjoyed the previous release, “Endless/Regression,” but “Unravelling,” is on another level entirely.  This album is a decayed beauty piece of art that matches misanthropic black metal with despondent doom….while also being moving and beautiful, albeit in a twisted, broken way.  Anyone who isn’t a metalhead, specifically one that loves underground metal, would find this to be raw, archaic noise but those who know, know. 

There are subtleties to this album that make it hard to not want to listen to it.  In between the darkness, between the shadows that seem to swallow the light, exists another world. Maybe it isn’t a world of light, but it is something shining in between the seams…a dour melodic tinged melancholy that doesn’t come in waves but instead creeps in like fog on an already dreary morning.

The production/mix is insane.  With a decent pair of headphones, this album will open wide and swallow you whole.  Trapped in this darkness, where only the broken can survive because they are already defeated, it will consume your senses with slow, hypnotic dirges.

“Only Death Remembers,” opens the album, sprawling out from slow-motion chaos like an unstoppable enemy that doesn’t have a physical form.  The vocals are beyond what most can do—barely human.  The keys are Gothic and graceful despite the edges they rub against, adding clever dynamics to music that threatens to consume. The piano passage in the middle is nothing short of remarkable and makes the heavier passage afterwards all the more potent.  

“Drowning Virachocha,” is one of my favorites on the album.  The layers of keys set the stage for a horrific passage that’s also strangely curious.  This song unravelings perfectly, letting the doom flow into deep growls and melodic guitars that add to the macabre song.   The atmospheric piece around the 2:39 mark is haunting and perhaps even cinematic but not in a bombastic way but a path that is exploratory.  The last two minutes are urgent, proving that even slow music doesn’t always have to be plodding.  This song, like the album itself, always has a purpose that is reached to perpetual forward motion.

“Septikinesis,” is perhaps the most aggressive song on the album.  While still retaining plenty of doom and gloom, this song leans heavily into the blackened aesthetic.  The riffs sound like a hurricane and the drums match the intensity. The clean passage after the 5-minute mark is a brief respite before the song builds back up into uncommon fury.  But the last minute and a half sees the song entering a somber dirge of a future uncertain.  Engrossing and brutal at the same time, this song represents what blackened doom is all about.

Exitium Sui’s “Unravelling,” just might be the soundtrack to the frayed ends of sanity but it’s a trip down a disgusting rabbit hole that is well worth the risk. There is nothing safe about this album but, then again, doo and black metal really shouldn’t be giving off any other vibe.  “Unravelling,” is an essential release for the second half of 2026. 

Rating:  Excellent