Church of the Sea – Eva Review

By Tyme

I’ve often thought Adam’s rib-mate, Eve, got a bad rap. Led astray by the pesky serpent, Eve took that first bite of the fruit from the Forbidden Tree and shared it with her man. This act not only resulted in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, but in Eve becoming traditionally branded as the original sinner, who eventually suffered the pains of childbirth as part of God’s consequence. Formed in 2017, and after releasing their debut album Odalisque in 2022, Greek doomgaze trio Church of the Sea has partnered with These Hands Melt to drop sophomore effort Eva, which aims to reimagine the story of Eve, celebrating her defiance and casting her in a different light. One not of sinner, but rebel, who willingly embraced what others consider ‘forbidden.’ I wondered what form Church of the Sea‘s doomgaze would manifest on Eva and whether it would have me reveling in Eve’s now reconstructed rebellion.

With zero expectations of what doomgaze should sound like, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere Church of the Sea creates on Eva. Vangelis provides the doom, comprised chiefly of his sparse, spindly, and sometimes spooky guitar lines, while Alex rounds out the gaze of Eva’s instrumentation with subdued, synth-driven darkwave. Melodies undulate like roiling black seas under steel-grey skies, leaving me stranded on Darkher and REZN-filled waters, searching for salvation. Trent Reznor-inspired synth beats greet us on the first proper track, “The Siren’s Choice.” When the spider-like guitar notes and Irene’s sultry, velvety Shirly-Manson-meets-Sara-Bianchin vocals enter the fray, we get a glimpse of how powerful the doom of Church of the Sea‘s sound can be. This power is undeniable when fuzzy guitar chords coalesce with distorted synths to add heavyweight exclamation points throughout Eva‘s thirty-minute runtime, succeeding at creating a hypnotically hazy, drone-like, yet heavily doomy experience.

Each note on Eva means to satisfy the alpha waves of mind and body like a 432 Hz tone. From the Dead Can Dance meets Vermilia tribalism of “Eva,” with Irene’s native Greek vocals establishing a very folk-forward cadence, to the electronica dominant closer “How to Build a Universe, pt. II,” Eva is full of highlights. None more evident than the three-punch combo that starts with the very Darkher-inspired “Widow,” imbued with “Lowly Weep” vibes to the Bloody Hammers-like spookiness of “Garden of Eden,” where you can almost feel the snaky villain slithering toward our defiant and rebellious heroine. It’s not until the fateful lilts of “Churchyard” enter that the triptych at the apex of Church of the Sea‘s Eve story reveals itself, an ebb and flow, tension-packed track full of sanguine beats, ethereal vocals, and hard-hitting doom tones that find Eve defiantly accepting her role as the ‘mother of all living’ and embracing her newfound knowledge.

Church of the Sea creates music for certain moods, and Eva is no exception. More lulling than pulse-pounding, Eva’s hazy drone succeeds mostly by staying true to what it is and never attempting to stray from that mission. Songs plod, crawl, and cautiously sense their way through Church of the Sea‘s garden of Eva with arachnidic stealth. While stellar in its execution, this fact limits accessibility. This music will not energize you as much as it will have you delving into sub-plateaus of self-inquiry, lazing about in effortlessly created atmospheres. In an age where we admonish bloat and overly long opuses, my biggest quibble is that Eva is not long enough. Minus the two-minute intro, Eva clocks in at a scant twenty-eight minutes, and while I am quick to hit replay, I’m left wanting to hear more of what Church of the Sea has to offer.

April has been a month that could very well find me flung back into the n00b pit. I’ve stumbled on a string of releases I’ve really connected with. I chose Church of the Sea to diversify the kinds of albums I was grabbing, and much to my chagrin, I fell in love with it. Though short in stature and length, Eva is chock full of quality. Irene’s vocals mesmerize, and the guitar-synth combo is way heavier than it has any right to be. I know there will be albums in my future that I won’t connect with, and I anxiously await their arrival, but Church of the Sea‘s album Eva is not one of them. I recommend it fully, and I hope you check it out.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320kb/s mp3
Label: These Hands Melt
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

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