Shape Of Despair Arousing a surreal atmosphere within a radically minimalist framework, Finland’s Shape Of Despair play funereal doom metal structurally characterized by subtle shifts between passages which present slight alterations on a central theme, revisiting sections only as a manner of emphasis. Pensive synthesizers introduce the song’s defining theme, which is expanded as the full range of instruments participate as to elevate each theme to its climactic level, then descending gently into a fantastical caressing of brooding ethereality. Through songs of epic duration, this band displays a compositional intelligence and skillful utilization of dynamics in atmospheric intensity and emotional release in gorgeously flowing music of cold despair. "Into life It is the elegance of this music that is this band’s exceptional quality. Apart from Skepticism, no other doom metal band is this graceful. Spacious in grand design, the music escalates over steady and patient emanations, and falls just as patiently, ultra-slowly in refined movements and dramatic suspense. All instrumentation is sparse in performance in the successful effort to produce an enveloping atmosphere of sedated melancholy blossoming through evocatively measured rhythms and understated consonance. The gliding rhythms accompanied by delicate synths and occasional violin in particular moments within "Quiet These Paintings Are" and the mournful epic "...To Live For My Death..."portray a calmness haunted by suspense, as though one were peacefully awaiting the impending embrace of a beautiful death. This economical approach allows the tremendously bleak beauty of the music to wash over the listener by seducing its audience into an entranced state, in no condition to resist the temptation of this dark and hopeless journey. The cinematic nature of these compositions makes for instantly engaging music in spite of its cold luster. Synth arrangements and their employment in the stimulation of tragic emotion adorns the songs with orchestral grandeur. The motion of this work is astounding. Within it can be detected not a single trace of egocentricity. Everything is sacrificed for the entirety. This makes for beautifully sorrowful music, celebrating the tragedy of the world as a necessary condition of existence which is inherently mournful. One must know the beatific quality of withering to ever be able to truly know music like this. "I die Painful guitar melodies emerge from repetitive passages, cascading at times like coldest rain from weeping heavens. Experts in the art of delay, Shape Of Despair keep their audience in enhancing anticipation through the extension of life-in-slow-motion sections, seeming as though they could continue eternally, and then arrives a piercing melody from a lachrymose guitar only to deliver the listener a reinforcement of the tragic reality: all is not for the best. "...To Live For My Death...", the centerpiece of this album, is one of the most convincing displays of this quality in all of doom metal. Nearly eighteen minutes in duration, the song is an elaboration on a single tenebrous theme, stretched out in unbearably slow movements in a portrayal of life as a journey through wretchedness, mourned in solemn resignation. There is a contemplative ambience, particularly through gentle synths and distant piano in "Quiet These Paintings Are" and "Night’s Dew", which enriches this music with a reflective, tranquil nature. Yet make no mistake, this music is cold and unforgiving like the harshest winter night. Monstrous growls, most effective when interrupting or shadowing the far-away ghost-like female singing, voice a bitterness and deeply grievous feeling, not angry or fueled by vitriol, but terribly unsatisfied and troubled. This unmercifulness shows itself most persuasively in the title track, where the music intensifies along with the rises in agonized growling vocals. The music offers no salvation. It’s quiet passages are no consolation, only moments of forlorn reflection. The production awards a powerful and clear sound to this music, favorable to its elegance, and all details of the presentation are of a high quality. The presence of the music is massive and undeniable. The music expresses an idea that existence is a truly sad thing indeed, though this sadness is not something to be avoided or even violently affected by, but rather contemplated and embraced as the foundation of all life, and so it something to come to peace with, even in the realization of so many hopeless dreams and unfulfilled ambitions of this ephemeral existence. 6/21/07 Tracklisting: 1. Fallen Shape Of Despair Discography Shades Of...
(Spikefarm, 2000) |