siLLy puPPy As one of the earliest dukes of depressive metal musical marches, Finland’s SHAPE OF DESPAIR has become one of the most recognized names in the microworld of funeral doom metal along with Esoteric, Skepticism, Mournful Congregation and Evoken. This band has been quashing confidence and suffocating sanguinity for almost three decades now and finally after a seven year absence has returned to deliver a suffocating cloud of dirging doom and gloom with its fifth studio album RETURN TO THE VOID. Yes, the void has sunken to even greater depths with disheartening subject matter ranging from the pandemic to ceaseless wars and a world of utter injustice. It seems the wellspring of depression is in no danger of running out of steam and SHAPE OF DESPAIR is back to outline this fucked up world in musical form! Oh woe is me :/

In many ways funeral doom metal is quite predictable. It’s probably safe to assume that it will never cross-pollinate with disco, gleeful power metal or Irish drinking songs. No way! This genre is all about ripping your heart out of your ribcage and throwing it on the floor and stomping on it until you wish you were dead. But how good it feels! Somehow funeral doom has become my favorite form of musical dread especially in the greater doom metal world and SHAPE OF DESPAIR has truly lived up to its name by shaping the despair into jagged little shards of musical glass and hurling them into your very soul until you cry like a little girl wanting your mommy to save you from the bogeyman. Ok, i made that up but hopefully you get my drift. SHAPE OF DESPAIR means business and although not the most prolific act in the metal world continues to deliver a satisfying product that will offer all the hopelessness in musical form that you could possibly want.

A typical funeral doom metal release, RETURN TO THE VOID offers a bleak journey through six tracks that almost hit the hour mark just passing 57 minutes and in its wake the band delivers its classic mix of grungy power chord stomps augmented by eerie atmospheres, a mix of clean and death-doomy guttural growls and a long procession of plodding hypnotic cyclical grooves that seem to succeed in ripping a new hole in your soul. One of the biggest complaints about funeral doom metal is that it exists in such a specific pigeon-holed microcosm of the metal universe that it offers little in variation at least in terms of tempo, timbres and tones are concerned. There are basically a few musts in the funeral doom world. Slow plodding dejecting grooves in tandem with suffocating atmospheric keyboard effects. Swarms of distortion ooze out of the guitar and bass guitars while the drums provide a punctuated percussive drive without ever getting wiggy on ya.

Sad but true but somehow funeral doom metal bands find a way to distinguish themselves from one another and even manage to craft albums with subtle variations from what came before but none of this will ever be as in your face like Judas Priest trying to tackle a progressive rock album or something of the sort. Basically SHAPE OF DESPAIR delivers exactly what one would expect from a top dog funeral doom band of its caliber, namely more of the same! Emotional devastating displays of discouraging bleakness seemingly mourning the abrupt decay and death of all of creation. In addition to the expected elements RETURN TO THE VOID offers various vocal dynamics of previous works with Henri Koivula dishing out both growled and clean vocals and Natalie Koskinen adding a haunting female energy to the otherwise male dominated soundtrack to a death camp.

As with many an old timer band from the last years of the 20th century, SHAPE OF DESPAIR is definitely stuck in a world of its own making but does so in a very satisfying way. This band has been consistent from the beginning in delivering the goods in the funeral doom realms lurking deep in the underworld and in that regard succeeds in crafting a melancholic march like cheerless chariots extinguishing existential ecstasy. While this new release will probably not draw in many new converts, for those already in the SHAPE OF DESPAIR cult of doom and gloom, this one will not disappoint one little bit. An excellent addition to the funeral!

Warthur Shape of Despair is a Finnish funeral doom band which is aptly named; this is because they stick roughly to the general sort of shape and sound that funeral doom metal bands are expected to and don't offer all that much in the way of unexpected twists or sharp corners to spice up the reheated leftovers they are offering. Angels of Distress ticks most of the funeral doom boxes whilst never, to my ears, quite adding something special of its own to the genre's blueprint aside from some unconvincing gothic touches. Funeral doom fanatics will probably enjoy it, but I feel that few of them would rank it amongst the best works of the genre.