Shape Of Despair
Angels Of Distress
Relapse
Out on a mission, it seems, to amplify every misconception you ever held about Scandinavia, Finland’s Shape Of Despair are desolate, dreary, ice-cold, dark, gloomy and doomy. But very, very good. Like primetime Black Sabbath on a particularly remorseful day. Shape Of Despair move in a snail’s tempo, churning out the same riff over and over and over again. On top is N.S.’s vocals, angelically phrased, glacier-cold melodies – or there is male vocalist P.K. growling out his bitter reflections on the state of the world in general. The songs have pretentious titles like “Quiet These Paintings Are” and “…To Live For My Death…,” and they all last for about a full fifteen minutes each – there are only five of them on this fifty-minutes disc.
Gothic for the metalheads, or metal for the gothic. Whichever way it is, Shape Of Despair has come up with an intense epic of misery and mourning. One to enjoy for those that, in general, don’t really like to enjoy stuff.
Relapse Records: http://www.relapse.com
