No matter what they say, in different countries people breath different air, and as a result, write different music. Judge by yourself: in Sweden we’ve got two exclusive versions of European death metal (ultramelodic NWOSDM and harsh Swedish death a-la Entombed and Dismember), Norway soon might be declared the black metal zone, America gives birth to more and more bands playing brutal death metal and metalcore, and I’m not even speaking about the crazy Japanese who prefer wild noisy opuses. Looks like everything’s on its place, but something is missing in this musical zoo, don’t you think? Look at the ground before your feet, Finnish doom is crawling to you! Why crawling? Hey, have you heard it? If you didn’t, now you have a wonderful chance to acquaint yourself with the slowest and most depressive music in the world — Finnish funeral doom metal, the high priests of which — Thergothon, Skepticism and Unholy — have been joined by another band from Finland playing similar music, Shape Of Despair.

Actually, the general musical direction of the band becomes clear after throwing a single glance on the back of the CD. Five songs in 57 minutes — impressive, isn’t it? After one studies the contents of the licensed CD issued by Fono (and finds a couple of misprints, including the ones on the sides of the CD box), (s)he understands that this is something really dark. All the artwork (revolving around the sleeping wood theme), is done in suffocatingly fuzzy tints of dark green, and it is extremely minimalistic. The line-up of the band doesn’t have a single name, only initials. In general, the mood (be)for(e) the listening is set appropriately.

Let’s turn our heads (and ears) to the music itself. The first four songs of the album (some of them dating back to 95), were taken and re-recorded from a 50 minute demo tape entitled «Alone In The Mist», which was released in 98 and issued under the name of Raven. The fifth and last song was written later (exclusively for this album), but differs from its predecessors only due to the slower tempo and clear-cut three-part composition. Thus it makes no sense to split the album in two and review both parts separately.

The album starts with a thin keyboard peep, anxiously looking around in the night like a weak raylet of light in the depths of darkness. It doesn’t last long, as from the bowels of the dark forest there creeps a menacing asphalt paver with the word «murk» written on its side, which methodically reduces this peep to powder without even acknowledging it. The aformentioned device is, of course, the music of Shape Of Despair (for those who didn’t get the hint). The unhurried drum tempo plods along with a simple 3/4 pattern of the «boom-ts-ts-bang-ts-ts» variety, or technically speaking, «repeat (bc-x-x-sx-x-x-bx-x-x-sx-x-x)» [where b is bass drum, c is crash or open hat, x is closed hat or ride ,and s is the snare drum. —AK]. The drum parts aren’t sophisticated at all, the rhythm almost never changes (!), only speeding up a bit on the fourth track, then slowing down by half on the last track. The percussion is accompanied by rhythmically similar (but unmelodious) guitar riffs, which at times have harmonic similarities to European death metal. This combo creates a pulsating wall of sound which, if you’re sleepy or new to the sight, can be mistaken for an excavator that has been hypnotized by magic of sedative nature. The bass guitar is the foundation of this wall, as its parts become dead-coalescent with the guitars, and form a slowly flowing lava river which crushes everything in its path. The guitars’ and drums’ rhythms are so methodical that the listener quickly falls into trance that looks more like a lethargic sleep. The burden of carrying along the melodies is put on the simple keyboard parts, a melancholic and beautiful live flute, and female vocals that bear no lyrical load and are used as just another instrument. All these things are hung up on their respective themes for extended periods of time, but often move back to the middle ground (it can’t be called background really), serving as a foil for the mighty roar that enounces terse, symbolic, subtly depressive, yet eerie and monumental lyrics, revolving around such topics as seeds of horror, frozen hearts, broken eyes (?!) and raped souls. The profundity and power of the majestic vocals is simply shocking — try to imagine something between low Dying Fetus growls and Amorphis-like snarls, then add some distorted medium frequencies — I think that vocal harmonizers could have had something to do with this.

As you can see, the music of Shape Of Despair can be presented as a view of three layers. The first and the «lowest» layer that is chiefly responsible for crushing the listener creates the impression of indivertibly impending murk, and consists of drums, guitars and bass-guitar, all fused in one aural and rhythmic unit. This layer slowly, but surely grinds the listener with unprecedented methodic grandeur. It can only be compared to the insurgent earth, covering everything that lives and breathes with a ten-kilometer gargantuan wave. This monstrosity is accompanied by a whispering keyboard background that envelops this black wall with a barely discernible morose light. The second, «middle» layer, bringing elements of mystique and obscurity to the music, is comprised of broody voices of additional keyboard parts which shimmers with timid ripples of circumambient darkness. The flute, barely holding the widespread despair, grievously sings its last song before the imminent apocalypse. The female-sung «aahs» sound as though they are an attempt to warn the listener of imminent danger. But all is in vain, as the proprietress of the voice had her tongue snapped out. This amalgam of the primary and secondary layers is crowned with a third layer, which is represented by the voice of darkness. It is an ominous growl , sometimes appearing suddenly and scaring listener to death, other times disappearing and making listener wait in apprehensive conjecture for when the next strike will be inflicted. As a rule, the composition of the songs consists of frequent repeats and variations of the same musical phrase, which rarely switches to another theme without the subsequent return to the previous one. The last track stands out a bit — it wanes into silence on the third minute, leading the listener to think that it’s all over. But after a short period of time, it revives itself and performs the same maneuver on the eleventh minute. Here is where the track quickly returns to life for the second time and then finally fades out after the thirteenth minute. If anything, this is a 57-minute testament to the endurance of any listener’s will to live.

In sum this aural canvas is a great example of the Finnish funeral doom metal that continues the traditions of Thergothon, Unholy, Skepticism and other bands of this ilk, but also adds something unique and original and further develops the style in its own way. This music is way not for everyone, but if you like it, you’ll keep that feeling for a long time to come. There aren’t many bands playing such music — basically, we have the aforementioned bands (Thergothon, Unholy, Evoken, Dolorian, Skepticism), and others of the similar ilk, such as Esoteric, Grief and Winter. But in this case, it’s quality over quantity. All these bands, being alike in many ways, are all unique and interesting in their own way. This alone is a huge «thumbs up» for the Finnish funeral doom scene, and it only adds to the pleasure of seeing a new band that refuses to simply copy the masters, adding a new dimension to this undoubtedly elite (in a good sense of the word) style. Highest recommendations to every fan of such music and to all those who want to acquaint themselves with it.

Оценить текст:

• Пока никто не оценил

 Loading ...