SHAPE OF DISPAIR Monotony Fields CD (2015)

Finland has a particular relationship with grief. Something in the light, or the lack of it, produces funeral doom of a quality no other country has quite matched, and Shape of Despair have been near the top of that particular mountain since the early 2000s.

Monotony Fields, their 2015 return after a decade of silence, picks up exactly where Illusion's Play left off, which is to say somewhere very cold, very slow, and genuinely devastating. The vocals sit low in the mix like a distant memory, keyboards carry melodies that feel like they're dissolving before they fully form, and the guitars arrive in waves rather than riffs. This is atmospheric doom at its most patient and its most rewarding. Not background music. Not easy listening. Exactly what it needs to be.

Format: CD full length album. Country of origin: Finland. Genre: Atmospheric / funeral doom metal.

Fans of: AHAB, LETHIAN DREAMS, PANTHEIST, DEPRESSED MODE, EVOKEN, FOREST OF SHADOWS