Label - Season of Mist
Release Date- 25 February 2022
Words- Tony Bliss
Even before the release of 2015’s seminally perfect ‘Monotony Fields’, there was a special kind of magic permeating every lingering chord and snare hit that Shape Of Despair committed to tape. Whilst dealing in the same majestic drift as any funeral doom band worth their salt, the Finnish six-piece manage to sound so inexplicably beyond their peers in terms of emotional weight and sheer sonic enormity, that we almost begin to wonder what sort of slow-acting elixir they could have unearthed to remain both so unbreakably despondent and heart-achingly beautiful.
Superficially, not much has changed with ‘Return To The Void’. Indeed, as the opening title track explodes into life amidst a shower of atmospheric fog, vocalist Natalie Koskinen quickly seeps through the cracks, her weightless and ethereal melodies steering us towards the songs tenth and final minute. However it is as we reach the likes of ‘The Solitary Downfall’ and ‘The Inner Desolation’ where we realize that this record is a heavier and darker-hearted sibling of its predecessor, each track a near flawless achievement in pacing and dynamics and sounding, quite genuinely, like the end of the world as they inch gruellingly forward
At only six (albeit lengthy) songs - all mini-epics of sky high quality - plucking out highlights is something of a thankless task. Instead, it is best to consume this nigh on hour long experience as a gluttonous whole, letting its metallic doom-laden crawl incrementally pummell at your consciousness, whilst crashing waves of synth and opulent keys elevate us to another plain. Make no mistake, this is an extraordinarily decadent hit of instinctive glacial power from Shape Of Despair, and with ‘Return To The Void’ they have turned in an undeniable masterpiece. Again.
9/10
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