Review Summary: Sensual moods from the void
It’s raining outside. It’s been raining all week really. If you ever wanted
more perfect conditions to be caught listening to new doom metal, I’m afraid you’ll be left waiting for the impossible. You see, a grim day full of grey clouds, wet roads and sombre
feels is the ultimate setting for a
return to the void—captained by the emotional voyage extraordinaire, Shape Of Despair. Despite this trip’s rather ominous overtones, listeners are in the safest of hands, nursed from start to finish by the greyest beards in the doom business (probably). You see, these Finnish doom masterminds have been on a success streak for over two decades now, carving out a success within their particular niche—despite the pause between vintage and modern releases. I say this because
Return to the Void is [somehow] only the group’s fourth release in that time.
Notwithstanding, the die-hard fans know to expect a host of drawn-out and wide-reaching chords. Henri Koivula’s lumbering deep growls and the music’s sense of melancholy combine at the peak of its very own existence. It’s a signature of any Shape Of Despair album—past, present or future. Oftentimes, Shape of Despair’s music is adjusted with a sense of nostalgia, not unlike a chef seasoning a meal with lighter touches of salt. It’s an effect that brings the rest of the band’s fruit to the surface, reinforcing just why each and every aspect is on the palette. It’s music designed to please, while being sombre, thoughtful and provocative; occasional touches of hope rise and fall like broader human emotions.
Return to the Void is not detached from this sentiment.
At almost an hour’s run-time,
Return to the Void largely runs in similar climes to the group’s 2015 piece,
Monotony Fields and yet, it’s discernibly more straight-forwards and occasionally stripped back than its predecessor. The framework is the same, and the album’s opening, titular track paves the same expectable direction as the music released years before it. Powerful chordal structures act as a bedrock for the dichotomy of growled vocals and cleaner singing. This contrast, so expertly used, projects a number of emotions on the listener. You can feel the anguish, despair and frustration in the deepest of the growls. You can
feel the loss and longing in the smooth cleans and yet, there’s a sense of hope (occasionally celebration) to be found in Natalie Koskinen’s impactful tones. This is the magic of Shape of Despair; simple sounds and contrasts that breathe atmosphere and emotion, personified in tracks like “Dissolution”. It doesn’t matter that the guitar melodies glide on single note simplicity. It doesn’t matter that the drums count to four so consistently the listener can’t imagine a higher number. All that matters is the
feel, the emotion as it caresses, bludgeons and molds the mind’s senses, switching between the obvious light and dark transitions. We could be at a graveside, beside a hospice bed or locked inside our own head (eyes closed),
Return to the Void has an impact.
Despite the heaped-on-praise I save for albums from these doom masters,
Return to the Void’s straight-forwardness is a slight marring on an otherwise excellent run of deathly funeral doom. While it’s more difficult to argue that the “simple done well” approach of the group’s newest effort has an element of hindrance,
Return to the Void at times, lacks the musical depth to really put its listeners on the spot, and a few “wow” moments have been left in the wings. Had these few moments been peppered into the longer track’s, or had their been a short blasting interlude that jarred the listener out of this sombre melancholia, it’s likely the record’s back half would have had such an impact; defining what is essential among doom metal as a genre.
Putting these minor gripes aside, there’s no denying that Shape of Despair on autopilot is still magnificent. Enjoyable dirges remain accessible to the masses and we as listeners keep
feeling feelings.
Return to the Void is an album made for reviewers to practice hyperbolic sentences. No, that's wrong. Reviewers will find writing about
Return to the Void to be hyperbolic, but that doesn’t mean what’s typed is wrong, exaggerated or without merit. We simply hope you forgive these tendencies as they creep into text. Shape of Despair has been defining the best of the genre for so long now it’s hard to imagine another way to describe the band’s compositions without mentioning deviations of “contrast” or “emotion”, giving way to simply describing what’s heard.
Return to the Void is less ambitious than its predecessor, but no less impactful. There may be rain, but a new sunrise could just be ‘round tomorrow.
