Review Summary: life without Loss... death without reason.
Having struggled to really come to terms with being one of the genre’s most promising bands, Loss have over the years left fans with very little material to become destitute over. Their most talked about release prior to
Despond was
Life Without Hope... Death Without Reason, a demo that came out in 2004 which has since seen several reissues (one recently on 10” vinyl). Between then and now, the band has teased us with several splits, contributing no more than four tracks across the three splits. These splits were something else however – one with
Worship, another with
Necros Christos and a four-way split called
Four Burials with
Mournful Congregation,
Otesanek and
Orthodox. While Loss have no bad material, their track on
Four Burials is a 14 minute epic, both crushing and despondent, and their contribution to the masterful Worship split is no less excellent.
And now in 2011 the funeral doom act has graced us with a full length. Out on Profound Lore, I feel a little hard-pressed to call this a proper LP – both tracks from the demo and the track from the Worship split have been re-used. While I don’t really care because the three songs are brilliant, they still constitute something like 26 minutes of the album. However, there is one huge plus to all of this, and it’s that any older material here has been rerecorded, and additional parts have been added to the compositions, such as chants in ‘Conceptual Funeralism Unto the Final Act (of Being)’.
The older tracks have been worked into the template of the new record, and do not feel out of place whatsoever. Being rerecorded, they meld into the overall atmosphere, and do not hinder the very cohesive sound the band has achieved on this album. I say without any doubt that this is the ‘magnum opus’ of Loss, the album that they have been waiting seven years to release.
The closest reference point I can make in regards to Loss is probably Worship. The bands share a similar aesthetic in terms of doom, where melancholy and destitution is mixed with anger and aggression. Much like Worship’s second LP
Dooom, Loss follow a slightly more melodic path than, say, Worship’s first album, but there are absolutely no over the top themes here. Even when clean singing is included in one of the tracks, the last thing it reminded me of was some lame Euro-doom – everything here simply works.
Every facet of this record is pleasing. Production-wise, the band has gone all out, with the lo-fi nature of their earlier material being non-existent. The sound is clear and precise, though never venturing into the realms of artificial or clinical. The production also complements the sound perfectly – the dichotomy between soft/loud that Loss frequently wander around is skilfully achieved. Mike Meacham’s low gutturals are mixed in perfectly, at times being overshadowed by the riffs but still maintaining a presence.
In terms of composition,
Despond is immaculate. Anyone who has listened to their songs before will know that Loss are able to craft songs which traverse many emotions within a doom template, with highly engaging song-writing that twists and turns through heart wrenching and finetuned melodies.
Despond portrays this talent to the utmost degree.
Within the genre of funeral doom, this is the best LP since
Stabat Mater’s self titled. F
uck everything else. Releases like this are few and far between, and I’ve no doubt this will top any other doom records that come out this year. Oh wait, isn’t Worship recording a new album in July? Looks like we’re in for a rough year.
