Customer Reviews

Angels of Distress

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very much along the same lines as My Dying Bride, but with more sonic depth. Pasi Koskinen does the lead vocals (old Amorphis fans should rejoice to hear him growl again), but don't let that mislead you. The "J.S." (lead guitar/keyboards) person, whoever that is, wrote the entire record. Very long, heavy, dramatic, slow songs, but never boring. Sounds very cold, but with miles of headroom. Who knew doom metal could be this spacey without stooping to wallow in faux-psychedelia? The "alluring female vocals" that the label flaunts act as more of an added texture than a centerpiece. None of the sounds take spotlights, but refreshingly work with each other to create a massive -- yet wide open -- sound. A must-have for the beautifully disenchanted.

If you really want to be in a depressive mood, put this album in. As you may already understand, the music in here is slow... It is so slow that one may doubt the credentials of this band's musicianship. But what this band does lack in musicianship, they make up in pure, depressive musicality. What I mean is, although the drummer plays very simplistic drum patterns (ones that I can play so easily) and the guitarist utilizes very broad and simple (but heavy) guitar playing, the band has made that up with the atmosphere they created - a very haunting and dreary, depressing mood that could be a soundtrack to someone's life that has gone totally wrong in the tear-enducing, melancholy sense. There really isn't another way to describe this band's music.
Additionally, the two vocalists really show two different sides of the spectrum while simultaneously having a coexisting vocal affinity. The male vocalist emits his deep growls which may turn off some listeners from the music (the band could stand alone with just the female vocalist, although I wouldn't want THAT to happen). He also doesn't really do much (but he does enough, in my opinion). Most of the album is instrumental. The vocalists feel like they are there for the added touch and dimension in the music.
The female vocalist, for the most part, does not sing with lyrics. She mostly uses her voice as a lulling and drifting melody that accentuates what the other musicians are doing, and she does it VERY well and effectively.

The keyboards, synthesizers, and the violins display the most musicianship and feel like the foundation of Shape of Despair's music.
All the songs are good, but the all-around favorite is: Quiet These Paintings Are. This is a long song and is probably the most depressing/sad/melancholy/(input a depressive word here) song on this album.

If you can stand slow music (all 5 songs are slow and long), that is heavy, depressing, and atmospheric, then buy this. For the most part, I think the mainstream isn't ready for this kind of music (it's not upbeat and lacking in musicality for goodness' sake!)

My God, I've just had the most powerful musical experience of my life listening to "Quiet These Paintings Are". The utter beauty, the immeasurable sorrow, the soul-wrenching pain ingrained in every single note of that song.......just, wow. I sat riveted to my seat, unable to move for fourteen minutes, nearly moved to tears. I have never, ever had music grab me by the heart like that song just did.

Hmmm...simple, simple guitar work. All of the songs sound inspired and very doomy and gloomy and unhappy though, so who can complain? The best track is probably the second. You can just picture a miserable funeral march tramping slowly down a road in the forest in the rain as that one opens up. Then the grunting appears and the funeral march apparently is sucked into hell. The grunting is strange on this album, not aggressive at all like most metalheads are used to. More mournful. A bit hard to relate to, though...perhaps more clean vocals would have been more effective for this project?? Who knows. Anyhow, what we have here is an excellent record put together by musicians who knew exactly what they wanted to do. Buy it. Imagine the hours of fun you'll have suffering in depression!...

this band is not female fronted... they do have lovely female backgrounds, though .. a must have for fans of slow crushing doom, with majestic symphonics...all sonfs are great but the first 3 are the best by far

Not knowing much about shape of despair i chose to give their album "angels of distress " a listing and well its pretty good. For any one into extreme slow,dark,mournfull, &,depressing music that can make you think about killing yourself, siriously. Get it !!

this has to be some of the most eerie and depressive music I could ever some across... and I love it. I'm not going to say anything more than BUY THIS. Oh, and this is also NOT their first CD as some guy mentioned. Their debut was entitled "Shades of..." and was released in 2000 on Spikefarm (same label). I think it's even BETTER than this one! Buy both...

i don't remember where i first heard this band but i now have bought both 2 albums and can say this is a thick, hard streaming sound of melancholia and depression, stoning you and giving real pleasure. i once have listened "fallen" and "night!s dew" 20 times non-stop. shape of despair is an experience that you MUST have if you are into doom or gothic, like katatonia, my dying bride etc. have it!

Form the cold depths of Finland comes the best thing funeral doom has to offer, Shape of Despair. Shape of Despair shares all the same elements as their fellow funeral doomsters, however they have managed to form the typical funeral doom template into something much bigger and stronger. Shape of Despair manages to create a thick, monstrous wall of sound crushing the listener with gargantuan riffs layered with lush keyboards and female vocals. The atmosphere this creates is incomparable. One can feel the sheer power of loneliness and loss of hope crawl up upon them when listening to this album. Shape of Despair never seems to fail to find extremely interesting riffs, something many funeral doom bands struggle with. Even more then in other styles of metal, the ability to come up with intriguing riffs is crucial to funeral doom, as the riffs are repeated for extended amounts of time. The band is also phenomenal songwriters, as each song has its own unique structure, and each song manages to take the listener on a different journey into the dark depths of the mind. The loss and pain represented here, is far beyond that of loss of a lover or any other everyday pains. It's a pain reserved for only the purest of suffering.
This album truly contains several of the greatest funeral doom songs ever created. The first song, "Fallen" starts with some dark haunting synths giving the feeling of being on the brink of a very dark world. The listener is then pulled into the world with one brutal growl followed by the first hopeless, crushing riffs. The song moves first through a movement of female vocals, and then one verse of aggressive growls. By the end of the song there's no question why this band is called Shape of Despair. The title track slowly builds up from a clean guitar and a dreary drum beat to a powerful wall of female vocals, thick riffs, keyboards and violins. The listener is overcome with a feeling of loss as they re confronted with such a phenomenal amount of sorrow all at once. Still there is a fury in the monstrous growls and demolishing riffs that show the anger and frustration that have been caused by this inescapable depression. This song truly captures the essence of what funeral doom is supposed to make the listener feel.
The next is another one of the most phenomenal funeral doom songs ever created, "Quite These Paintings Are". The song starts out with three minutes of delicate pianos and synths playing a tragic melody of loss. The same feeling is carried over as the crushing agony of loss is brought back as the full band kicks into action, with another tragic dirge. The song then lets up on the constant depression, entering a beautiful, lush, ambient movement only to be pulled into another furious burst of melancholy. This process is repeated one more time. It's as if one can't leave this depression no matter how hard they try, they are forever trapped in this abyss. The next song, "To Live For My Death" starts with a very long haunting synth intro, which is followed by some beautiful choir-like clean vocals over but yet another tragic, hopeless riff of loss. The growls eventually come in and the clean vocals just feed into the many layers creating the wall of sound behind the growls. The song then goes through some long keyboard led progressions, which actually show perhaps a slight glimmer of hope, but yet the song ends with the first tragic riff taking over once again. The final track, "Morning Dew" is quit the change up. This instrumental alternates between dark haunting synths to *gasp* a mid paced, semi upbeat riff. This song seems to give the listener a slight feeling of hope, hidden within this world of loss.
With this Shape of Despair's second album, the band has clearly placed themselves at the forefront of the funeral doom scene. Their uncanny ability to surround the listener with pure walls of emotion is incomparable to anyone else in the genre. No other funeral doom has managed to place these dark emotions as far out in the forefront as Shape of Despair. Whenever people enter my room when I'm listening to this album, a comment is made on how scary, dark, or sad their music is, even by those who usually ignore most of my other metal. This is a tribute to the power Shape of Despair has managed place onto this album.

This is a heavy, slow, and atmospheric CD. I was expecting it to be a little more metal, but was actually not disappointed to find out otherwise.

I would compare it to Morgion's Solinari in terms of mood and tempo.