Metal Storm logo
Veil Of Conspiracy - Shape Of Grief review



Reviewer:
7.4

54 users:
7.26
Band: Veil Of Conspiracy
Album: Shape Of Grief
Style: Melodic doom metal, Progressive metal
Release date: January 10, 2025
A review by: AndyMetalFreak


01. How Far Is The Light
02. Nothing In This Sorrow
03. Burden
04. Distant Waves
05. On Grey Fields
06. Empty Shores
07. In Misery Alone
08. Ocean Of Despair
09. Endless Void Within
10. My Eternal Grief
11. Silent Dirge

According to the Veil Of Conspiracy, the Shape Of Grief should look exactly as this sounds.

Formerly known as Astral Domine, the Italian doomy progressive metal band Veil Of Conspiracy changed their name to its current iteration in 2016. Under this new guise, the band has 3 full-length albums, including latest offering Shape Of Grief, which they come into as a quintet following several line-up changes. The band's style mostly consists of progressive song structures that focus on dark melancholic soundscapes, captured through deeply emotional performances.

As the album title suggests, Shape Of Grief delves lyrically into a variety of dark and introspective themes surrounding personal feelings of loss, emptiness, and despair. It's only human nature to have experienced or come to terms with these feelings, whether it's being struck by grief, isolation, or any other personal struggles, so these are themes that I imagine each and every listener can reflect on. It's inevitable that during your life you'll endure dark, painful, and sorrowful moments, and what this album manages to do is capture soundscapes to authentically match those feelings throughout its 1-hour duration. The themes, however, don't just represent the mood of hopelessness and despair, but also act as a contrast between light and darkness. Just as you feel like you've reached the darkest point on this dark, harrowing journey, the album offers the slightest glimmer of hope, positivity, and acceptance.

Musically the album explores most aspects associated with extreme doom, from funeral and death, to melodic doom. The instrumentation mainly consists of heavy slow/mid-tempo slogs, sweeping melancholic leads, powerful drumming, low-toned crushing bass, and passionately performed vocals, alternating between soft sorrowful cleans and agonizing deep gutturals. The songs mostly consist of slow, heavy, intensifying build-ups, accompanied by harsh vocals that signify hopelessness and desperation, whereas the lead breaks and more upbeat rhythms, accompanied by stirring clean singing, signify a sense of hope. This repetitive structural pattern is how the album tends to progress; it's not the most diverse approach, and becomes fairly predictable by the end, but it's highly effective for setting the exact mood that's intended.

Overall, Shape Of Grief can prove to be an emotionally challenging listen for some listeners, but there might be a few of you who have a troublesome mind right now and are in need of a pick-me-up. If that's the case, this album could strangely be your hopeful ray of sunshine. This is only Veil Of Conspiracy's third album to date, and they seemed to have developed a real knack for emotionally charged melancholic doom, so it will be interesting to see just how far they can develop from here. This is also quite the contrast for a band that originally set out to be a more light-hearted symphonic power metal band under their previous name.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 6
Production: 8





Written on 24.01.2025 by Feel free to share your views.


Comments

Comments: 1   Visited by: 43 users
25.01.2025 - 15:42
ForestsAlive
I actually enjoyed listening to a couple of songs from this release. The lyrical/artwork themes might be overplayed, but the music itself is great
Loading...

Hits total: 931 | This month: 82