Band:	Shores Of Null
Album:	The Loss Of Beauty
Style:	Blackened doom metal, Gothic doom metal
Release date:	March 2023

01. Transitory
02. Destination Woe
03. The Last Flower
04. Darkness Won’t Take Me
05. Nothing Left To Burn
06. Old Scars
07. The First Son
08. A Nature In Disguise
09. My Darkest Years
10. Fading As One
11. A New Death Is Born
12. Underwater Oddity [CD and digital bonus]
13. Blazing Sunlight [CD and digital bonus]

There's certainly no "loss of beauty" on this record, let me tell you that. An early contender for extreme doom AOTY? You can bet on your life, it is.

The Italian death doom act Shores Of Null have been around for a decade now, up until which they had released three stellar albums prior to this fourth release, The Loss Of Beauty. Their previous release, Beyond The Shores (On Death And Dying), released during the 2020 pandemic, was arguably their best release date, but now we turn ourselves towards their fourth release, The Loss Of Beauty, and I can safely say it surpasses that previous release and all those before it on all aspects, in fact it trumps all over many extreme doom albums I've listened to in recent years.

Although being released this year (2023) The Loss Of Beauty was actually recorded during the same sessions as their previous album, and initially was set to be released prior to that album, however, holding back on the release of this album ultimately meant that more time had been spent on perfecting the overall quality of this album. The final product is eleven tracks (including the intro "Transitory") of dark melancholic beauty, reaching levels of deep despair, anguish and sorrow through combining genre's such as death doom, blackened doom, and a hint of gothic. The lyrics are mainly themed around those seeking to find beauty in imperfection and transience, and for those unexpected to find as such. At just shy of fifty minutes in length, The Loss Of Beauty provides a grand example of how melancholic metal can be done so effectively both from an enjoyably melodious and dark, emotive perspective, through a very high standard of songwriting and musicianship.

Here is one of those instances where picking out stand-out tracks is generally difficult, as the album contains such a level of consistency unmatched by many albums within the death doom genre. With quality tracks flowing one after the other, and a solid blend of blackened and gothic doom, with deep emotionally charged rhythms accompanied by thick blackened guitar riffs, and beastly growls mixed with angelic cleans, this is an album that certainly contains a hefty share of variety.

Some tracks are noticeably more aggressive than others, some containing a more death doom style approach, like for example; "My Darkest Years" and "Fading As One", with harsh snarling growls featuring more so than the haunting clean vocals. While other tracks venture more into gothic doom territory, such as "A Nature In Disguise", where the clean vocals feature more so than the harsh, and catchier elements including more hooky rhythms and melodious harmonies take priority over the blackened, funeral crawling rhythms.

The deep, dark, poetic brilliance behind The Loss Of Beauty is undeniable, and Shores Of Null's doomy melancholic style is especially ideal for those considering themselves fans of Swallow The Sun, Draconian and Saturnus.