Band:	Your Shapeless Beauty
Album:	My Swan Song
Style:	Melodic death metal, Doom metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Deadsoulman

01. Wolves Are Not Yours
02. Mourning Of A New Day
03. Song For A Ghost
04. Contempt
05. Of Roaches And Shades...
06. The Heretic Side Of Wisdom
07. I'll be Your Shadow God
08. Resistance
09. Sine Sole Nihil

My friends, I think we are not far from being in presence of a masterpiece. The third album is said to be the hardest mark to top, but the Frenchies of Your Shapeless Beauty have made it easily. Not that this album, at first sight, is of a staggering originality, but when you listen to it more closely, with attention, then you realize that Your Shapeless Beauty, operating in a style between Dark Brutal Death and Doom metal, has found its proper personality, that sounds like nothing else.

And yet, the first track 'Wolves Are Not Yours', is a speed melodic death song that can remind of At The Gates; 'Mourning Of A New Day' sees the appearance, in addition to the screams, of pure death metal growlings, and, on a musical level, of the violin and keyboards. These instruments weave a web of contrasted emotions, from anger to depression, from horror to sadness. The violin sure gives a plus, even if it is only used in the bagkground. But all this is very classic, a sort of deja-vu.

Or it could have been so. It could have been so if there had not been this indefinable something that catches the listener's ear. Maybe it is the movie's dialogue breaks on some songs, maybe the violin parts, maybe the almost-80's thrash intro on 'I?ll Be Your Shadow God', maybe just the good quality of the musicians and the good songwriting that alternates brutal death passages with respite moments, like the clean voice on this last song [even if the clean vocals are not the strongest point here... Sing louder please!] or the violin break on 'Resistance'. But I think that above all these material considerations, what sticks me is something that goes beyond the music. It is something that has to do with feelings and emotions. Clearly, you cannot remain impassive in front of Your Shapeless Beauty: the riffs, the vocals, the general atmosphere create a sensation of wretchedness, of despair that strengthen the growing discomfort one can feel. Your Shapeless Beauty has created an opressive and disconcerting world from which there is no salvation...

With My Swan Song, Your Shapeless Beauty is surely going to rise up out of the underground scene. Now, somewhat of an international recognition is diserved.

Highlights: Wolves Are Not Yours, Of Roaches And Shades