Band:	Shape Of Despair
Album:	Shades Of...
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	2000
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. ...In The Mist
02. Woundheir
03. Down Into The Stream
04. Shadowed Dreams
05. Sylvan-Night

Shape Of Despair, one of the few bands that unfolds in front of the very eyes of the listener the true faces of despair, parading one by one in front of his fearful eyes. "Shades Of?" is the first part of their bleeding legacy and despite the fact it is a debut album, it is a real masterpiece filling your hollow hours with moments of grief and pure bitterness with its lengthy compositions.

The guitar riffing is ultra slow and deeply mourning, being a bit on the background but evoking an obscure funeral feeling in the air. The floating keyboard melodies, along with the atmosphere-evoking flute pieces and female vocals that enter at times, that echo from beyond to disappear at times and then come back to life once again with the shadows, harmonize wonderfully with the deep grunting voice of the singer evoking a serene feeling of anger, bleakness and dismay; like a nightmare you're into, you're drowning but you love it?

"In here, every shadow in the ground passes me by? slow?"

"?In the Mist" opens the album and this is where you lose yourself, "in the mist", where memories dance with bitterness, where forlorn shadows kiss you softly draining all life from your bleeding body as the mourning riffing echos in a threatening way whereas the keyboard melodies bring this sweet nightmare to life interpreted in the most appropriate way by the grieving deep grunting voice of the signer. The journey through the mist goes on with "Woundheir" and you realize that "wound was the heir, the ruler within fire" as the flute's bittersweet sound evokes a feeling of solitude in the emotionally burdened atmosphere. The guitars echo from the deepest abyss along with the obscure percussion sounds and the singer's utterly descriptive penetrating grunts and obscure distorted recites interpreting twisted lyrics filled with anger float in the heavy air.

"Shadowed Dreams" keep on haunting every single moment of your life as the album goes on. The distinctive female vocals harmonize in utter bleakness with the mourning guitar riffing and the bitter sound of the flute whilst the singer interprets in utter greatness lyrics of pure poetry and solitude traveling you somewhere else, "to another world, to another consciousness, away of this time" "and you do watch with broken eyes how this weather forever will stay in your frozen heart". And you flow "Down Into the Stream" as pain blackens your horizon with the serene doleful keyboard melodies dancing macabre with your dying sight pacing wonderfully with the female vocals and the deep male grunts accompanied by the lurking guitar riffing evoking a feeling of sweet dismay and rising pain in the air leading to the closing theme of "Shades Of?" as "Sylvan-Night" comes to stay bringing forth its most shameful shadows. The atmosphere that floats in the air is the same as if you were lost in a forest of shadows and mist finding yourself "painfully wrapped in leafs" evoked in the most ideal way by the marriage of female vocals and keyboard melodies flirting wonderfully with the wailing sound of the guitars and descriptive male grunts.

Finland seems to be one of the most productive countries in the doom metal scene and Shape Of Despair one of its most delightful children. Skepticism fans and funeral (and even doom/death) metal adorers should definitely check this album out!