“Return to the Void is a title we thought would best describe the album,” says Koivula. Coupled with Henri Koivula’s caliginous lyrics, SHAPE OF DESPAIR provides a masterclass display of a genre expansive and filmic. Funeral doom is often narrow in scope, but Return to the Void defiantly opposes that with its massively scaled and forlornly inspired valleys and angelic (powered by Natalie Koskinen’s empyrean vocals) peaks. From the void-gaze of “Dissolution” and gelid beauty of “Reflection in Slow Time” to the collapsing cathedral in “Forfeit” and the void-fall that is the stunning title track, the Finns have outdone themselves, overcoming the heights of previous lighthouse tracks “Woundheir,” “Angels of Distress,” and “Sleep Mirrored” with surprising ease. Return to the Void is no doubt SHAPE OF DESPAIR.
What matters most, I think, is that it still has the SHAPE OF DESPAIR atmosphere.” I found new and different ways to shape the arrangements and my compositions. I will say my approach has changed after all these years of making music. “As stated, the songwriting goes way back to the first music we put together for RAVEN. “ Return to the Void isn’t the follow-up to Monotony Fields in the traditional sense,” Salomaa says. While Return to the Void is the natural follow-up to Monotony Fields and represents over six years of songwriting development, the main narrative (and indeed the timely return of drummer Samu Ruotsalainen) is rooted in the past. From there, the Helsinkians morphed in membership but continued their funereal march into legend with Angels of Distress (2001) and Illusion’s Play (2004) before hibernating for almost a decade. SHAPE OF DESPAIR’s grand debut, Shades of… (2000), was proof that the fledgling sextet’s stately doom was already ascendant. A simple name change-initiated by Salomaa-coincided with the Finns’ developing predilection for protracted if icy metal. Actually, the transformation into the present-day moniker wasn’t as violent as it sounds. SHAPE OF DESPAIR was formed out of the ashes of RAVEN in Helsinki in 1998. Naturally and eventually, it started to feel like a SHAPE OF DESPAIR song.” I thought I would make a solo album out of it, but after a while, the song reminded me of older RAVEN material.
“At first, the title song sounded too primitive.
“Not long after Monotony Fields, I started composing for Return to the Void,” says guitarist/founding member Jarno Salomaa. As ever, this is cheerless music for sunless days. Return to the Void is musically and thematically that same journey, one of perpetual solitude and aching hopelessness, driven straight into the heart of frigid twilight. The race into the cold darkness is a contemplatively unhurried task. The Finns have never been or found the need to be prolific, however. Between the success of the majestically downtrodden Monotony Fields (2015) and today, the members of SHAPE OF DESPAIR have been composing (glacially) and otherwise ensconced writing/performing with their other projects like FINNTROLL, IMPALED NAZARENE, THROES OF DAWN, and COUNTING HOURS. Finnish funeral doom icons SHAPE OF DESPAIR return from the wintry Nordic gloom on their new album, Return to the Void.
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