Angels of Distress
| Angels of Distress | ||||
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| Shape of Despair's studio album | ||||
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Publication |
September 25, 2001 |
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admission |
April - July 2001 |
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| Label (s) |
Фоно Spikefarm Records |
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
5 |
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running time |
54:54 |
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| occupation |
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Kaide Hinkkala |
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Studio (s) |
HellHole Studio |
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Angels of Distress is the second album by the Finnish funeral doom band Shape of Despair .
Emergence
Personal situation
According to Jarno Salomaa , Shape of Despair has not had a constant line-up from its inception to the recording of Angels of Distress . Former singer Toni Mäensivu left Shape of Despair to move to Lapland to study . Pasi Koskinen from Amorphis joined the band in his place. Johanna Vakkuri, who played the flute on her debut, also did not appear when recording the album. Instead of a flute, a violin played by Toni Raehalme was integrated into the sound.
Songwriting, recording and production
Salomaa described the change in the band constellation preceding the recordings and the associated stylistic changes in songwriting as a "natural process", while he described the music as an "expression of personal feelings".
The pieces were written by Salomaa between 1997 and 1999. Like the previous debut Shades Of ... was Angels of Distress in the Hellhole studios in Helsinki added. The recordings took place from April to July 2001. As producers, the studio operator Kaide Hinkkala and Antti Salomaa Lindell and functioned themselves. The mastering was in the Finnvox Studios by Mika Jussila made.
Album information
| Track list |
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The album, first released in 2001, contains five separate tracks with a total playing time of 54:54 minutes. The album was re-released several times. The Polish cover artist Mariusz Krystew was hired to be responsible for the graphic preparation of the accompanying material . At the time of recording and release, the band consisted of guitarist Jarno Salomaa, bassist Tomi Ullgren, drummer Samu Ruotsalainen and the singing couple Natalie and Pasi Koskinen. The violinist Toni Raehalme appeared as a guest musician.
publication
Angels of Distress was released as CD and MC on September 25, 2001 by Spikefarm Records and Фоно , licensed exclusively for the Russian market . Re-releases appeared in the following years, among others through Relapse Records , XIII BIS Records , Hammerheart Records and Aftermath Music . In 2012, Aftermath Music released a first vinyl version of the album.
layout
The album was designed by the Polish cover artist Mariusz Krystew . Krystew was also responsible for the changed design of the vinyl version. The cover of the CD version is gray in the style of a digital collage. Horizontally the gray area is traversed by a wide, offset image strip in gray levels. Among other things, a barcode , a photograph of an angel statue as well as album title and band name are incorporated into the design. The design is continued inside the cover. The first publication appeared as a digipack without a booklet. Information on recordings, titles and production were printed on the cardboard box of the digipack. Later publications also retained the reduced design. The design of the jewel case version of the Relapse Records album has not been significantly changed or supplemented either. Salomaa describes the reduction to essential information and the omission of an imprint of the lyrics as conceptually intended.
"I think that it was much better to keep the album sleeve clear without any distracting texts ... to keep it simple (thanks to Mariusz) like our music."
"I think it was much better to keep the album cover clear and without annoying lyrics ... It should be kept simple, like our music (thanks to Mariusz)."
The vinyl version was provided with the image of a collaged oil painting of the rear view of an angel figure in white on a black background with a red border. The rest of the design of the outer packaging was printed in black with a white print. On the vinyl version, the lyrics of the songs are also printed in white on black. The information about the recording, songwriting and production are also printed in white. In addition, portrait photos of the band members are shown in red.
style
The music presented on Angels of Distress is described by reviewers as "extremely melancholic, ultra-slow and atmospheric Doom ", "pure Doom" and as "an ambitious epic work of avant-garde Doom Metal". Reviewers refer to My Dying Bride , Esoteric , Opeth , Skepticism , Disembowelment and Cathedral . Despite general and vague assignments to a broad Doom spectrum, some reviewers have specified the classification. Kostas Panagiotou from Pantheist states that the music of Shape of Despair is mostly assigned to Funeral Doom , but that Angels of Distress also deal with more modern influences. He drew comparative parallels with Thergothon , Unholy , Skepticism and Dolorian . The album was also assigned to Funeral Doom in a review written for the webzine metal.de and compared with Skepticism, Thergothon, Unholy and Evoken .
Eduardo Rivadavia describes the music for Allmusic as a combination of “heavy metal guitars, death grunts , an angelic female voice and a string and synthesizer orchestration.” Elsewhere, the reduced tempo and the repetitive arrangement are named as characteristic of the music . In further discussions it is pointed out that "guitars (...) would (would be used in a more targeted manner and) leave room for vocals, synthesizers and violin". Meanwhile, despite a "constant tempo and basic theme, it is varied."
reception
Similar to the style descriptions by Allmusic, Doom-Metal.com or Metal.de, the album for the webzine Vampster was described positively in relation to the debut:
"Compared to" Shades of ... "SHAPE OF DESPAIR have become almost catchy - but the boys and the girl behind the letter abbreviations still have an unmistakable feeling for endlessly sad songs. "Angels Of Distress" is nowhere near as monotonous as the previous album. But this band is still deeply depressed. Where other bands are still trying to express different moods, SHAPE OF DESPAIR have long since given up and don't even try to build suspense. "Angels Of Distress" has one direction: down. The songs have nothing to do with velvety-beautiful Gothic , this music is ominous and depressing. Riff after reef rolls slowly through black soundscapes. There are no lively streams of melody here, no rays of sun penetrate the swirling keyboard surfaces. Hopeless violin sounds meander between the guitars and the discreet drums, a female voice begins to lament, epic melodies and a monotonous rhythm gently sway in the endless darkness. "
The discussions for Angels of Distress were mostly positive. However, some reviewers pointed out that the music was not recommended to everyone and that it only worked for the reviewer himself at selected moments. So wrote Wolf-Rüdiger Sears for Rock Hard that Angels of Distress was "the perfect soundtrack to a slow suffering and death," on the one hand the other hand, "only sometimes, on selected days" working. Other reviews also stated that it was “not an album for everyone” and that listeners devoted to music should “first adjust to the monotonous and resigned atmosphere.” Elsewhere, Angels of Distress was highly praised and highlighted as “a must!” for genre fans or “must buy”. The album has retained its high rating over the years since its first release. So that led Decibel Magazine Angels of Distress in 2014 on the site of the 97 specials The Top 100 Doom Metal album of all Times .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Kostas Panagiotou : Interview with Shape Of Despair. Doom-Metal.com, October 18, 2001, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Kostas Panagiotou: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Doom-Metal.com, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Chris Ayers: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Exclaim, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ^ A b c Eduardo Rivadavia: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Allmusic , accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Chris Flaaten: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Chronicles of Chaos, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann : Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Rock Hard , accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ^ A b Svartalv: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Metal.de, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Alex: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Metal Reviews, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Andreas Jur: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Power Metal, accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b andrea: Shape Of Despair: Angels of Distress. Vampster , accessed December 9, 2019 .
- ^ Rod Smith: Shape of Despair: Angels of Distress . In: Decibel . 2014, ISSN 1557-2137 , p. 31 .