LOSS
Despond

Description / Tracks

Lovingly pinched from Stereokiller: I’m going to be brutally honest and tell all of you that my experience in the realm of “funeral doom” is quite limited, but I will do my best to write this review from the standpoint of someone who appreciates all forms of metal.

Though I do indulge in many acts whose work feed off of despair when inspired to write, never have I come across a band who embrace and envelop such an overwhelming sense of total hopelessness as Loss does. Unrelentingly, Despond pummels you with an absolutely crushing guitar tone. In a sound as dense as a tidal surge of wet cement, they weave in guitar harmonies that at times give their sound an eerie melodic quality while never losing their footing in the bleak groundwork they’ve laid.

In recent research I’ve found that much like their contemporaries in the genre of “funeral doom”, their tempo rarely peaks above that of a crawl. It is in this fact that the true nature of their grim sensibilities are structured and allowed to flourish into a lush soundscape of anguish.

The vocal delivery on this record is vilely guttural and tortured. While not all that dissimilar to that of the classic death metal style, these tormented growls coupled with the aforementioned notes on the grim instrumentation presented here really create true sonic depression unlike that of any release I’ve previously experienced.
(www.roadburn.com)