Shores Of Null – The Loss of Beauty
Release Date: 24th March 2023
Label: Spikerot Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Gothic Metal, Doom, Melancholic Metal, Death Doom.
FFO: Paradise Lost, Amorphis, Enslaved, Novembre, Katatonia.
Review By: Mark Young
Shores of Null are another band I’ve never come across before, and The Loss ofBeauty is their 4th full length album. And it’s a great change of scene for me, as here we have an album that is steeped in a melancholic mix of goth and dark metal. Active since 2013 they seem to have nailed a specific approach that really works for them and for me.
I’ve listened to a lot of music recently that mixes the clean / growl dynamic, some with success and some without. The thing that has bothered me is the production of the cleans, where there is something just off. I’m not against cleans heavy metal, it’s not the 80s where style of delivery often marked bands out for ridicule. The use of ‘Baby’ also didn’t help.
But I digress.
Here, both vocal styles are presented with equal attention and isn’t used just for effect. The clean here reminds of mid 80s goth, maybe Type O Negative, but just absolutely fits. The guitar lines behind are not heavy-heavy but are full of melody and the movements in each one is built for an epic feel. On top of that, they haven’t fallen into the trap to write overly long songs, so there is no chance of repetition within each track.
Transitory is our instrumental start that kicks into Destination Woe, which favours atmosphere over just speed and attack and continues across the following tracks where the use of slow build, memorable guitar parts are balanced against differing vocals. Old Scars and My Darkest years vie for the fastest track here and are speedy without ploughing the usual path of blast and double bass.
Any criticism I have is that there is a distinct lack of chug, and it’s funny because this is a very minor point when considering the album any sort of chugging riff wouldn’t work, even under the growls. That is not to say that there isn’t any lower string action – A Nature In Disguise has this to really give the song a kick and does propel it forward. This is a stormer of an album, there are no bad tracks on it, and album closers Fading As One and A New Death Is Born bring to us to the end with a bang.
The two bonus tracks included are also pretty good, although I’m not sure they are required given the strength of the music before them and in all honesty, who doesn’t like bonus stuff?
Performance wise, everyone is pulling with the ultimate goal of providing the best music they can at this stage of their career. One of the exciting things about discovering new bands is joining them on the trip to see where their career takes them next. It will be interesting to see what they come up with next because I think they have done their best music here.
1. Transitory
2. Destination Woe
3. The Last Flower
4. Darkness Won’t Take Me
5. Nothing Left To Burn
6. Old Scars
7. The First Son
8. A Nature In Disguise
9. My Darkest Years
10. Fading As One
11. A New Death Is Born
12. Underwater Oddity (Bonus)
13. Blazing Sunlight (Bonus)
(4 / 5)
