There are few funeral doom bands out there that manage to express sorrow and despair in such a majestic and beautiful manner as SHAPE OF DESPAIR. The Finns’ latest full-length is a product of their environment, enveloping the listener in cold, eternal darkness like a lonely Finnish winter. And much like the long, funereal winters of their homeland, the atmosphere in ‘Return to the Void’ is bleak but ethereal. The funeral doom icons do not merely offer a soundtrack to one’s agony, but also demonstrate the beauty that can often be found in misery.