Journey into the thoughts of Shattered Hope.
Three years after their last album, Nick (vocals, Ocean of Grief, Föhn), Sakis (guitar, Decemberance), Thanos (guitar), Thanasis (bass, Witchcrawl) and Yiannis (drums) unveil their new EP, Memoir, via Fucking Your Creation Records.
Melancholic piano greets us on In Waning my Days before joining the saturated rhythm and towering vocal parts, adding an aggressive touch to the waves of raw power. Slowness gives the tortured leads a special flavor, complementing the jerky moments when the vocalist lashes out and becomes terrifying as before the harrowing finale, then dissonance fills the air as A Crevice of Painful Light begins. Lead guitar anchors itself in Black Metal roots with piercing tones, but the band will surprise us with an intense passage where clear and saturated vocals overlap, just before crushing us with a heavy break with heady Gothic accents, then bursting into flames. The EP closes with Ble Himonas, a cover of Greek rock band Diafana Krina that I’d never heard of, and while the basic track already sounds relatively melancholy, Shattered Hope‘s version retains its steamy, almost Post-Rock feel, integrating plaintive clean vocals with background roars, creating a contrast of the finest effect.
Discovering Shattered Hope with this new EP was a very pleasant experience. Memoir is relatively short, but it allows the band to bring a perceptible touch of greyness to our day with simple but intense passages.
85/100
