Following on from their three studio full-lengths, Greek Doom/Death Metal quintet Shattered Hope return with their superb new EP, the three-track, twenty-six-minute Memoir. A hugely emotive listen that delivers an impressive vocal range throughout, alongside a broad range of moods and styles to the tracks, Shattered Hope are not afraid to get creative with their sound.
Shattered Hope – Memoir EP (FYC Records)
Release Date: 9 November 2024
Words: Jools Green
The CD opens with In Waning My Days, which begins on a haunting piano repeat that forms the backbone of the track. Building in layers alongside harsh protracted vocals, heavy riffs are delivered at a slow reflective pace with that haunting repeating riff reflecting the piano. Further in, there is the addition of haunting, deep vocals and higher cleans, the music ebbing back so the whispered vocals can emerge.
This builds with slow, melancholic lead work, which again reflects the piano. We have more of those deeper, haunting vocals, which I love. They are superb. Closing on more piano, overall, this is a superbly reflective, slightly melancholic, and wonderfully funereal piece.
A Crevice Of Painful Light delivers a heavier mood from the offset. With acidic, tortuous vocals over a dark, haunting repeat, there is a very blackened quality to the repeat riffing and deep, acidic vocal delivery, which I think is, again, superb. Further in, the riffing becomes hypnotic and eerie, deepening and intensifying with pummeling drums elevating to haunting leadwork just before the halfway mark.
Clean, haunting vocals soar out of the back of that leadwork, which are then layered with deeper vocals, building further on the texture of the track, and dropping away to a very bleak, funereal mood just after midway with haunting guitar, deep, eerie harsh vocals and dramatic drum punctuation that slowly and gradually drops away.
If you have drifted into reflective and distant thought, you are swiftly drawn back as a spoken sound bite and intensified wave of riffs pull you back into reality. A dramatic and impactful track.
The final piece is a cover of Diafana Krina’s Ble Himonas, the original of which has a very reflective, bleak mood that suits Shattered Hope’s style. But I absolutely love how they have interpreted this with a doom leaning. It follows the original but takes a darker, more crushing path and gives it a modern twist, too. A superb interpretation that respects the roots of the track, this is a superb cover.
Memoir will initially be available as a limited edition (200 copies) 180gr black vinyl and in digital format with Digi CD and cassette to follow in the beginning of 2025.
