Shape Of Despair announce new album ‘Return To The Void’

SHAPE OF DESPAIR have announced a new album!

Titled Return To The Void, the upcoming album from the Finnish funeral doom band is the follow-up to 2015’s Monotony Fields and 2016’s Alone In The Mist. The new album is scheduled to be released in February next year, via Season of Mist,

Work on the upcoming album started in 2020 and continued through May 2021. Production duties were wrested from the previous producer Max Kostermaa and in-sourced to the band directly. Ruotsalainen, Salomaa, Koivula, and Miika Niemelä engineered, respectively, at Beat Domination Studios, D-Studios, and Doom Cave Studios. The group also looked inside their ranks for mixing, handing the job off to [drummer] Ruotsalainen [FINNTROLL, METSATÖLL]. The mastering was given to Svante Forsbäck [VOLBEAT, RAMMSTEIN] at Chartmakers West in Espoo, Finland.

“Not long after Monotony Fields, I started composing for Return to the Void,” says guitarist/founding member Jarno Salomaa about the upcoming album. “At first, the title song sounded too primitive. I thought I would make a solo album out of it, but after a while, the song reminded me of older RAVEN material. Naturally and eventually, it started to feel like a SHAPE OF DESPAIR song. Return to the Void isn’t the follow-up to Monotony Fields in the traditional sense. As stated, the songwriting goes way back to the first music we put together for RAVEN. I will say my approach has changed after all these years of making music. I found new and different ways to shape the arrangements and my compositions. What matters most, I think, is that it still has the SHAPE OF DESPAIR atmosphere.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, the band have released the first song from the upcoming album; Reflection In Slow Time.

Listen to Reflection In Slow Time here: 

Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. Return To The Void
2. Dissolution
3. Solitary Downfall
4. Reflection In Slow Time
5. Forfeit
6. The Inner Desolation

Return To The Void is set for release on February 25th via Season Of Mist. Pre-orders area available now and can be purchased here.

For more information on SHAPE OF DESPAIR like their official page on Facebook.