Shape of Despair is a funeral doom metal band from Finland.

The band… Read Full Bio ↴Shape of Despair is a funeral doom metal band from Finland.

The band was founded in 1995 as Raven by Jarno Salomaa (guitars, later also keyboards), Tomi Ullgrén (bass, later also guitars) and Toni "Otso" Mäensivu (drums, later also vocals) as a faster, instrumental black metal-isch band following the footsteps of their contemporaries like Strid, Burzum, Darkthrone and Unholy. The trio soon realized that the music they played wasn't as good as they would have wanted, lacking the atmosphere and emotion of the bands that influenced them. They needed to either step up their songwriting game or try something else completely. During the summer of '95 Raven recorded their rehearsals with a simple cassette recorder, capturing all the songs that later became the Alone In The Mist demo, for the first time on tape. After listening to the rehearsal tape and realizing they actually had something in their hands they could stand behind, Raven wanted to record the tracks in a proper studio. It took the band three years to do it. Raven entered Arkki-studio in early '98. They still hadn't tried any vocals until the very last minute, when they decided they wanted to test how the songs would sound with Mäensivu's vocals and were surprised how well they actually fit. The Alone In The Mist demo [1] was not released until 2016, when the band thought it was the proper time to do it. They changed their name in September 1998 to Shape Of Despair. The decision to change the name came down to basically not wanting to be confused with the UK hard rock stalwarts Raven. Obviously, their new moniker fit their new sound better too.

In 2000 they signed a deal with Spikefarm Records and released their debut album Shades of...with Samu Ruotsalainen on drums.

The second album Angels of Distress, released on September 2001, featured Pasi Koskinen on lead vocals. Sami Uusitalo joined up in 2002 to play bass for the third album Illusion's Play. It was released in 2004.

In 2005, the band released a compilation titled Shape of Despair, featuring rare and unreleased material from the group, including tracks from the band's first demo Alone in the Mist and a new song called Sleeping Murder, recorded over a four-day period at Sundicoop Studios in Savonlinna, Finland. After a 5-year lull the band released the EP Written in My Scars and a split EP with Before The Rain.

Their 4th full-length album Monotony Fields was released on June 15, 2015 by Season of Mist.

Fragile Emptiness
Shape of Despair Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Fragile emptiness
Crackling whilst I move
My hands (penetrating)
Through this silence
I beheld this loneliness and
A dream in illusion
It awakens me
In somber

In drifting
Absurdness

As a burden
This dream moves in me
Tiding me inside
Closing

In it's shallowness
In it's entwined self
Life torn widely open

Flowing within this dream

Slowly sleeping away
Drifting from used reality

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Shape of Despair's song Fragile Emptiness describe a sense of loneliness and detachment from reality that the singer is experiencing. The opening line "Fragile emptiness" suggests a feeling of hollowness and vulnerability, and the following line "crackling whilst I move" creates an image of something brittle and fragile that might break at any moment. The singer's hands "penetrating" through the silence reinforces the idea that they are alone and searching for connection.

The singer mentions a "dream in illusion" that both awakens them and causes them to feel burdened. This dream is described as "in somber/in drifting/absurdness" which suggests a sense of confusion and aimlessness. The singer also describes feeling "tiding me inside" which implies a feeling of being swept away or overcome by this dream.

The final lines suggest that the dream is a way for the singer to escape from the difficulties of reality. They describe "flowing within this dream/slowly sleeping away/drifting from used reality" which creates an image of someone slipping into a peaceful sleep, away from the harshness of the world around them.

Line by Line Meaning

Fragile emptiness
The emptiness is frail and vulnerable.

Crackling whilst I move
The silence is broken by the sound of movement.

My hands (penetrating)
The singer's hands are passing through the emptiness.

Through this silence
The emptiness is quiet and still.

I beheld this loneliness and
The artist has seen and experienced a feeling of isolation.

A dream in illusion
The singer has a vision that is not real.

It awakens me
The dream prompts the singer to become more aware.

In somber
The mood is melancholy and serious.

In drifting
The mind is wandering aimlessly.

Absurdness
The situation is senseless or nonsensical.

As a burden
The dream is dragging the singer down.

This dream moves in me
The dream is stirring within the artist.

Tiding me inside
The dream is bringing a sense of change to the singer's inner world.

Closing
The dream feels like it is closing in on the singer.

In it's shallowness
The dream lacks depth or significance.

In it's entwined self
The dream is tangled and confusing.

Life torn widely open
The dream has exposed a raw and painful truth about life.

Flowing within this dream
The singer is immersed in the dream and its imagery.

Slowly sleeping away
The singer is gradually losing awareness and drifting off.

Drifting from used reality
The artist is moving away from the familiar world of waking life.

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JARNO SALOMAA, NATALIE KOSKINEN, PASI KOSKINEN, SAMI ANTERO UUSITALO, SAMU RUOTSALAINEN, TOMI MIKAEL ULLGREN

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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