Shattered Hope - Memoir

Shattered Hope is a death/doom metal band from Greece, who formed in 2022.  Their latest release, "Memoir," is their overall sixth release and their first EP.  They have previously released two demos and three full-length albums.

Shattered Hope’s brand of death doom is a perfect storm of cavernous funeral doom, atmospheric depression, and Gothic tones.  All these elements blend together quite well, making for dynamic music that is immediately engaging despite the slower tempos they so obviously use.  

“Memoir,” continues this trend and further solidifies their sound.  I look at this little EP as a statement: the band loves and understands the doom genre, their craft, and they aren’t going anywhere.  With just three songs, one of which is a cover, the band says a lot in a smaller amount of time than they normally have.  In under 27 minutes, the band has created a full encompassing doom metal album with huge scope and breadth. 

I really like the production too.  I wouldn’t call it raw but it’s abrasive enough to keep the music heavy, even at its most depressing and melancholic moments.  So many forget that any kind of doom can be extreme–this album’s sound is a constant reminder of how it’s just as crushing as anything under the obsidian moonlight. 

“In My Waning Days,” begins with those aforementioned Gothic tones, courtesy of Eygenia Theocharatou,  before delivering a slab of riffs as cold as a morgue slab.  The keys and riffs compliment each other very well, each of them offering two sides of the same coin.  George’s (Tenebrae Semitarius) drums are powerful, keeping the flow at a decent rate.  Thanasis’ (Witchcrawl) bass is a giant void, but instead of pulling everything into itself for destruction, it keeps the instruments in orbit as a strong foundation for the composition to revolve around. 

Guitarists Thanos and Sakis(Decemberance, Tenebrae Semitarius) know just when to hang back a bit and give the atmosphere room to world build, especially in the song’s middle section which is made of clean tones and liminal spaces.  Of course, they also know when to pour on the emotions, as evident by the blanket of grief and emotional solo that follows.

“A Crevice of Painful Light,” takes a more intense approach, especially with the vocals.  Nick (Fohn, Ocean of Grief), vocals are corrosive with a special sort of depth to delivery the right amount of energy to the songs.  At times he sounds blackened, desperate growls and screams echoing through an exhausting night of unrest. 

The atmosphere of this song is very downtrodden but that chorus…wow!!!! It changes the song a bit, a surprising moment of clarity that rings powerful and true, even as much as the extreme vocals.  It’s surprisingly catchy and I found it stuck in my head for some time.  

But after that moment, the song gets ultra dense, slow, and pours on the death doom as thick as tears at a funeral.  It’s the perfect anthesis to the chorus yet everything in the song fits together.

The final song is a cover of a Diafana Krina song called “Ble Himonas,” which is apparently one of their influences.  To be honest, I have no idea who she is so I don’t have a frame of reference of how this cover sounds compared to the original.  But what I do know is this song fits right at home with the other two songs.  It’s the most atmospheric of the three and I like the interplay between the bass and keys–it sounds pretty unique to me.   

Shattered Hope’s “Memoir” EP is a great starting point for anyone getting into not only the band itself but also the deathly, more extreme side of doom metal.