Day: February 10, 2014

That of My Shameful is a name that has been around for several years already, being a band with no less than four well-crafted albums to its credit released in the period 2003-2008, a frequency that is, on closer inspection, rather unusual for those who move in territories as far from frenetic as those of funeral death doom. After a five-year silence and a heavy reshuffle in the line-up, ours reappears in the form of a duo, with the founder and sole survivor of the original lineup, Finland’s Sami Rautio, handling all instruments and vocals, assisted by German drummer Jürgen Frohling. My Shameful‘s sound, with no particular surprises in store, nonetheless proves to be always up to the task, thanks to a rather effective alternation between more atmospheric songs and others with an icy, almost lashing pace. In fact, if Survive Through Tomorrow is a track endowed with a beautiful guitar melody, the subsequent and very long Sick of All This Weakness showcases several compositional facets, as well as an attempt, successful only in part, not to flatten itself too much on the usual compositional patterns. This Is The Last Stand shifts into more melancholic territories akin to Officium Triste, while Frozen Soil amplifies that characteristic of Rautio’s songwriting that makes Penance a work imbued more with a deaf rage than with gloomy resignation; for that matter, both Road To Ruin and No One Will Come, the latter despite a long semi-acoustic introduction, fully preserve these traits that, in the end, nevertheless prove to be an inherent peculiarity of the work. My Shameful, while not renouncing the more melancholic traits of the genre, prefer to react to grief by pouring bitter-tasting rancor into the music rather than wallowing in self-pity, succeeding in producing a record of funeral death doom that is undoubtedly successful, even if it cannot be placed absolutely among the best released in recent times.   

2013 – Independent