The fans embraced it and the critics raved about it; SHROUD OF DESPONDENCY’s
Dark Medications in Monastic Seclusion was that rare independent release that hit all the right buttons with its organic blend of beautiful acoustic and caustic black metal songs with lyrics focusing on isolation, despair, hatred, and one’s personal celebration of introversion. MetalGeorge Pacheco perhaps captured it best in a review on Metal Army America: “Dark Meditations in Monastic Seclusion suffers repeated listens very well, with each successive spin peeling back layers of brilliance for the listener, and proving that Shroud of Despondency are indeed a band to watch in 2011.” Guitarist/composer Rory Heikkila took it as a sign that the time was right to digitally release Objective: Isolation, a collection of previously unreleased material SHROUD OF DESPONDENCY recorded in 2009.
An Opposing Shore
This Transcends Belief
Incongruous
A Life Well Lived
Struggling With The Current
Wound
My Carrion
Silence After The Downfall
Heikkila discusses his reasoning behind the release of Objective:Isolation below. Please get in touch at clawhammerpr@gmail.com for your digital review now!
“With the newly released Dark Meditations In Monastic Seclusion doing so well I figured I’d keep the ball rolling by beginning to release some of the stuff that was recorded before it. Objective:Isolation is one such album and is, out of all the unreleased stuff, my personal favorite. It was recorded in two different sessions in the summer of 2009 and literally forced its way out of me during these sessions. I had nothing prearranged when I went into this album. I had no riffs, lyrics, artwork or anything that would lead a person to belief I was creating anything. I had ideas and a strong will to create. I also had a reason to create. Coming off a year spell where I wasn’t writing metal, in fact I barely picked up an electric guitar during this period, I suddenly realized I had stored up a lot of frustration, confusion, despair, and aggression. If I didn’t purge myself of these feelings something bad was going to happen, and I could feel it. So I began writing. The title came first. It’s a very cliche title, but the only appropriate one. I was disappearing inside myself, escaping to mental landscapes that were both serene and desolate. I was turning to the idea of isolation at a time when my life was anything but isolated. The cover and most of the artwork are of the section of Lake Superior that can be found in my hometown in Upper Michigan and was an easy choice for the art because this particular spot of the lake was a spot that I often retreated to with friends to get away from everything. So I was mentally retreating to this spot in times of stress, but there was something else. Something ‘darker’ inside as well. A lot of the times I was escaping to this place I was also imagining that the outside world had already died and I found great comfort in thinking of myself alone by the lake shore in a world that deserved its death. I didn’t give myself a lot of time to do the rest of the album. I knew that losing this drive was a great possibility so I worked non stop during these sessions, with one mic and the patience to program drums. I also didn’t edit lyrics or riffs. The album is largely an exercise in stream of consciousness performance. Most of the solos are one take. The lyrics have cliches that should have been edited out. There are flubbed notes all over and I don’t care. After the tracks were laid down the vocal sessions began and from there it was all mixing. Mixing this album was a fucking bitch and it was the thing that made me lose the drive to complete the album. So I put it away for a while and during this time met the guys that would become Shroud of Despondency 2011. While no one that is on Dark Meditations… can be found on Objective: Isolation and we are much more focused on writing material as a unit now, I still think this is an album worth hearing. And, while it is quite obvious that it is a DIY CD with no proper mastering or other “professional” minded nonsense allowed, I think it is obvious that the album has plenty of spirit and plenty of balls. So if you are one of the free spirits who sees yourself at war with the world and all its pathetic herd minded philosophies, give it some time. I think these lyrics from the song “Wound” sum up the album nicely: “I am there standing on the shores of Superior, reconciling the world with my interior. I could proclaim innocence but who would care? Who would even hear?”
