I have been on a steady diet of death-doom for some time, and while I have enjoyed most of what I’ve heard, it has left me craving something familiar. Thus, I decided to return to square one and seek out the more melodic aspects of death-doom, the kind found in bands like The Man-Eating Tree. Although they aren’t Finnish, Shores of Null is a band I’ve heard about but never quite taken the time to explore. What better way to acquaint myself with their music than through their newest full-length, Homesick?

Homesick is an interesting dichotomy of sound and texture, an album that invites repeated listens as you search for new musical threads to pick up on. One might not immediately associate death-doom with melodic, anthemic choruses and instrumental arrangements that captivate the listener and burrow deep into the brain. However, Shores of Null seem to have delivered a fully realized, mature record that comes swinging right out of the gate. The album is rooted in melancholy, layered with a bleakness that settles like frost in your bones. Even when the music becomes lively and warm during its louder, more anthemic passages, it inevitably returns to the stark outlook that makes you want to burrow beneath a pile of blankets when the cold sets in.

This is particularly evident on the sixth track, “Dreaming of a Scar,” whose defining features include a violin that evokes sadness and despair and a slow, deliberate introduction before the song returns to the brighter, more thematic sound that colors Homesick. The track also sits comfortably in the middle of the album, acting as a change of pace and offering a moment of respite from the record’s melodic, emotionally stirring, yet inescapable melancholy.

However, while the music is compelling and delivers everything I want from melodic death-doom, I find myself equally fascinated by the album’s concept. Ultimately, Homesick explores the longing for home and the void left by its absence, but it also challenges the very idea of home itself. Throughout its runtime, the album suggests that home should be respected and appreciated while simultaneously confronting the ways in which it can become poisonous. Songs like “Society Is the Murderer,” “Homesick,” and “Bleed to Life” hint at the demons one must face when returning to a place left behind, forcing a reckoning with what that place—whether a country, a house, or even the room you inhabit—has done to you.

Returning to somewhere you left years ago can be a nostalgic, comforting experience, but it can also mean confronting the things you hoped to leave behind: toxic family members, abuse, war, strife, and poverty. Home, in this sense, embodies a duality of nostalgia and dread, love and punishment, danger and warmth. The title track captures this tension particularly well. Its music is relatively upbeat and nostalgic, carrying a warmth that feels almost disconcerting when contrasted with the lyrics. Hearing someone sing, “My home is dangerous / my fate is treacherous,” over such a moving, grooving beat is enough to stop you in your tracks. Once you begin looking beneath the surface, you discover that Shores of Null have painted a complicated picture of home, one that might leave you staring out the window as the music washes over you.

While listening to Homesick, I couldn’t help but experience a sense of déjà vu. Perhaps it’s the sheer amount of gothic metal and death-doom I’ve been listening to and writing about over the past few months, but something about Shores of Null felt remarkably familiar, particularly in the vocals. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but after some digging, I realized that the sound reminded me of Motus Tenebrae’s In Sorrow’s Requiem, although one could also make a case for Amorphis as an influence. I find it interesting that Shores of Null and Motus Tenebrae, both Italian bands, seem to be working within a similar strain of melodic and gothic death-doom, independently arriving at a sound that shares some striking similarities.

As an introduction to Shores of Null, Homesick is a polished, deeply emotional album that stands out because it sounds unlike anything else I’ve heard this year, despite the similarities I’ve drawn to Motus Tenebrae. It has left me curious to explore the rest of the band’s discography and discover whether I’m ready to be emotionally devastated by death-doom all over again. Shores of Null may still have plenty of ground to cover, but Homesick demonstrates a remarkable level of maturity and emotional depth. I can only hope their future releases prove to be just as mature and beautiful.

—Hera

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Homesick will be available October 16 on Dusktone. For more information on Shores of Null, please visit their Facebook and Instagram pages.