{"id":621802,"date":"2025-12-09T08:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T08:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621802\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T08:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T08:32:14","slug":"clouds-desprins-things-you-might-have-missed-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621802\/","title":{"rendered":"Clouds – Desprins [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Those of you who have been paying close attention may remember that Clouds<\/strong>\u2019 2021 album Desp\u01cer\u021bire was the subject of my very first review<\/a> here at AMG; a review that in my n00bish na\u00efvet\u00e9, I appended with a 4.5<\/strong>. I don\u2019t regret it, but will admit the name Clouds<\/strong> had faded a little in my mind before a sudden and apparently unannounced drop of Desprins back in January caused all the sweet sadness to come flooding back. The distinctive shroud of flute-accented darkness fell instantly. At once I was transported back to that November evening I first listened to Clouds<\/strong>, gazing out of the train window at the blackness beyond.<\/p>\n

Desprins is transportive not simply as a continuation of Clouds<\/strong>\u2019 endless journey of despair, but as an extension of it. Heavier and simultaneously more reflective than Desp\u01cer\u021bire, it channels the group\u2019s black, choked funeral doom through a spacious synth veil recalling their earliest material, but now more confidently and atmospherically woven. The duality between the heaviest and gentlest aspects\u2014a tension Clouds<\/strong> have always experimented with\u2014is sharpened. The grittiness of the metal, the plaintiveness of the singing, and airiness of the acoustic instruments are more stark, but in a way that balances the musical and emotional waves of tension and release. In a limbo of atmosphere, Daniel Neagoe tells us in solemn whispers what he elsewhere expresses with pained cries and guttural roars; heavy riffs lift and drums slip away at bar\u2019s end for a piano to take the lead; quiet softly crescendoes back on the ascent of a flute: all flow and fade inevitably out of each other.<\/p>\n

\ufeffClouds \u2013 Desprins by Loud Rage Music<\/a><\/p>\n

One could argue that the congruence of Desprins\u2019 apparently disparate musical elements owes its existence to how straightforwardly, heartbreakingly beautiful the melodies thus forged are. Whether first announced by a flute (\u201cDisguise\u201d), a piano (\u201cUnanswered\u201d), synth (\u201cLife Becomes Lifeless\u201d) or a guitar (\u201cChain Me,\u201d \u201cChasing Ghosts\u201d), all players pull on the thread of the theme before long. The chasms that come from marrying guitar chords with flute (\u201cLife Becomes Lifeless,\u201d \u201cForge Another Nightmare\u201d), and opening out to stripped-back synth and apathetic cleans, when you can hear every touch on the keys and feel the impact of every drumbeat, are profound musically and emotionally. These are the kinds of passages designed for wistful staring into the middle distance, whose pathos is so acute, it\u2019s almost unfair. \u201cLife Becomes Lifeless,\u201d \u201cChain Me,\u201d and the finale of \u201cChasing Ghosts\u201d are especially potent. With a seemingly more sparse soundscape, they achieve what Shape of Despair <\/strong>do with a more grandiose one. I am, admittedly, a crybaby, but Clouds<\/strong>\u2019 ability to bring me to tears in a more melancholic frame of mind is something I hold in high esteem.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more so than before, Clouds<\/strong>\u2019 latest incarnation is something that either really works for you or really doesn\u2019t. I\u2019m obviously in the former camp. Like other funeral doom acts, and analogously dolorous music, the portal of sadness they create is effective only insofar as it can pull its listener in. Desprins sees a doubling-down on everything that might make Clouds <\/strong>hard to listen to\u2014the misery, the polarity between the crushing and uplifting\u2014but its execution only makes this project more unique and more uniquely captivating.<\/p>\n

Tracks to Check Out: <\/strong>\u201dDisguise,\u201d \u201cLife Becomes Lifeless,\u201d \u201cForge Another Nightmare,\u201d \u201cChasing Ghosts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those of you who have been paying close attention may remember that Clouds\u2019 2021 album Desp\u01cer\u021bire was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,69573,12935,193420,42638,96020,77,188715,269,193421,193422,193423,189702,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-621802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-clouds","10":"tag-death-doom","11":"tag-desprins","12":"tag-doom","13":"tag-doom-death","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-funeral-doom","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-romanian-metal","18":"tag-shape-of-despair","19":"tag-things-you-might-have-missed","20":"tag-things-you-might-have-missed-2025","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115688685897885512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}