SHADES OF DEEP WATER is a Finnish Funeral Doom Metal band; "Death's Threshold" is their second full length album.  They have also released three demos, three Eps, and two compilation albums.

"Death's Threshold" is actually one massive piece of Doom that is divided up into four parts.  As far as Funeral Doom goes, the album is quite digestible considering it clocks in at around the forty-minute mark for run time.  As much as I love Funeral Doom, it can get very plodding and stuck within its own caverns of darkness thus turning into more of a bottomless pit than a true musical journey.  However, this one-man Doom band keeps each part flowing like the cold murky water that lies beneath this heavy cave of despair.  The violin and clean keys both play one of the more important parts on this album and done so with such passion and sorrow the songs feel baroque, organic, and even classical in nature.

Despite being enjoyed the most as one large piece, the songs can be taken as individuals—they move as part of one archaic beast but each one helps move it along; the way the album is composed allows for every piece to build upon the last while still have an identity of its own. "Part 1" opens with the aforementioned violin that lead into a solid wall of sound made up of the guitars and bass, all of which are backed up by the drums which lay the foundation this musical monolith rests upon.  Vocally, it is very much Death Metal; deep growls snarl out the lyrics.  I do wish they were a bit louder in the mix but at least this way they blend in perfectly and act as yet another important layer the growing darkness.

"Part 2" picks things up slightly with the temp and even throws in something that might be called melody but its just as twisted and broken as all the other elements around it.  The bass guitar riffs are especially potent, earth shattering while they send out tremors to carry the dark vibes further. "Part 3" is definitely more guitar oriented than the two movements before it, at least in the first half.  The distortion gives away to more clean instrumentation to finish out the track.  In some ways, this song is almost like two songs in of itself, such is varied musical journey it takes you on.

The final part is the definition of Funeral Doom, and the sound here is extremely crushing...the musical equivalent of an unmovable force sitting upon your chest.  The tight riffs create a denser, tension filled atmosphere that allows the vocals to be more up front.  The whole experience of this last track is definitely creepy and, honestly, a bit unnerving. As far as Funeral Doom goes, I seriously doubt anything released up until this point is as interesting or morbidly emotive as SHADES OF DEEP WATER's "Death's Threshold."  This album was obviously a big project to take on and I say it was achieved pretty damn well.