In 2006, multi-instrumentalists Brian Almeida and Christopher Carlino formed The Shape, an exciting new band with extreme metal and death metal influences. Over their 15-year existence, The Shape has recorded 6 albums and an extended play and has played more than 600 shows across Connecticut, New England, and the East Coast. Of the 6 albums recorded, three have been digitally published and are available on all digital streaming platforms – The Impurity (… Of Gods, Monsters, Heroes, and Villains) Deluxe Edition, The Masque of the Red Death, and The World Away. These albums were released in 2019, 2014, and 2017 respectively, and highlight the extreme growth the band has undergone over their more than a decade in the industry.
The Impurity (… Of Gods, Monsters, Heroes, and Villains)
The Impurity was originally released in 2012, but in 2019, the band decided they wanted to refine the sound of some songs on the project and re-released the Deluxe Edition of the project. While this is the earliest of the projects by The Shape available on DSPs, it is by no means amateur. A common theme throughout The Shape’s music is their great songwriting and vocals over hard-hitting, fast drums and melodic guitar riffs. On The Impurity, the band was still finding their sound, but the record still stands up against their other works today.
The Masque of the Red Death
Released in 2014, The Masque of the Red Death helped The Shape grow its existing fanbase with the help of a number of positive reviews from publications such as Alternative Control and Bravewords, the latter of which gave the album a 9/10. Continuing to test the waters with new sounds, The Masque of the Red Death draws on metalcore, extreme metal, progressive metal, and melodic death metal influences, without sounding recycled or repetitive. Bravewords says “Most of the tracks possess the crunch of Metallica and Machine Head mixed with modern metalcore elements of Shadows Fall with progressive metal moments of bands such as Between The Buried And Me and Revocation” in their write-up in January of 2015. Still working towards perfection, the band took the next three years to create their next project, The World Away.
The World Away
The World Away is The Shape’s latest and undoubtedly strongest body of work to date. While The Masque of the Red Death received positive press, The World Away showed the past albums up with two of its singles – The World Away and Where the Sun Sleeps charting on Billboard. The World Away also received positive press from Wonderbox Metal and Blabbermouth, with Wonderbox Metal stating “The Shape have produced quite a varied, wide-ranging, and well-rounded release with The World Away. Catchy and memorable, the band are to be commended for organising their various influences into music that has its own personality and flavour, and The World Away is a very good listen for anyone into alternative metal.” The World Away resonated with listeners and journalists alike and put The Shape on the mainstream radar. On their fourth official project, the band delivered an eclectic compilation of impressive, authentic tracks.
Conclusion
In 2020, the band took a live performance hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, and after a brief time period away from the band, Chris Carlino returned, creating two brand new efforts to be released in 2021 and 2022 respectively, that showcase the heaviest, darkest sides of The Shape’s sound and message, and also their most pensive and versatile. With “The Age of Doom and Fear”, the band needed to look no further than the real-life terrors of the world of 2020 and the beyond.
“The Age of Doom and Fear” is an emphatic musical analysis and statement of life as it is currently and the paths of horror and hope that may follow our choices. The Shape looks forward to mesmerizing live audiences again in 2021 with a brand new selection of sound and vision. Stay up to date on The Shape’s next moves on their website theshaperocks.com.