heavy-metal-darkness: Shivered | Chains

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Shivered | Chains | Independent

Release Date: November 2, 2025

Format: Digital

Genre: Gothic/Doom Metal

Country: Iran

Shivered is the long running project of Mohammad Maki, a musician who has carried the flag of Iranian gothic doom with stubborn dedication. His work usually wanders through sorrow, personal collapse and the strange quiet that follows emotional ruin. After the previous album "Existential Mourning" in 2024, he returns with "Chains", another fully self built creation, written, performed and produced by him alone. The focus this time is tighter, the atmosphere colder, and the emotional world far more intimate. The album is tied together by a story about mass suicide and the slow collapse of the human mind. It invites the listener into a private catastrophe.

"Chains" moves at a steady, unhurried pace. The riffs have a grey tone, almost drained of hope, while the melodies wander like someone drifting through an empty city after the end of everything. The vocals stay restrained, closer to a wounded whisper than a dramatic outburst. The overall character is minimal, bleak and patient, creating a long descent instead of sudden emotional hits. This gives the music a hypnotic quality, as if the world in the story is dissolving, one thought at a time.

The concept is central. The protagonist takes his own life, slips into a ghostly state and becomes the force that brings humanity to its end. Chains, in his mind, turn into the ropes that descend on the world. The album follows this collapse until nothing is left standing. It is dark material, but it is handled with care, and the music matches the narrative with an almost documentary stillness.

There are a few guests who add their own color. Luca Schulte appears for a distortion solo in "Human Parasite". Julie Orwell’s voice rises in "Hanging Bloom" with a distant, aching softness. Jim Thomas provides spoken words in the title track "Chains", giving the finale a grim, storylike resolution. Their contributions fit inside Maki’s grey architecture without taking over.

Shivered’s approach here is more focused than before. The themes and the sound meet in a straight line, nothing flashy, nothing theatrical, just one long descent into emotional shutdown. It is the kind of album that rewards listeners who want something heavy in spirit, not in speed. The sadness is steady and unflinching, and the music follows that path without hesitation.

"Chains" lands as a solid addition to modern gothic doom. It does not try to be bigger than its own story. It is here to document sorrow, and it succeeds through consistency and a cold, personal tone. It is the sort of album that leaves you staring at the wall for a moment before you move on with your day, which is fitting for material built on grief, emptiness and the end of civilization.

Score: 7.5