INNUMERABLE FORMS

INNUMERABLE FORMS     “Pain Effulgence”

By Dr. Abner Mality

Death doom metal doesn’t get much better or more archetypal than what we find on “Pain Effulgence”,  the third LP from this multi-headed hydra featuring members of MAMMOTH GRINDER, POWER TRIP, GENOCIDE PACT, DREAM UNENDING, SUMERLANDS and more. Somehow I have missed out on the first two LPs from these guys, a heinous mistake I plan to correct soon.

This is the kind of metal that flattens mountains and crushes souls. Imagine the best of MY DYING BRIDE, but without the keyboards and violins. Think of what PARADISE LOST might have sounded like if they had continued solely in the vein of “Lost Paradise”. Or imagine the doomiest moments of INCANTATION but injected with subtle melody. We have all of these things on “Pain Effulgence” and even better, we don’t have fifteen or twenty minute songs that drag themselves into boredom. INNUMERABLE FORMS pack a ton of power into compact and effective shapes.

The tracks emphasize the DEATH side of doom/death, with cyclopean roars from Justin DeTore and colossal downtuned riffs that sound like they were recorded inside a cathedral within the world’s largest cave. Yet melody is not entirely absent. There are some sad guitar tones embedded in the crush, meaning there is always a prevailing melancholy with the song. There’s some faster aggression as well, injected at just the right place.

It’s true, this is a sound that has been done before, more than once, but never with such an economy of style. It’s gruesome doom that plods, but not into oblivion. Eight tracks of somber slaughter to bring you to your knees.

PROFOUND LORE RECORDS 

INNUMERABLE FORMS