Review Summary: Have you looked Evil in the face lately?
This Sunday ***ing blows. After three brutal nine hour shifts that comprised the latter part of my week, I was looking to blow some steam on Sunday with some good old fashioned Cracker Barrel and American football. However, nothing would go according to plan. Cracker Barrel was packed inside and out for the next 2 hours which denied me of my half and half iced tea, a three veggie plate, meatloaf and biscuits with strawberry jelly. I was upset but I shrugged it off because I went to a kickass buffet soon after. When I got home later I popped in front of the eighty inch tube on my UFO couch and got comfortable. Well, Carolina’s playing was inconsistent which ruled in another loss to their already less than stellar season. But worst of all was how poorly my fantasy team performed this weak. They were god damn awful (*** YOU AUSTIN, WELKER, MCCOY) and despite being one of my only outlets for channeling happiness, Big Sexy let me down which left me fuming and in need of hateful music. This is where Innumerable Forms comes into play.
Innumerable Forms is an excellent new death metal outfit from Boston, Massachusetts. Led by multi instrumentalist Justin Detore, this one man outfit creates some of the dirtiest, darkest and raw sounding OSDM to come out of the American scene in quite some time. His first contribution to the metal scene is Dark Worship, a pulverizing three track expedition into the fiery depths of Christ’s least favorite place. Hell. Or McDonalds you be the judge. The sound of Innumerable Forms is decidedly old school in flavor, mixing Swedish and Floridian brutality into a quaint little ten minute EP for all those Incantation/Grave fan boys/girls out there.
One man metal bands often get lauded because let’s be honest here. There is way too much ego/douchebaggery in metal. Prime example being a certain Norwegian paleface that is currently paying off the tabs of all the churches he’s burnt down. However, Justin isn’t having any of that. His ability to craft competent if not excellent mid paced death metal should be commended based on the effort he displays here. The guitar tone is dense, crushing and heavily distorted, recalling the early 90’s Stockholm sound. Justin weaves through low to mid tempos while throwing in fiendish solos to compliment the skull bashing nature of I.F. There are some real classy groove here and along with the speedier riff outbursts there really isn’t much else you could ask more than that. Vocals are another highlight. His voice is decidedly Satan friendly, implementing fiendishly guttural growls that remain unintelligible for the entire eleven minute length. Guy could be singing about cod fish and pencils and it would still be ***ing brootal. The rhythm section is impressive, more so that Justin is responsible for both respective positions. Drums don’t try to do to much, they are utilized solely for providing a nice steady beat. Bass is low in the mix due to the semi raw production values but that’s not really an issue to me.
The music is generally catchy while always aggressive. This EP should appeal to most metallers unless your favorite death metal band happens to be Wintersun. Then I would still recommend it to you but only after I give you a swift kick to the face. Production isn’t the rawest that I’ve heard but still emits that old school vibe to it. Songwriting is balanced and musicianship is superb. No pretense, no overbearing snare hits, no breakdowns and no auto tuned clean choruses will be found here. If you love dark, atmospheric death metal in the vein of Incantation, Portal and Autopsy then you should love this .
