01. Impulse
02. Indignation
03. Blotted Inside
04. Dissonant Drift
05. Ressentiment
06. Overwhelming Subjugation
07. Pain Effulgence
08. Austerity And Attrition

Death doom comes in all sorts of Innumerable Forms, but one thing you can always guarantee is a bone-crushingly heavy experience.

Innumerable Forms is a Boston, US-based death metal band established in 2007 by Justin DeTore. They had a slow start to their career, only releasing a handful of splits, demos, and EPs under then sole member DeTore. Nearly a decade later, Doug Cho (bass), Connor Donegan (drums), Chris Ulsh (guitars), and Jensen Ward (guitars) joined the ranks, and so the band became a quintet. These new additions, along with founder DeTore as vocalist/guitarist, went on to release the band's full-length debut Punishment In Flesh in 2018. This was then followed up 4 years later by their sophomore Philosophical Collapse (2022).

Over these two releases, the band developed a style that didn't necessarily break any new ground, paying homage to Scandinavia's 90s death metal scene whilst delving into the UK's melancholic death doom of the same era. They veered between slow crushing death doom with formidable slogging riffs, crushing bass, and pummeling drums, to moderately-paced, headbanging, semi-groovy OSDM with the classic ripping buzz saw tone, and it somewhat worked, despite sounding all too often familiar. Now they return once more, this time to unleash their 3rd full-length offering Pain Effulgence, which, through a relatively short 35-minute run-time, is generally more of the same. Here, the band once again traverse between 90s death doom and OSDM, creating dark, brooding soundscapes with a real sense of hopelessness, dread, and despair, while shining a momentary glimmer of hope and optimism through the pessimistic darkness. 

The songs are noticeably short in length for this genre, focusing more on dense and crushing intensity rather than long-drawn immersing atmospheres. Think along the lines of Grave meets early Paradise Lost, compacted into 5-minute-ish songs. The music is once again led by an almighty, powerful rhythm section, where the drums pummel thunderously with Earth-shattering force, alongside low-toned bass, which compliments the guitars exceptionally well. The riffs devastate listeners once more, alternating between slow death doom slogs, which sometimes border on funeral territory, and moderate tempo-heavy semi-groovy chugs, whilst the leads traditionally wail or unleash sweeping, mournful melodies. The deep, gnarly gutturals remain once again a stand-out element for me, as they echo like a demonic beast from the depths of the underworld.

Innumerable Forms do nothing here to reinvent the wheel. In fact, there isn't any particular moment that I personally find all that memorable, and, in terms of their actual songwriting, it's simply adequate for what's expected in this genre. I find in this instance, because the songs are short, they don't quite build enough momentum. They change the tempo often and when necessary, but I feel they could have built more atmosphere and allowed that intensity to brew. However, the area where, I find, they truly succeed in is their sound quality. It's polished around the edges just enough to give the elements their clarity, but still manages to retain that ruthlessly raw old-school 90s sound. There's both a sense of nostalgia and modern, fresh approach in what they do, and the ripping buzzsaw tone plays a key factor in making you honestly think this band hails from the lands of Scandinavia and not Boston in the US.

So, if you're simply craving some no-nonsense, dirty, raw, and bone-crushingly heavy death doom that's short enough to give you what you need in a quick fix, then look no further than Pain Effulgence.

Performance:	7
Songwriting:	6
Originality:	5
Production:	8