INNUMERABLE FORMS : " Pain Effulgence '

This dark death doom band features members of Power Trip, Mammoth Grinder, Iron Lung, and a litany of underground metal acts. They have mastered a dark and oppressive sound, but once I am in the second song, I find myself faced with the question, Can these guys write a song. Just because they are from bands with a name, does that mean they were the songwriters for that band, or did they just show up and play their parts as required? There is no answer found in the second song, as they are trying to solidify a depressive mood. 

"Blotted Inside" finds that even after slowing down, they are a death metal band at heart. The low, heavily affected guttural nature of the vocals works at either tempo, though it feels more resonant in the more depressive drone they lock into. Melodic guitar lines flow around the steady pulse of darkness. "Dissonant Drift" is truth in advertising as the gurgle of the vocals bubbles under the atmosphere of trudge of doom. The pace is picking up into a more deliberate stomp by the end. Then they hammer back at you, going into " Ressentiment," it is punctuated by atmospheric fills of guitar, but largely moves like death metal until the guitar solo takes over. 

By "Overwhelming Subjection," things are starting to run together as the uniform sounds collide.  Guitar melodies can help to differentiate things if you are giving a close neough listen. This can be heard as 'Pain Effulgence." Everything sounds heavy and the guitar tone is as miserable as you want it to be, but it do get mired into a sound where the best moments of a band like My Dying Bride, who pulls this sort of mood off with more grace, or even a funeral band like Voken might be a fairer comparison., has more layers, these guys are just playing guitar well with little story to tell.  For that reason I am going to give this album an 8, excellent execution with not much to say, but for some fans of this genre, that is what they are looking for.Out on Porfound Lore 

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Death is June- Looking Back in Anger at Power Trip's "Nightmare Logic"

 I was tempted to review their first album, but this one seems to find the band in the midst of their fully realized vision of what they wanted to do. But why are we covering it during death metal month? Well their brand of cross over thrash meets at the same intersection where death metal also sprang from. There are many points of this album that recalls both Obituary and Sepultura. Their singer Riley Gale, never sings a note , but rather he lets his voice go into a growl when he extends a phrase. Speaking of phrasing the staccato approach is really the only hard core element of this album. There first album touched on that a little more. The lead single from the album "Executioner's Tax" is pretty catchy even with the punchy but one dimensional style of vocals utilized not only here but for the bulk of the album. 

They pick up the pace  on "Firing Squad" to something marginally more punk than Slayer. It might be the gang vocals that push it over into hard core. They do employ some pretty mosh worthy thrash riffs on this one as well. The title track works off a more straight forward chug , and carries a chorus that owes a little more to the Cro-Mags than not. "Waiting Around to Die" is more punk in it's drive, but Gale's vocals lean toward the death metal side of their influences slightly. There is a more Sepultura feel to "Ruination". This gives a glimpse into how this band could share stages with death metal bands and no one batted an eye. The production on this album is really dialed in , there is a world of difference in the over all guitar sound. 

There is more hook in the riff to "If Not Us Then Who". Sepultura comparisons could be made as well as other 80s thrash bands like Coroner or Wargasm. The gang vocal chorus works well enough. The production of the vocals on this album is top notch, the effects are right where you need them. The death metal is felt on the hyper aggression of "Crucifixation". It slows into a pretty power moshing section. I will give this album a 9.5, they do one specific thing really well that carries this album, along with the fact it is a mix that is perfectly dialed in.what they When this album came out in 2017 I was not really into what they were doing and had to hear the write song at the right time to check them out.  

Mammoth Grinder : "Cosmic Crypt"

In music journalism there seems to be two schools of thought either paint the band into the picture of who you want your audience to be or if you are really into kissing a record label or P/R companies ass, paint them into being who they want them to be. I try not to play into either school and try to just call a spade a spade . It's what I used to like about rap from the 80s or 90s they had a quality control and used to call out rapper who were whack, These days that only happens in the comment section of music blogs and tend to devolve into trolling with not reference point or fact. I can say this band is not whack as they are good at what they do , however what they do is very easy to define. I think i'ts pretty easy, to say without question these guys are death metal. Upon second listen I think these guys benefit from the fact that they come in so heavy it makes it sound like there is more of an original flavor than might really be there, however The  execution of the second is more convincing. They tend to steer closer to the tried and true formula for death metal the rest of the way to the point that it's not until the fourth song "Divine Loss" that I am able to hear a clear cut distinction between songs. There is a little more of a punk undercurrent to that one. I think one of the albums more redeeming aspects is the fact these songs are very condensed. The longest song is still under 4 minutes so they never wear you out in one song with too much of the same thing.

Many of the guitar solos recall early Slayer and Morbid Angel, lots of diving off of the whammy bar.The drumming is a little less nuanced than what I want from death metal that I find exceptional. There is less double bass, making me think this guys used to be in a punk band. "Superior Firepower" is so straight forward that it begins to bore me a minute into it. The punk element to the drumming starts to get on my nerves as it does the stiff pitter patter on the snare that makes me think of those monkey toys with the cymbals. "Human is Obsolete" doesn't do anything to change my opinion and "Locusts Nest" really only seems to be a faster paced version of the previous song. "Mysticism" is the first song that really begins to change my mind I think I like the fact the dense dark riff reminds me of the first Unleashed album. They slightly revert back to their old ways by going into the monkey cymbal beat here and there, but I can handle it better when it's book ended by something more interesting."Rotting Robes" has a moshier riff to it that I could have found my self wanting to jump into the pit as a teenager so I gotta give them props for that one as the title track that closes the album is much less memorable.

Are these guys good at what they do? Yes. Do they have some cool riffs here and there ? Yes. Do you think I am someone who is content with cool riffs here and there? No. Do I need a greater sense of dynamics and some atmosphere to convince me things are darker? Yes. Do I already own all of the death metal albums from the 80s where this was done ? Yes.  So given these facts I am giving this album a 6. If you would have answered them differently or are too young to remember when this type of music came out then it might be more impressive and you might want to round it up higher.

The Forecast for Music in 2018

We will see the year slowly evolve into more apocalyptic sounds. Music is not created in a vacuum. Trends emerge from bands on touring hearing what bands audiences are reacting to then making music that is either a reaction for or against that sound. Djent is dead and buried along side nu-metal as this point with metal core not far behind. They are no longer getting signed by labels with an eye to the future as those band wagons crashed. Also  dead is vest metal and really any super-retro stuff, by that we are talking about 70s, retro is now the 80s and 90s. Even still cock rock is dead as a limp dick, even the godfathers of this would be smart to hang it up at this point. Though W.A.S.P, Whitesnake and Lita Ford are releasing albums this year.What was once stoner rock is going to find itself colored with shades of shoe-gaze or grunge. If you are waiting for the 90s to make a comeback here is where to look. Fu-man Chu and Monster Magnet both have albums coming out the latter was always one foot into grunge any ways.

Crust is going to be the next trend with many of these hybrid grind-core/ punk bands taking the charge to bring in the darker times with more sonic sounds. Not going to be mainstream, but occupy the place in hipster metal that the post-rock influence black metal bands who are not going to fade into the background used to occupy.The two bands likely to break into bigger audiences are Power-Trip and Avatar. Both bands riding the momentum touring generated for them in 2017. Avatar will take the throne from Ghost, when it comes to big gimmicky theatrical metal. The most dangerous band will be Destroyer 666, who will find a larger audience and push buttons against the grain in what has become a climate in metal that has become too safe and tip toeing around being politically correct. Metal should be a middle finger to the world.

Except to see album in the next six months from well a few bands I'm sure but these are ones at at least give half a shit about.

My Bloody Valentine

the Atlas Moth

Hooded Menace

Tribulation

Portal

Therion

Ministry

Sigh

Nachtmystium

Monster Magnet

A Perfect Circle

Interpol

Chvrches