INNUMERABLE FORMS - Pain Effulgence as reviewed by Mark Jenkins. When Death-Doom Gets Dangerously Catchy

INNUMERABLE FORMS - Pain Effulgence as reviewed by Mark Jenkins

When Death-Doom Gets Dangerously Catchy

Holy shit. Boston's Innumerable Forms just dropped a fucking atom bomb on the underground with Pain Effulgence, and it's simultaneously the heaviest and most addictive thing you'll hear this year. This isn't your typical knuckle-dragging death-doom sludgefest—this is something far more sinister.

Justin DeTore and his crew of degenerates have weaponized melody in ways that should be illegal. Picture this: you're getting steamrolled by a Finnish death metal bulldozer circa '92, but somehow you're humming along to your own funeral march. It's fucked up in the best possible way.

THE RIFFS THAT KILL Chris Ulsh and Jensen Ward's guitar work is straight-up tectonic warfare. "Impulse" opens like a coffin lid slamming shut, while "Blotted Inside" churns with that putrid Demigod nastiness we all secretly crave. But here's the kicker—buried in all that cavernous brutality are these haunting melodies that'll stick in your brain like shrapnel. Connor Donegan's drums don't just keep time; they're the heartbeat of something dying slowly and beautifully.

The title track? Fucking masterpiece. It's what happens when Paradise Lost gets possessed by something genuinely evil. Seven minutes of suffocating atmosphere that somehow manages to be catchier than most pop songs. DeTore's vocals sound like they're being summoned from hell's basement, but the melody underneath is pure poison candy.

POP HOOKS FROM THE ABYSS Here's where things get weird (and brilliant): these maniacs have figured out how to sneak pop sensibilities into music that could level buildings. "Ressentiment" has this twisted earworm quality that makes zero sense on paper but works like gangbusters. It's like someone fed The Beatles to a wood chipper and reassembled the pieces in a plague pit.

This isn't nostalgia worship—it's evolution in action. Innumerable Forms took everything brutal about early '90s death-doom and infected it with something dangerously memorable. The result? An album that'll crush your skull while making you hit replay.

BOTTOM LINE: Pain Effulgence is essential listening for anyone who thinks underground metal has gotten too predictable. It's heavier than a collapsing cathedral and stickier than blood on concrete. Profound Lore struck gold with this one.

Rating: ESSENTIAL AND KILLER, FLAWLESS.

For fans of: Paradise Lost (when they still had balls), Winter, Hooded Menace, early Amorphis

https://innumerableforms.bandcamp.com/album/pain-effulgence

DON'T THINK THE BAND HAS ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS THAT I COULD LOCATE?

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I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

Rufus Wainwright