Album Review: Innumerable Forms - Pain Effulgence
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Oh boy. When I saw Innumerable Forms had a new album baring down on us, and I could grab a review copy, I locked onto it like a wasp to sugar. The band’s 2022 opus Philosophical Collapse was my Album Of The Year back then; they’d been a name I’d known of sparingly but that experience shot them right to the apex of my attention. It was incredible. Formed in 2007 out of Massachusetts, United States, the band’s ascension has been steady, their early years dotted with an EP, a Split, a Compilation etc before they finally, after eleven years, revealed their first album: Punishment In Flesh. Thankfully fans wouldn’t need to wait so long for a follow-up, that being the aforementioned tour-de-force piece that was Philosophical Collapse. An EP, The Fall Down, came out in 2023 but otherwise we’ve been waiting earnestly for that desired third record. That time has finally come with the unveiling of Pain Effulgence. Teasing tracks to aid us getting a feel for the record, Pain Effulgence is primed for an August 22nd release date and makes it three-for-three on Innumerable Forms records to be released via Profound Lore Records. My adoration for this band being what it is, there was no chance of my turning back on Pain Effulgence given its release proximity.
Innumerable Forms are a death/doom band but their primary way of conveying their strength is bounded up in their belligerent, densely compacted guitar attack. Playing a record by these guys is to be subjected to crushing weight as the collective body of their sound bares down on you at every given moment. However the gems of the band are discovered when they undergo these cerebral, soaring sequences that bring to mind a diamonique quality, as if shining a light upon something the doom masks in the background, illuminating it with incandescent fervour. This is where the greatest quality of Innumerable Forms is to be found, in that juxtaposition between crushing death/doom and this searing nimbus, slicing through the veil of suffocation to reveal a vaulted, starry sky.
In addition, considering the weight these guys convey, and the speed they’re prepared their doom to be thrown about with, they champion a sublime production that’s able to straddle the line between outright compression and ecstatic freedom. The former is demonstrated best when the band are firing on all cylinders, that train of riffs and notes followed uninterrupted with snarling bites, whilst the latter sees all things stripped back and you’re given total agency to do as you wish though the band are undertaking staggering emotion within their songwriting. You could easily go about your day as you are, but there are moments throughout this record where you will just stop, all synapses ceasing, and simply listen, lost amidst the twinned assault of despair and serenity. Regardless what tempo or mood they’re trying to evoke they succeed with mature death/doom that doesn’t need to impress upon you too hard for its inspect to be felt.
Death/doom can sometimes be antagonistic towards the vocals, for riffs and drums can hamper the vocals’ ability to convey their own merit. But Innumerable Forms have amongst them a vocalist whose cords are inherently powerful and thus when the songwriting calls upon more sustained, bellowing sections where control is more important than power alone, they’re able to do just that and then some. Better yet, the vocals carry themselves; the mix has allowed the vocals, upon performed, to linger, resonating, so they aren’t hanging around just for yourself but act as a secondary atmospheric element. They round the record out, sealing the sound in, where there’s no escape feasible. Pair them with the band’s cerebral guitar soloing and it’s something otherworldly altogether.
There’s something oddly hopeful to this record. Death/doom isn’t typically evocative of such ideas but Pain Effulgence almost springs to mind this concept that, in spite of the sorrows and hardships one must endure in life, you can do it, you’ve got this, whatever it is. I think this idea comes to mind given the band’s implementation of riffs and songwriting where major chords often succeed minor chords, and like the sun’s rays catching wearied and bloodied faces there is yet a way out of that suffering. I think it’s this approach to death/doom that elevates Innumerable Forms above and far beyond their contemporaries; for them it’s not just about crushing you into non-existence, for every strife there is solution, with every setback there’s a chance to recover. Innumerable Forms do not mask the fact that life is difficult but deeply laid within their songwriting they show us all may not be lost. There’s splendour in the climb back from the abyss.
In conclusion, Innumerable Forms’ third album is a piece that sets itself apart from the funeral dirge that Philosophical Collapse sets up, establishing itself as this oddly hopeful opus that dares to streak light upon a darkened world. Rending gashes unto a sky that has been blackened for so long we may have forgotten what the sky looks like, Innumerable Forms do not shy away from brutality their sound evokes but throughout their performance there are minute inferences towards something longing, something akin to a newborn dream. It’s this beautiful, striking, punching record that refuses to hold back its ferocity yet it’s that very ferocity that helps diamonds gleam with dazzling brilliance. I would so love to see Innumerable Forms live one day.
