Inborn Suffering is a melodic death/doom metal band from France, who formed in 2002. Their latest album “Pale Grey Monochrome” is their third full-length album and their first one of original material since 2012! They did release an alternate version of their modern classic debut album “Wordless Hope” in 2022.
With such a long time between material, does the band have what it takes to still be relevant in today’s world of doom? What kind of question is that? Of course they do! “Pale Grey Monochrome,” takes their trademark sound of emotional and beautifully dark doom to new heights. It isn’t that they have reinvented the wheel of doom but rather reinvented their own wheel. To me, that is just as important, if not more so.
I love it when a band embraces who they truly are, makes no apologies for it, and zeroes in on all the elements that made them great in the first place. “Pale Grey Monochrome,” does just that. This is a dour, tragic album that would make a rainy day seem filled with brightness by comparison.
But it’s loaded with wonderful melodies and expansive harmonies. These elements are intertwined into the very foundations of the song, making their home next to massive riffs, extreme vocals, and drums that are far more impressive and intricate than a lot of doom. Even though all these elements, these layers, are pieced together seamlessly, they can all be enjoyed separately.
This is an album that you can push play on and let it wash over you. Taken as a whole, it’s a full sound of an ever expanding void that is as grippy as it is bleak. But your ears can follow any of the individual elements and find yet another journey. It’s amazing to hear how all these pieces come together for the great whole. The production and mixing keeps it neat and straight, never cluttered or too blended that it loses the very identity the band have so expertly crafted.
The album begins with “Wounding,” an instrumental intro that arrives like a shadow eating the light of all it approaches. It’s short but very effective in setting up the rest of the album. Intros should serve this purpose and this one does what it needs to, nothing more and nothing less. The whole album is solid without any weak moment to speak of but I will highlight my favorite parts below.
“From Lowering Tides,” drops the doom hammer immediately with a deep riff and Gothic melodies that took me back to my younger days when I discovered bands like Draconian and My Dying Bride for the first time. The death growls roll in like a coming storm—a force of nature, for sure and one of the best in the modern scene. The song is slow and plodding but never boring…each note builds towards the next one. This is doom with a purpose, the sadness being put to work in weaving this melancholic tapestry.
The band always finds time to offer earworms in their songs with the clean vocals around the 4 minute mark being their weapon of choice for this one. I love the subtle use of keyboards, stark but yet gentle like an ethereal being gliding through a cold autumn day.
“Tales From An Empty Shell,” features dual guitar melodies and spoken word passages—absolutely classic in its approach and yet again they capture what makes doom metal of this type so great. The riffs and drums work together to create a hearty rhythm that is far more energetic than doom usually is. It even sounds a little dangerous and the riffs after the 2:20 mark add to this, but even more sinister. The growled vocals are low, becoming an instrument in their own right with just as much to say.
One of the more impressive feats of the album is how it takes an idea and just runs with it, not really switching to something else but using the base as an idea to grow further. Case in point is the lead guitar that begins around the 5:02 mark. It cries out through pained notes, it becomes like a flowing river for the rest of the song to move across. The transition back to a riff based structure and shouted gang vocals is very natural and yet another catchy piece thrown into the mix.
Not counting the intro and interlude, the final song “Drawing Circles,” is the shortest song at just over seven and a half minutes. It accomplishes a lot in this time and I find it to be the most dynamic on the album. The beginning is lush, detailed clean instrumentation and melodic bass. This movement is Gothic and even a little regal in its cascading emotions. What I assume is a style of Spanish guitar makes its presence known—beautiful and a wonderful idea, another little detail in an album that is made up of hundreds. The death growl at the 2:22 mark kicks off what is one of the heaviest parts of the album. The riffs are just groovy enough without loosing their dark metal flavor while the keyboards keep the song soaring high in its misery.
After the four minute mark, the song opens up to let its sound sprawl out like the icy grasp of winter covering a forest’s tree tops. The final part of the song is heavy yet gentle, the melodic riffs offering a foundation for the spoken word to stand on. The song, and album, ends with a certain majestic touch that only Gothic melodic death/doom can pull off.
Inborn Suffering’s “Pale Grey Monochrome,” is a hell of a return for the band and a truly masterful way for the doom genre to being 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment