INBORN SUFFERING – Wordless Hope

Forget about NuMetal … Retro-style forever! Inborn Suffering’s Wordless Hope creates a time warp to the early nineties, when Amorphis climbed their way to the pinnacle of Death and Doom Metal.

Sure, this album is not an equal counterpart to the legendary Tales From A Thousand Lakes album, but it’s doomy, cold, and melancholic atmosphere will draw your attention for all of its 64 minutes of playing time (by the way, what are Amorphis doing nowadays?). Not every idea on this debut album is great, but at least each track is rock solid. For those who love the dark and cold of wintertime and are trying to shove springtime away, this album will suit perfectly. The namesake track, “Inborn Suffering,” shows how good Manu (bass), Steph (guitar), Seb (keyboards), Thomas (drums), and Laurent (vocals) really are at making music. The composition is so dense you can almost touch the acoustic waves it is sending out.

Every note is breathing the ghost of early Paradise Lost (lost once and for all time!), Amorphis, or Anathema. Wordless Hope bears not only the slow pace of an evening at the Northern shores, when you are watching the waves rolling to the cliffs, but also the relentless power of a Nordic snow storm, whirling and breaking all in its path.

Track number four, “The Agony From Within,” for example, includes soft acoustic guitar parts that are broken off by Laurent who grunts his guts out, and Steph plays a melody so sweet, only to be disrupted by a mean riff that goes over into a double-bass acoustic attack led by Thomas.

Number five, “As I Close My Eyes,” seems to be written for all the fans of Doom Metal. The synthi-violin sings her sad song along riffs bearing the heavy weight of eternal sadness. Very nice!

The only disturbing thing about this album might be the periodic heavily-phased singing parts, which create a strange contrast to the grunted parts. But, this minor problem can be solved by a few more laps in your CD Player — get your ears used to it and you will like it!