2010 Demo

And people say underground metal is dead...

One listen through Formless' 2010 Demo, creatively titled 2010 Demo, and any and all thoughts that the above statement could be true are thrown out the window. No, underground metal is alive and well, and Formless exemplify the best the genre has to offer.

Formless play technical death metal better than many of the bigger artists out there. Their sound is solid, tight, and refined. The drums are absolutely relentless, the guitar solos sweeping and epic, and the vocals are a combination of brutal as all fuck and beautiful. What's best about their sound is that while the band is techy, they are not too overly showy about it. They don't try to impress the listener with overly complicated sweeps or tapping riff-raff, but instead seamlessly flow said technicality into their music with ease.

There are three songs on this demo, and all have their own merits. The first track, "Horrid Obsession," starts off heavily enough, sounding like a mix between Cerebral Bore and Abominable Putridity, showing some slam elements in the sound, mostly in the vocals. That's not a bad thing, because vocalist Kevin Narowski manages to make both the guttural pig-squeal-esque tone and the old school death metal growls sound listenable. However nothing is as enchanting as Annie Grunwald's voice, which kicks in around the 4:20 mark and succeeds in mesmerizing me every time I listen to it. The change in tone from full blown tech-death to mellower melodic death doesn't even seem tacky, and the whole first track is a great listen. By the way, yes, there is a girl in this band, and she can kick your ass at shredding any day of the week, as she covers both lead guitar and back-up vocals.

Track two, entitled "Forever of Nothing" is the shortest one on the demo, clocking in at just over four and half minutes. It starts off with what could either be a distorted bass or keyboard... either way the sound works and creates a creepy tone which explodes into a barrage of awesome tech-death, and eventually an equally awesome guitar solo. Good shit.

Track three, "In Death, Rebirth," is the coup de grace of the demo, and is almost twice as long as track two. Everything great I've said about the previous two tracks: the guitar solos, the enchanting and heavy vocals, the amazing bass... all are present in this track. The structure of this song is interesting though, with brutal and clean vocals equally distributed throughout, not split into two sections like the first song. It works, and I keep coming back for more.

These guys have the potential to be huge. Their music is fantastic, and I can't wait to listen to more of their shit. Check 'em out, and help support such an amazing group.

And if anyone from Formless is reading this, be sure to tour New York in the near future... I'll be there headbanging right along with ya.

Originally written for http://graphicbrutality.blogspot.com/