Crushed and devoured by the repetitious telomeric fate of cyclic reinvention Boston, Massachusetts-based atmospheric sludge/doom metal sextet FÓRN simultaneously reinvent and reclaim ownership of their own take on extreme and surreal gloom for this third full-length album. ‘Repercussions of the Self‘ manages grime-streaked cinematic loft and deadly slow-humming verve at its best, trading off between various dread-bound states of mind as they begin to break loose of expectations set by past releases. In the process of expressing changing tastes and a need to evolve in a personal way they’ve not lost the plot, retaining what has long been foundational to their sound while still venturing into a largely new version of themselves.

Fórn formed back in 2012 during a period of growing interest in extreme sludge variants as folks caught wind of the late 2000’s ramp of bands like Thou, Indian and Unearthly Trance who’d all toyed with elements of drone and/or death metal tones enough to resemble a next-gen sound. Their self-titled demo tape (‘Fórn‘, 2013) had a pretty direct appeal on my part at the time for its impressive vocal roar (via Chris Pinto) and extreme stoner/sludge production values via a Earhammer studios amped sound. This’d eventually lead to a debut LP (‘The Departure of Consciousness‘, 2014) which’d had a lot of contemporaries to contend with at the time (Usnea, a very different Bell Witch, Lycus, etc.) but stood out for its atmospheric sludge and funeral doom metal inspired sound, easily catching my ear at the time as a fan of Neurosis. The band’s eyes and ears were carefully curated, aiming for the highest possible standard of the time while also recognizing the need to stand out and that need to dig into some fresh creative well along the way lead to a four year drift between full-lengths landing upon the somewhat underrated ‘Rites of Despair‘ in 2018 arguably a time where sludge metal interest began to resemble an abandoned strip mine while the creative liberty and death-doomed feel of the band sustained my interest at the time. At the time I believe I described it as a “funeral death-doom take on early 2010’s Pallbearer and Thou” when recommending it at the end of the year.

With that second album holding up so well over the years and Fórn having gone quiet not long after the only expectation built over time for a third LP was that it’d likely persist with some manner of change in mind. Sludge metal adjacent music has changed drastically over the years and with variable levels of success (or, just -any- notice given by larger outlets) that I’d half expect an art metal album or, some manner of complete departure into extreme metal. The suggestion offered via composer/guitarist Joey Gonzalez was that pandemic-fed distress, dark film scores and popular trip-hop groups contributed to what ‘Repercussions of the Self‘ is, which I’m still not sure how to categorize up front. The growling empyrean lead-in of “Pact of Forgetting” doesn’t aim to clarify this thought as we’re lead into the low-growling, heavy riffing assurance of the ~13 minute opener “Soul Shadow”, an assurance that the folks who’d writ ‘Rites of Despair‘ are still piloting the mech and aiming for despairing tension, some manner of dramatic emotional lurching to start. Here we also get the first vocalizations from the band’s unofficial (now official?) sixth member on this album Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel) who provides some manner of embellishment and transitional fusion within each song on this album, in this case wailing up the mountain of amplifier sourced thunder that drives the bulk of that first song.

The riff is there on that first song, the sound is huge and layered to Hell with plenty of threads to follow as it drones on yet the trip through those first fifteen or so minutes of ‘Repercussions of the Self‘ almost battle with the greater sludge/doom metal sense of structure, breaking away from this foundation as soon as possible with the next couple of pieces. Swatted electro beats, low-set growls, and Otayonii‘s signature caterwaul feed into the distress of “Hela’s Choir” and the liminal step of “Anamnesis” reflects an interest in industrial metal trying to figure its way into the tracklist which now blurs out of focus between these two vignettes. Rather than land as key transgressions from the norm these pieces ultimately feel like halfway there experimentation which hasn’t been woven into the greater tapestry of this album with any meaningful fluidity.

Part of this is for the sake of uneven placement where the rest between “Soul Shadow” and the harshened climb of “Regrets Abyss” only disconnects from the task at hand. Plug your mental cord into opener “Pact of Forgetting” again for a second as “Regrets Abyss” reprises that empyrean waltz per its backgrounded synth melody and swaying main riff, an almost stoney jam of a piece that slowly emerges from the death and doomed detangling of its opening tension; Though “Regrets Abyss” is the obvious bliss-point on the full listen the most challenging clash and cumulative fusion of new-and-old elemental forms which best represents ‘Repercussions of the Self‘ is probably closer “Dreams of the Blood”, a post-metallic drifter which finds a couple of bigger grooves between equal parts dissociated crystalline unease. With that song in mind and the crossed-up cover artwork (a collab between Alexander L. Brown and Devin Toye) the dementia and heightened senses of this experience are well represented as colorful-yet-tormented by an escalation beyond dread into nihil.

With consideration for the meta-effect of the listening experience I’d enjoyed the general outline provided by the set of core riffs and various cinematically charged textures layered into Fórn‘s work though the experience felt disjointed, almost too detached to arrive upon a profound-enough statement for my own taste. After several more listens I’d still felt the middle two songs don’t necessarily fit as (assumedly) the conclusion to Side A but this wasn’t such an issue when considering the whole beast. I was left somewhat unfulfilled per the suggested stylistic infusion versus the ultimate range of emotional tones deployed here, of course it is a surrealistic doom metal album at its core but there’d been more than uncertainty, blurred reality and cold-sweating dread in mind when sitting with the album. It is however an effective entry into the band’s discography, a step but not a complete transformation into a freshened point of view which yet contains the big doomed riff reality that’d always been at the center of the band’s vision. A high recommendation.

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