Commiserations, hymns to mourn, and disillusioned melodies to send the mind searching all feature as key cathartic purgation leading the return of Paris, France-based melodic death/doom metal quartet INBORN SUFFERING who arrive today with a flattening third full-length album thirteen or so years beyond the last. Though the band were one of few notable names in a certain era of French doom-and-gloom death to start ‘Pale Grey Monochrome‘ is the product of more capable and timeworn minds channeling fresh miseries, perhaps the recent state of humanity in decline, from a greater point of mastery. For an experience which is heavily weighted by its focus on emotionally distraught heft their work is yet traditional in most every sense as these folks generate quick familiarity in terms of style yet present a deep well of melancholy to explore per several long and well-contained pieces.

Inborn Suffering initially formed as a trio circa 2002, taking inspiration from the decade long development of gothic and/or melodic death/doom metal and giving it a loudly reverberating hymnal-yet-dire quality as a sextet for their 2005 released demo CD-r (‘Demo‘, 2005) as a (then) quickly built quintet. Where we draw the line between generations of this sub-genre is largely arbitrary in further distinction but these folks’ earliest work is typically lumped with the gothic death metal of Anathema and My Dying Bride via their early EP/debut eras. Where my interest piques is within melodic death/doom metal freed of gothic metal accoutrement, the violin and operatic vocal tilt, and in this sense the band’s debut LP (‘Wordless Hope‘, 2006) was beautifully woven as a death/doom metal record riddled with intensely dramatic melodic phrases at the heart of its slow-burning radiance. The lack of what I’d consider “bullshit” available to that release was a huge boon to its lasting value but the most key point of interest on my part as a fan was literally just the fact that their guitarist played in Ningizzia prior and of course some of that style of mournfully melodic guitar work carried over.

Leaving behind the wah pedals, the fight for collective loudness, and achieving some decidedly more focused gothic rock-parsed patience ‘Regression to Nothingness‘ (2012) was the actualization and the death of Inborn Suffering that same year, a long haul towards something bigger and better than the previous album. Though it lacks the busted traditions and charm of their first album their grasp of the melodic death/doom metal dynamic, the obvious juxtaposition of chugging-hot death metal and slow-earned doom metal riffs, was at least average for its time by my own measure and garnered comparisons to (early?) Officium Triste and the golden standard per Mourning Beloveth; Just as the dust began to feel permanent in its place upon their collective desiccation an alternate mix of the first album released in 2022, the band reformed in 2023 and now reissues of the first two albums accompany this third act.

Although melodic rhythm guitar work and the rare lead guitar hook featured here and there on those first two records they were certainly products of their time and traditions, exaggerations in patternation and production which fed an increasingly maximal thread far from the nuance of melodic death/doom metal’s original pathos-stricken romanticism. As we step into the must and atrophy of album opener “From Lowering Tides” the stuck-in-place atmospheric drain of ‘Pale Grey Monochrome‘ hits by way of an immediate lead guitar hook and a low-set growl. That point of ingress beyond the pensive tone of the intro (“Wounding”) leading into opener emitted an immediate spark of interest on my park, as the early days October Tide fan within me began eyeballing the set of four 10+ minute dirges lined up ahead. Not only are these songs extended in length but they are verbose, rife with soft-spoken funereal readings, dotted with distant growls and slow-seeping backgrounded keys to the point of becoming strangely eventful and often kind of catchy doom metal pieces when taken in as a whole. “From Lowering Tides” is not just a hint at this but full flexion of the lead guitar voice which directs the majority of the songs on the full listen, providing a spiraling thought amidst heavy opening narration and bluster.

In terms of the death metal proponent of this neatly laced formae we find the agonized and dramatic tradition of records like ‘Dance of December Souls‘ leading the rhythms into despair while the growled and looming vocals find their balance via clean but not over-emphasized chorale. It quickly becomes apparent that careful attention paid the distant, obscure atmosphere (via a mix and master from Déhà of Opus Magnum Studio) found on ‘Pale Grey Monochrome‘ is perhaps aiming for something tentative as the atmosphere of an old classic but not buried away from its emotive range. As we move onto the title track (“Pale Grey Monochrome”) the pieces which comprise Inborn Suffering‘s sound are arranged differently but the authorship (and effect) is virtually the same, modulated as if separate chapters in a book. Similar pacing and the overall immersive value of the full listen becomes increasingly obvious as despairing and bittersweet leads, chorales, acoustic guitars and an almost post-metal drift nearby the end make for a slow and sour sweep of melancholia over its nigh ~12 minute drone. There is some ecstatic value of the lead motif as its neck-craning upward salvo reaches its peak about ~5:45 minutes in and at the very least we can feel the years between, those points of musicianship where the main composer(s) spent their energy in the interim.

Though this is certainly not a Funeral or Shape of Despair level plod in any sense the atmospheric reach and listless, long-stretching feint of ‘Pale Grey Monochrome‘ should rightfully feel fixated in its own gloomy aspic, stuck at a point of tension where all joints turn to slack as the mood remains sombre but not at all taciturn. While the mood and the sentiment of the album could be parsed to some mild degree thanks to its wordiness not having the lyrics in hand was a different sort of madness, one perhaps unique to a review setting, as the verbosity of the experience overtakes even the most spaced and spacious pieces (“Tales From an Empty Shell”, for example) to a point where the insight, appeal, argument or just prose of it all demands to be interfaced. The lack of lyrics is, again, unique to my own process and in any case cannot be factored into my thoughts either way beyond “there are definitely a lot of lyrics.“; There’s little chance the longtime purveyor of melodic death/doom, funeral death/doom or just gothic doom will be bothered by a ~57 minute full-length album and every piece makes its case for its own importance as the album conveys its dire state in its core ten minute chunks though I’d particularly appreciated the lightened atmospheric farewell of “Drawing Circles”, a blend of cold finality and transcendent drift that acts as a profound but not overwrought endpoint.

There’ll be no denying the work put into these songs, the craft on display here is naturally years beyond even the best points of ‘Regression to Nothingness‘ and it does appear there is a point of view (evidenced by “Of Loss and Despair”) woven into these pieces to the point that Inborn Suffering had well enough reason to return and make good on their promising start a decade or two ago. Where I’d found value in ‘Pale Grey Monochrome‘ is exactly what any melodic death/doom metal fan would look for: Intricately stated, soul-burning lead guitar work which frames extended cyclically stated phrasal pieces (re: catchy melodic leads) and some manner of convincing gloom powering their death/doom metal entrenched side. Is it wildly original? Probably not, but there is some argument to be made for meeting this well above-average standard for sub-genre music which requires ultra-specific emotive intent/expressivity. A moderately high recommendation.

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