Album
Type:
Album
Date
Released:
12th
December 2014
Label:
No
Fun Intended
Dysphoria
Part 1 – Track Listing
1.Through This Hole
06:44
2.Tumult 06:58
3.I Am Nothing 06:50
4.I Will Make You
Ill 04:20
5.Smile Club 04:04
6.Dead Ends 05:42
7. [calm] 01:47
8. I Don't Feel Safe
05:08
Members
Jordan - Drums,
backing vocals
Rob - Guitar, synth
Steve - Bass, vocals
Review:
Formes
is a weird sounding band that is very hard to describe. You could
call them an Experimental Metal band as they fuse so many ideas and
noises for one uncompromising album full of great ideas that verges
on insanity at times. Formes album progresses from Sludge, Stoner,
Folk, Doom, Drone, Post-Metal, Industrial and even Death Metal. After
an acclaimed performance at the recent Liverpool Psych Festival, many
people are starting to take notice of Formes.
Their
debut album - Dysphoria Part 1 - will have both its fair share of
admirers and people who want to give this band a wide berth. Opening
track - Through This Hole - does exactly that by taking you through a
musical philosophical hole. Formes add progressive jazz rhythms to
clean based vocals and even death based growls. The music veers off
to Psychedelic Trance Doom Territory with Formes keeping their cards
close to their chest. It's quite folksy and theatrical at times,
which puts Formes firmly into the Avant Garde crowd. It’s an
intriguing start to the album as it's a complex, brash and confident
track that sees Formes creativity for everyone to witness and
experience.
2nd
track - I Am Nothing - is an even crazier offering with Formes adding
strange creepy noises to the mix. The vocals once again have a
nightmarish quality to them as they venture into clean and death
based growls with jazz musical interludes becoming heavier as time
passes by. Third track - Tummult - can be considered the albums more
straightforward song but even that description can be applied very
loosely. It's a track where the first couple of minutes are taking up
by ambient noises, sounds and glitch based vocals with the riffs
slowly building to a loud violent wall of noise where the vocals can
grate at times. The clean-based vocals are way out of place here, as
Formes should have focused on the Death based growls as it perfectly
matches the bleak sonic atmospherics that the song contains.
If
you're not enjoying the album by now then it maybe best to switch off
and find your musical kicks elsewhere. Formes offer more of the same,
crazy schizophrenic moods on the rest of the album. I will admit even
I am still struggling to decide what this album is really about.
Formes don't offer any helpful clues for the casual listener to enjoy
their music. This is a multi-layered odyssey where experimentation is
key. Fourth track - I Will Make You Ill - is a drone-based track with
Formes bringing a sense of dread to the album as the music is kept to
a minimum with droning noises and guitars paired against occult based
vocals. It can be quite distracting to listen to at times, as the
song doesn't really go anywhere. I admire Formes decision to venture
into another musical direction.
On
the next track - Smile Club - you wouldn't believe this was the same
band as Formes have written a more traditional Psych Indie Rock song.
It has shades of drone here and there but it doesn't match the other
tracks until the last minute or so when heavy sludge riffs spring
into action. It seems the band have a complex musical identity crisis
on their hands. The rest of the album carries on with the crazed
experimentation that will make you question what were Formes thinking
when making this album. It shouldn't really work as Formes have
thrown everything into the mix here. It can be very frustrating to
listen to at times but they hammer out a riff that feels like a gift
from the musical gods and you're hooked for entirely different
reasons.
This
is an excellent album though I don't know if I would listen to this
on a regular basis, as you have to be in a certain mood to appreciate
the full effect. This is still a superior debut album to confuse and
delight people with. Formes have the potential to be classed as
musical innovators within the UK Metal Scene in the years to come.
Formes, you maybe one crazy deluded bunch of warped individuals, but
you have my full undivided attention.
Thanks
to Formes for the promo. Dysphoria Part 1 is available to buy now on
DD on BandCamp through No Fun Intended.
Words
by Steve Howe
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more information
