Inhume - Moulding the Deformed

Today we are going to take a look at one of the much more nasty and gritty death grind albums out there. Dutch band Inhume released Moulding the Deformed in early 2010 through War Anthem Records. If you saw my “albums of 2015” post from last month, you probably noticed that super brutal music has not been a big focus of mine lately. There was only one brutal death album mentioned, one death grind, and two grindcore albums; that was it. Other than that it was mostly black metal and other styles. But I don’t really know what hit me yesterday…on the drive home from a long day at work, I popped in a Relics of Humanity CD and it just fucking clicked, and ever since then I’ve been listening to nothing but the most brutal of music. So I’m going to take advantage of this brutality streak and write a review (or two or three if it comes to that).

After looking at some of their pages to get a better overview of their history, it seems that they’ve always had two vocalists. Well the one thing that I have to say about that is that I would never have known that if I hadn’t been told because they both sound identical! One of the most important things about this album to Inhume megafans is that this is the last album featuring the last remaining of the two original vocalists of the band. Seriously, 16 years is a long time to stick with a band, but this is the last Inhume album featuring Joost Silvrants (also the longtime vocalist for goregrind band Cliteater and even served as the vocalist for legendary band Sinister in 2000). Yes, there are many different vocal styles that take place throughout the duration of the album (in each song actually), but the pointlessness of it all is that it could all just as easily been done with just a single person…what’s the fucking point of two vocalists? It’s just like Despised Icon, unless they sound drastically different (Nile, Exhumed, Dying Fetus, old Carcass, Gorerotted, Intestinal Strangulation, etc.), What Is The Mother Fucking Point? NOTHING! It’s a waste of time and money. But either way, despite the pointlessness of the presence of two vocalists, the vocals do sound good…very deep, guttural, diverse, and they complement the DEEP, rich tone of the guitars and bass very well.

Speaking of the sound of the instruments (specifically the guitars and bass), although they aren’t tuned down too low (most of my guitarist friends say it sounds about C Standard), they are VERY deep. Obviously these people wanted to make the grittiest and crunchiest death metal album ever by going to the EQs and turning down everything and turning up the bass on both the guitars and the bass guitars. The way everything is structured is the traditional death metal chugchugchugchugchug. Other than the SOUND of the guitars and bass, there really isn’t anything worth talking about unfortunately. And that also goes for the drums. Yes, their drummer is an amazing blaster, especially in songs like Wretched Worm, Deadbeat, and Compulsory Infected, and also lays down some interesting patterns like in Sea of Limbs. But 90% of the album is the exact same drum pattern with some blasts thrown in here and there. Listen to the drum pattern on Pandemic…you’ve heard it millions of times before, and that’s just about all you’ll hear on Moulding the Deformed.

And that’s basically what the majority of this album is made up of: the same exact shit you’ve heard before but with some unique twists thrown in here n’ there. The BEST thing that I can take away from this album is the mixing and how everything sounds. It sound disgustingly brutal and it’s addicting and makes it a lot easier to enjoy the entire album in one sitting. The vocals sound great and compliment everything well, and the guitars and bass sound like rusty sawblades cutting through your speakers. But overall, this isn’t something that I would go back and listen to again and again. But fans of grindcore and brutal death would eat this shit up faster than anything. This album gets 13/20.