Self-labeling their art as Majestic Doom Death, French underground Doom Death legends Inborn Suffering were formed back in 2002 by guitarist Stephane Peudupin (Ningizzia, Fractal Gates), bassist Emmanuel Ribeiro and drummer Thomas Rugolino (ex-Funeralium,ex-Abjvration). They released their debut album, Wordless Hope, in 2006. 2008 saw multiple line-up changes before they decided to take a break and stop all activities related to the band shortly after the release of their second album, Regression To Nothingness, in 2012.
Inborn Suffering – Pale Grey Monochrome (Ardua Music)
Release Date: 7 February 2025
Words: Jools Green
Fast forward to the present, and thankfully, time seems to heal all wounds because in 2022, the creative flame was rekindled, and now Inborn Suffering return with their first new studio album since that decade-long hiatus.
Pale Grey Monochrome features seven tracks that fall just short of an hour, delivering a hauntingly emotive slab of mournful Melodic Doom/Death Metal. The original trio all return for this release and are joined by Laurent Chaulet on vocals/guitars.
So, prepare to be engulfed and to lose yourself in waves of haunting, plodding riffs, bleakly reflective melodies with equally bleak lyrical content that explores existential crisis, emotional turmoil, and the human condition.
Opening on the brief intro, Wounding ebbs and builds unnervingly towards you, then slips into the hauntingly mournful From Lowering Tides, the first single released from this album. The melancholic guitar repeat, simple, precise drum beats and ground-shaking growls send a shiver down your spine. They are so good.
The spoken element, haunting keyboards and layers of backing vocals build further on that desolate mood. But, there is also an inner beauty within the piece that is particularly noticeable in the second half, even when the more tormented vocals join the meld. This eleven-minute offering holds so much for the listener; it’s a veritable banquet for the ears.
Moving onto the title track, the eleven-and-a-half minute, Pale Grey Monochrome, a meld of fuzzy guitar is overlaid with haunting leadwork, with the growls weaving their way between. You get beautifully clean drops in pace with spoken elements, and the flow between the ebbs and builds is gentle and organic, while the keyboard and drum work is carefully and sparsely applied. Again, a stunningly good and emotionally moving listen.
Album monster at just over thirteen minutes, Tales From An Empty Shell is as powerful as it is bleakly beautiful, guiding you on a melancholic, hugely emotive journey. With reflective swathes sitting alongside dark, crushing passages, there is a silky-smooth protraction on the growls that is so compelling and engaging, and the haunting melody is just sublime, even when punctuated with tortured higher vocals.
Of Loss And Despair is an intriguing and rather superb interlude. This is a clean, guitar-led piece which puts to music the moving, final speech from the film The Great Dictator, one of the greatest roles played by the legendary Charlie Chaplin, which flows into the penultimate piece and second single released from this album, The Oak.
A raw, dark and eerie builder, The Oak opens out to a crushing plod with layer upon layer of deep raw growls and higher raw vocals. There are also some deep cleans that are somewhat gothic in style, along with unnerving whispers in the less intense moments, all of which are hugely impactful upon the senses. I love the slow but unstoppable crawl, undulation and variance of intensity in this piece, and the vocal content is just breathtakingly good.
The final piece, Drawing Circles, brings an element of calmness and resignation to accept the proceedings. It is once again a superbly considered and crafted piece. Initially, clean guitars build in layers and increments alongside clean spoken vocals. The riffs become fuzzy as the hugely impactful, rich layers of growls and tortured vocals arrive, ebbing and building with a gentle flow between these two extremes.
I do like the meticulous precision of the drum delivery, too, with fills sparsely added for impact, and the keyboards towards the end add a wonderfully haunting element.
Pale Grey Monochrome is a bleak, often funereal in style. This album is a hugely emotive and rewarding listen as well as being surprisingly relaxing and cathartic. If you want things bleaker and did not grab their earlier works, Ardua will also be reissuing their first two releases, Wordless Hope and Regression To Nothingness, in February.
The album is available as a limited edition digipak CD from INBORN SUFFERING – Pale Grey Monochrome or as a digital download from Pale Grey Monochrome | Inborn Suffering.
