Album Review : Hellish Form - Deathless (2023)
Whenever something important is happening on this planet, it is almost certain that someone is going to create art about it and that it's going to suck. Because art is not a vehicle to whatever statement you want to make. It is a statement in itself. This is why Hellish Form’s thoroughly political hybrid of funeral doom, drone and sludge metal on Deathless works so well. The crushing weight of reality is the message. The reasons why Jacob Lee and Willow Ryan find reality crushing are their own, but the feeling is mutual.
Deathless is a forty-eight minutes bulldozer of an album. There are four songs on it that range from seven and a half minutes to sixteen minutes long. Although they are labeled as this eclectic hybrid of subgenres, they lean more heavily on funeral doom. The title song reminded me of a slightly more melodic and less shambolic Khanate with its lengthy, elegiac guitar riffs and ungodly, unpredictable shrieks doused in reverb. Synths are also quite prevalent on this song, enhancing the feeling of suffocating sorrow.
Compositionally speaking, the lumbering progression towards its luminous ending keeps it engaging for the entire twelve minutes length. That’s more than I can say for a lot of funeral doom.
Transfigure is a noticeably darker song that features sludgy riffs, colder synths and both members of Hellish Form on vocals. The uplifting lyrics of not giving up on your true self no matter what you see in the mirror come at odds with the pulverizing weight of the music and create this tension that keeps the music hypnotic. Transfigure is about duality, but it’s also about the burden of carrying your dreams in a world where people just don’t understand or care. It’s not easy listening, but it's also extremely cathartic.
On the longest and best song on Deathless Texas is Sinking, Jacob Lee and Willow Ryan truly explore the limits of their sound and integrate every subgenre they’re labeled under. The first movement of the song features an intro that borderlines on dark ambient before leaning into these lean. elegiac funeral doom riffs. A political song at heart about gay and trans rights in Texas, it transpires fatality and abandon. Lee and Ryan shriek their dismay like brokenhearted angels of judgment.
The most exciting part of the song comes a little past the halfway point, though. Texas is Sinking breaks down into a single synth note and this Earth shattering sludge metal riff starts building up for Jacob Lee to sing about divine retribution. Hellish Form are masters at creating tension in their music to enhance their storytelling and give it appeal on an intuitive level. Texas is Sinking is insanely political, but it would appeal to anyone who feels wronged and powerless. It wells up inside you like boiling anger.
Pink Tears is the shortest song on Deathless. Along with the title song, it's pretty straightforward funeral doom number that uses synth in order to alleviate the crippling assault of the guitars and create a sense of transcendence. It is also unafraid to let instruments breath in long, wordless segments. There’s a gorgeous part of Pink Tears only featuring synth and undistorted guitars, giving it a uniquely sorrowful edge. There's a piano bridge also. Catchier melodies. There’s brokenness on it that isn’t on other songs.
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Deathless was one of the richest, most dynamic listening experience I’ve had in 2023 so far. I would’ve loved Jacob Lee and Wilow Ryan to sometimes stretch it even further and fragment all their songs like they did on Texas is Sinking or Pink Tears, but they do are top of the line when it comes to funeral doom. I haven’t anyone in the genre being as sonically creative since Wormphlegm. Not even the big names. The music is Hellish Form’s statement, which gives power and reach to their voices.
