This is the third album from German doom metal band Eremit.
More Eremit! More hulking great huge tracks of monstrous sludge doom! Yeah! Despite how massive 2019’s Carrier of Weight and 2021’s Bearer of Many Names were, (not forgetting the relatively brief EP Desert of Ghouls from 2020), Wearer of Numerous Forms finds Eremit bigger and bolder than ever before. Featuring just three tracks, but clocking in at a colossal 133 minutes, (!), Eremit have unleashed a doom odyssey.
Yes, yes, it’s far too long. Of course it is. But who cares? The kind of person who is going to listen to this sort of thing is not going to be particularly bothered by that, as long as the music is good, and good it is. Eremit already have well-established form in producing long-form doom, only here’s it’s stretched out even longer.
The essential components of the Eremit sound are present and correct, drawn out to encompass the epic journey they are representing here. Everything from grim blackened sludge to cavernous doom riffs are expressed with passionate intensity and crushing weight. Ambient psychedelic explorations bring further texture, and there’s also a despondent trumpet that’s remarkably well-integrated and brimming with emotive power. Who knew?
Slow, glacial, and hypnotic, the music carries the listener through doom-powered seas of sludge that are imbued with the strength of the foulest drone. Honestly, the band’s iron grip on choice, ultra-fuzzy riffs is worth the price of admission alone, let along when these are strung together in such compelling ways that you’re just swept along in a tidal wave of crushing distortion and moody worldbuilding.
The music is immersive and atmospheric, delivering soundscapes of doom, sludge, and drone that actually make good use of the lengthy durations. Of course, this is highly subjective, but if you’re more than partial to this sort of style then Wearer of Numerous Forms is effortlessly enjoyable and rewarding to listen to, (assuming you have the time to invest in it, of course).
Speaking very broadly, Conflicting Aspects of Reality is probably the ‘purest’ distillation of the Eremit style, whereas Entombed is a bit more harshly metallic, and Passages of Poor Light has more melodic, post-metal, and ambient elements. This is very broad though, as I say, as the overall delivery and execution is consistent throughout the three songs.
Proving once again that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Eremit’s latest album firmly consolidates them in my mind as the absolute best in the field when it comes to this sort of thing. Not that they have too much competition mind, as this type of sludgy doom is a niche and acquired taste for sure. I, for one, am very happy with Wearer of Numerous Forms, and if this sort of think pickles your walnuts, then I urge you to explore Eremit’s magnum opus.
Essential listening, but only for those that can hear the underworld call of ugly doom.