Ape being pleased after an album’s release usually means good news for promising bands and increased effort for those under its watchful and relentless gaze, and a glance at this moldy art explained the entire mission statement from the start. Foetorem from Denmark are a very young band, having written only their demo last year before releasing their debut full-length Incongruous Forms of Evergrowing Rot upon the unsuspecting masses. I hope you’re hungry, because we have some rotsgiving leftovers waiting for you!
Foetorem specialize in a refreshingly energetic variety of death/doom. The blasts are plentiful, but usually used as transition points or intros/outros to songs. Most of Incongruous Forms of Evergrowing Rot operates in second and third gear, with the extended open chords one would expect often shaped into mid-tempo chuggathons. Indeed, if you like mid-tempo chuggathons, this will be a euphoric experience for you, since the crushing backbone of most songs relies on such a trope. Imagine the most downtempo moments of Cannibal Corpse with very atmospheric high-trem plucking for atmospheric sounds and pass through a little extra fresh grave – something between Phobophilic and SEDIMENTUM – and you have a good idea of what awaits you. The high-note reflections are an excellent addition, giving scents of melancholy and dejection to the process, which otherwise would threaten to be an overly simplistic sound with their captivating melodies (“Mors Viaturis – The Traveler of Death”) before collapsing into the next steamroller attack.
And man, the steamrollers are plentiful. Despite the relative simplicity of the approach, a lot of thought has gone into each arrangement to keep one attack after another fresh and exciting. “Tapestries of Misery” dominates with a captivating 6/8 time signature and a whiff of unexpected SKRONK, while “Oozing with Pustulent Fluids” keeps digging into the earth’s crust with a classic Vader riff played at half speed, while drummer Geistaz keeps things exciting with an ever-shifting focus between creative bass fills and high tones. His drumming is part of what keeps Foetorem‘s recipe so exciting (“Rebirth in Morbid Disgust”), since no chug sounds exactly the same despite the band drawing so deeply from what is usually a very narrowly defined well.
If you like life with the chugs, the death here is excellent. The only real obstacle comes from some of the more doom elements. Foetorem have improved on Sanctuarium‘s formula of joining their explosions and chugs amid sudden slowdowns, but there’s no escape from the fact that certain moments are genuine momentum killers. “Oozing…” drops to barely quarter-note steps with no weight to carry the empty space, while “Decay of the Flesh” adds some harmonic leads that don’t quite overcome the lack of progression in the songs. Not all the doom elements are bad, by any means, but it happens enough todebasedecompose Incongruous Forms of Evergrowing Rot into an album more memorable for its moments than for the whole of its songs. And yet, those highlights are many, and it’s wonderful to hear when the band really sticks the landing, as in the album’s finale “Peeled Face Mask”. That’s a song that claims the top of the tracklist, with the most ruthless chugs, groovy riffs, great doomy moments, even a big dose of leads that sound lifted from Gates of Ishtar . That track shows the band has an excellent understanding of what makes their sound work, and more of that across the body of work would lead to a real RotM contender.
Incongruous Forms of Evergrowing Rot is less an excellent debut and more an excellent debut . It shows a band with clear purpose and musical vision, but a vision that isn’t free of knots and rough edges. But when it hits, it hits . Foetorem have burst out of the grave, covered in fluids and mold, ready to leave their deadly mark on the world. With enough force to change the structure of the cave and a sense of atmosphere beyond their youth, the band announced their presence with style, and I believe the best is yet to come for their graveyard hymns. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some coffee and some food. Preferably, something a little rawer and rottener…
Rating : 3.0/5.0
DR : 8 | Format reviewed : 320 kbps mp3
Label : Everlasting Spew Records
Website : Album
Bandcamp release worldwide: March 27, 2026
