There are very few bands that commit to the level of detail that Germany's EREMIT put into their music.  For this extreme doom/sludge band, their very ideas permeate not just the music but the very fabric of the band itself. Lyrics/story, merchandise, artwork....the band's vision is fully realized and encompassing. Their third full length album since forming in 2015, 'Wearer of Numerous Forms,' is yet another step into their lore....and, indeed, a deep trek into their abyssal style of doom. It isn't for the faint of heart, I won't lie. Like the previous two full length albums, 'Wearer of Numerous Forms' contains three tracks but it is also over two hours in length. The first song, 'Conflicting Aspects of Reality,' passes the one hour mark by itself. Again, I'm going to be totally honest: not everyone is going to be able to handle this. Even some doom fans, who are not strangers to long-form songwriting, might take a step back.

But that's the beauty of it, right? Take me for example. I probably shouldn't even review this album. I'm a huge fan and knew I would love this album before I heard a single note. As a reviewer, I should remain objective. But I can't. How could I? For a slab of music like this, it really isn't fair for someone from the outside looking in to review this. You can't break this album down over the course of a three day deadline. You can't go into this from a reviewing stand point and not be at least somewhat familiar with what the band has done before. Like their previous albums, and perhaps even more so, 'Wearer of Numerous Forms' is an esoteric experience. I'm sure other fans would agree with me here but listening to EREMIT, if you grasp and get what they are trying to achieve, makes one feel special, like being a part of something that is equally special.  In this, the final piece of the storyline that deals with the hermit Umno, he steps into a gateway and sees many worlds, just as the listener will encounter many things inside this vast album.

As an album that is part of a large story, this third full length does share a lot of similarities with the previous releases.  But stories grow and change and so does the band's music.  Although not previously thought possible, EREMIT has managed to make an album that is even more expansive.  The heavier parts are somehow even heavier and more intense-I don't know what is more unrelenting, the riffs or the drums.  The song's themselves by way of length present the abstract concept of time as another form of instrument.  'Conflicting Aspects of Reality' is now the new standard for what represents the band.  If I was going to introduce them to someone, this is the song I would ask them to listen to.  Yes, it is beyond long but it contains everything that makes this album and band what they are.  I'm not saying you have to like this song to like EREMIT.  You don't, they have other songs.  But if you want to UNDERSTAND the band and their sprawling story that comes along to their approach to doom, then you have to be able to handle this beastly composition.

The song begins with static that pulses outward as clean guitar begins to swirl into seemingly random noises..  By the time a minute passes, the band has created a truly massive way off sound and fuzz.  It rumbles like an earthquake as it subtly steers the song in new directions. The clarity of their sound is born by the two minute mark, complete with Mo's harrowing blackened death screams.  Mo and fellow guitarist Pascal provide much of the huge sound that turns ears into caverns.  Interestingly enough, EREMIT actually doesn't use a bass guitar-those low end sounds, the massive mountains of fuzz drenched doomed sludge, are created using guitars.  That is impressive in of itself but what's more impressive is how well the two can play for such long lengths, with so few notes relatively speaking, and keep the song interesting.

Of course it does help having Marco on drums, the backbone of the album and one of the most stalwart foundations in the scene today. Most people can't imagine how drumming will be approached on such slow songs but he does a goddamn fine job in playing interesting passages while keeping everything where it should be.  Every member of the band is important but his job is most demanding. And I can't forget Hendrick and his trumpet-truly mysterious yet frightening sounds emanate from his horn-I didn't even know the instrument could sound like this.  He definitely adds a layer of atmosphere to their songs-something arcane and magnificent at the same time.

The first sixteen minutes of this song are the perfect showcase for the true power of not only this album in particular but EREMIT in general.  Slow, heavy, atmospheric, cavernous...I could use the same old descriptions that everyone else uses for this style of music but I'm not sure if there truly is a way to describe what EREMIT does.  Case in point is the next fifteen minutes or so.  The carnage of doom fades out to near silence, only very quiet and light clean guitar can be heard.  These notes represent very dim light in the deepest of caverns.  Not a light that shines but a yellow one that hinders by highlighting glimpses of things that should remain unseen.  Eventually, drums and different flavors of guitar find their way as the instruments gain volume and detail.  Sometimes it is what isn't heard that speaks the loudest.....in their own way, these 'quiet' fifteen minutes are just as loud as the first movement.

About thirty minutes into the song, the band goes ultra heavy again by letting the distorted notes hammer down and just ripple out waves of such an encompassing tone that my ears felt like they were going to collapse under the strain.   The song's title does exemplify where the music goes to-the song sounds so different from itself at times that it does almost seem like it has a conflict going on. 'Entombed,' is a more direct song and also the shortest at "just" twenty one minutes. The first eight minutes are passages of blackened screams that twist and contort alongside the simple but devastatingly oppressive guitars.  There seems to be a sense of journey and discovery here, perhaps to something that might not be so welcoming but it does feel explorative.  As the song moves long, it does pick up urgency and I was hit hard with the feeling of a nervous energy.  The shit hitting the fan, if you will.  The later half is the fall of it all, the entombment and the moment passing through that carries with it a stark finality.

The final track is the forty seven second long 'Passage of Poor Light.'  This is fast becoming one of my favorite songs by the band because the atmosphere is just...futile.  As the title might suggest, I conjure images of the barest rays of hope that turn out to be darkness leading the victim to an untimely demise.  This song opens with clean tones and near delicate playing but turns into a churn of violence near the eight minute mark.  The middle movement of the song is more introspective, especially to the fervor that comes after the 26 minute mark.   This a huge, loud, and unrestrained doom of the most caustic order. As the 30 minute mark approaches, the music becomes clean once more with a masterful build up back to the doom/sludge that finishes out the album.

There just are not any bands, doom or otherwise, that are doing what EREMIT do and the lengths they go to do them.  In this first half of 2023, this is the first album I am giving a perfect score.  There isn't anything about 'Wearer of Numerous Forms' I would change or take away-it finishes the band's first cycle of their vision and yet it is also something that can be enjoyed on its own as a good starting point for anyone unfamiliar with the band.  A masterpiece of modern doom metal.