It doesn't take too much thinking to figure out where this lot took influence for their band photo. No shirts, covered in blood, bullet belts…hmm…Dismember? Sure! The band photo looks almost exactly like the one on "Like an Ever Flowing Stream" (sans crucifix luckily, Polymorph are EVIL).

Besides the brutality, the first thing that caught my attention here is that the vocalist sounds remarkably similar to Ross from Immolation. This is a good thing obviously, as the vocals are DARK and RAW. The music doesn't disappoint either, as it's rather nice and violent, and shockingly enough, not too far off from the Dismember/Entombed style of death metal. The formula is here: semi-melodic fast paced riff, followed by thick/fuzzy chord progression. Even the production, besides the additional crunch, is similar. Ah! But this album is about three times as fast as that particularly classic style. Thus, Polymorph is a modern death metal band with a solid old-school brutal death influence.

A very important aspect of the music could have been improved upon before this was released though. Namely the guitar is awkward sounding. I suppose a little more practice is necessary to improve this, as the vicious sound the band are going for is of course impossible without a competent guitar player. Other than that minor problem, "Innocent Suffering" is a brutal death metal album worth tracking down. Especially since it doesn't dissolve into a metal mess five minutes in…

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