Review by Sam on January 30, 2026.

I love it when bands are able to create a riff, or a feeling, or an atmosphere that causes the listener to actually feel doomed. The opening riff of 'Reeks Of Moldy Guts' caused me to feel precisely that way, and boy was it welcome, because I spent yesterday listening to an uninspired death metal band that never caused me to feel menaced or even harried in the slightest.

This is so essential when it comes to metal. The music needs to convey feelings, emotions, sensations, and thoughts that move the listener to experience just what the musicians intended. If the musicians do not intend for their listeners to feel a certain type of way, they have failed in their mission before they have even begun. What I am looking for in the hallowed realm of heavy metal are bands that inspire feelings of morbidity, dread, triumph, astonishment, or anything to temporarily give me an escape from the banality of existence. Foetorem of Denmark caused me to feel all of those things, but above all, their debut album Incongruous Forms Of Evergrowing Rot left me feeling satisfied with the time I had spent listening to it.

I even caught a bit of a Thergothon influence in the album opener when everything drops out but the drums and the gurgling guttural burping that suits the death/doom genre so well. Any band that even hints at an appreciation for Thergothon is alright in my book. However, funeral doom this is not, as the dudes come blasting out of the gate on 'Escalating Rot'. Foetorem plays in about an even mixture of 4/4 time and a 6/8 or triplet rhythm with all its varying mutations. These sort of songwriting dynamics are also key if you want your listeners to be intrinsically moved. I just don’t understand why you would get involved with being in a metal band if you don’t want to sonically inflict your human experience onto your audience.

'Mors Viaturis – The Death Traveler' begins with a synthesizer and clean guitar-induced ethereality that quickly spirals into a 32nd note bass drum beatdown. The macabre synths fittingly return in the final 90 seconds of the song to properly seal this sinister sepulcher. The ghoulish aura created is such that I’ll give'em a pass for using a studio fade to end the song. 'Rebirth In Morbid Disgust' is a showcase of the band’s complete arsenal. Whether they’re blasting your ass with death metal rage or burying you beneath a sea of despondent doom, these Danes never fail to get their point across.

The track titles suggest a strong affinity for bands such as Autopsy and Carcass, and this material causes me to experience similar feels that those bands inspire. The halftime 6/8 bludgeoning of 'Decay Of The Flesh' gave off distinct Incantation vibes, but despite the detection of all these various influences, Foetorem manages to maintain their originality. Incongruous Forms Of Evergrowing Rot is just over forty minutes of death/doom devastation that is sure to satisfy fans of any of the bands I have mentioned in this article. 

Rating: 8 out of 10