Innominandum - To Improve Fit for Smaller Heads (1996)

This CD has an unusual distinction in my collection because I previously owned it, traded it away, and then ended up getting the exact same copy back a few years later--I happened to buy a bulk lot of discs from the guy I had traded it to, and guess what happened to be included?

Nothing about the CD itself indicates that there's anything remotely heavy here (except for the band name, perhaps).  The layout looks like something a mid '90s alternative rock band would use.  Songtitles and lyrics are all rather nonsensical.  I remember being quite confused and concerned by the look of things since I was trading blind when I got this.  I thought it might have even been a grindcore band using that kind of imagery for irony's sake.

I think this would be best classified as death'n'roll.  Vocals are typical for the style--gruff but not to the point of being full-on death metal growls.  The guitars are downtuned, but the song themselves are rather bouncy and groovy and seem more rock than metal-based (with one big exception).  When thinking of death'n'roll, I normally associate it with more rocking, high energy riffage and '70s influences, but these guys seem to favor slower tempos, resulting in an almost doomy sound at times.  The bass line is actually higher in the mix than the guitars and that highlights the groove in their sound.  But again, it still feels very much like a death'n'roll band to me...It gets nowhere as weird or strays as far from metal as say, some of the Finnish bands who moved on from death metal and were considered death'n'roll or grind rock.

The one exception I mentioned is the last track, "Morning Wood," which has considerably more death metal influence than the other tracks, including a fast middle section that pretty much justifies me having this CD.   Still, this is a definite step down from the band's '92 demo, which was straightforward death metal (hell, they even shared the stage with Blood a few times in the early '90s!).