Suffocation - Hymns From The Apocrypha

http://www.secret-face.com/

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal Techno Death

This album has elements to it that make it pretty epic, though it's undoubtedly not like their catchiness of their earlier work. The intensity is still there though and the technicality of it all though the leads were somewhat sloppy. The intensity is high throughout, even the slower tempos, they are BRUTAL.

The vocals and music keep this release pretty underground. I'd have to say that they earned a "75" rating from me. I like what I'm hearing throughout this release. They're surely not compromising, and that hasn't really changed. Upped into the realm of say Dying Fetus in that aspect, the technicality, the double bass kicks, the wicked guitar work, these guys did well here. I cannot make this into a lower rating because it's molded into me in a great release. I still need to order this album because I only have it streaming, and I want to show support to the band. These guys have had an over 30-year career in death metal history in some of the most influential work!

There's no backing out of saying they aren't witnessing back from their roots on this one. That would be false, a definite false statement. This album is in your face brutality and catchy guitars, brutal vocals and a sound production. I really liken this release!

I had to order this, it would be stupid of me to do otherwise and not factor this in to the CD list I may have for top releases of 2023. These guys just tear it up from every different angle! The vocals go really well with the music, they're left unchanging. No screaming really, just low bellowing vox and the guitars that's riffs go hand in hand with the music. The leads are pretty well executed as well! But they're in no way better than the music itself. They just annihilate your speakers!

If you desire to hear some fresh Suffocation in the vein of the old era, tune in to this because it's where it's at! Balls out intensity! Get it, today! (Death8699)

(Nuclear Blast - 2023)
Score: 75

https://suffocation.bandcamp.com/album/hymns-from-the-apocrypha  

Suffocation - Breeding The Spawn

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#FOR FANS OF: Brutal/Techno Death

Brutal onslaught of death metal galore. This might be one of their best releases in their entire discography! They made some really original, unrelenting and pivotal songs ever. I cannot recall a Suffocation album being this likable. They really know what they're doing and they just did it, ABSOLUTELY! These guys knew how to pretty much invent brutal/technical death metal being an act of just enormous influence. Too many bands in the genre(s). They had some great vocals as well, it's not just the perfection in music, but yes the vocals are simply spell-binding. I can't recall listening to a death metal band like this and really liking the vocals.

The sound quality isn't the greatest though, otherwise this would be a top rating album. But it was way back when it was hard to get albums that were well produced. I think I'm right in saying that. These guys not only tore it up here but the music was mesmerizing as well. Hardcore death metal galore. This album is one that's never to be duplicated. Their debut might've been a bit more likable but both are simply amazing. I like the riffs on here a lot of tremolo picking and down-picking as well! These guys know exactly how to construct songs that are just original as all hell. They just wipe out the competition!

The sound quality, as I said, wasn't the greatest of a recording production wise but it's still admirable. The music on here is just blazing! I like what they did here but, if the recording was more solid, then I would've given this a 100%. Great band, album and rupturing genre. They know what to do music wise and they also had great vocals. Only a few things that I'd change on here. But everything else as it was phenomenal. They did the genre justice in regard to setting the tone to the genre. And just talent as well as passion here.

I know the brigade of streaming music probably has this on Spotify and YouTube, but I urge you to get the CD. I was able to pick it up at a local record store (yes those still exist!). So it's up to you to support the music community and the band themselves. You don't get the same effect as would be doing as getting a physical copy to the album. It's worth it! Sad for all of you that don't even have a CD player! It's a great album and this band is still surviving to this day! Show some respect for the music community and purchase this CD!! I doubt you will dislike it! Own it, today! (Death8699)

(Roadrunner/Listenable Records - 1993/2023)
Score: 85

https://www.suffocationofficial.com/

Suffocation - Blood Oath

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#FOR FANS OF: Brutal Death

Downright abrasive to the ear lobes! What a masterpiece, I cannot say what a riff that's been played on here that was in an ill place or poorly played. All seemed to fall into place perfectly. Vocals are top-notch as well! They're compliment the dark death metal that goes alongside it. The leads were immaculate, too. I believe this was one of the last LP's that's with Frank Mullen on vocals. I think he did a couple more until he hung it up with Suffocation. What a tragedy, as well. He was one of the driving forces for the band and always had been. Well, hold on tight to these vocals here and embrace the music!

The majority of the music on here is downright brutal riffs. Along with Frank's vocals the music just tears it up. Tempos vary from a blitzkrieg of fury to moderate to slower, but technical riffs. All in all, this is an abomination of soul in the dark feeling of despair. Their earlier material shows more disruption into faster flowing riffs. On here, they pretty much shoot on all fronts of metal. That's what makes this release so likable. You'll find that they flow more freely in the realm of slower riffs with the drums backing up the guitars gruntingly. And the lead guitars are all so very technical in flowing.

Frank leads the way though on this album, he belts out his grunting and the music follows his lead quite solemnly. The band does a great job collectively. Again, it's a slower paced Suffocation release, but it's still magnificent in composition. The sound quality is top notch and you can hear everything pieced together. That's what lacked in their earlier recordings...the production was lacking in good sound but on here it's top notch. Everything seems to flow together and all instruments/vocals share triumphant bits of music throughout. I think this is one of my favorite ones ABSOLUTELY!

I heard this on Spotify first off and decided that I needed the CD itself. That's how highly I esteem this release. It goes from death metal to brutal death metal to doom metal all in one release. There just is a lot of fluctuation on here which makes it so versatile! It's a bit under an hour of great metal! If you think otherwise when you hear this, I would be appalled. This album just dominates through and through. It's a somewhat different Suffocation release in that the production is better but the music is more chargingly dismantled. From every avenue this release topples it all! Check it out! (Death8699)

(Nuclear Blast - 2009)
Score: 85

https://www.facebook.com/suffocation/

Suffocation - Souls To Deny

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#FOR FANS OF: Brutal Death

Solid guitar and sound on this one! What a difference than on the earlier stuff. This seems a bit more polished. Still good though, not as heavy as their earlier work but still good! The drums hit home on here and the riffs are dynamic! I enjoyed this album a lot. They really did a good job on here as a follow-up. I liked this whole album, I thought that it was really a steal in terms of the songwriting. The guitars are my favorite on this. And the vocals are a close second! But overall, this album has a lot of meat to it! The recording is not as good as all, but that's alright because the music makes up for it!

This album is not super long which I had hoped, but it's still great platter of a recording. I think that they have a lot to offer here when death metal has been a bit stagnant in the year it was recorded (2004). I think they're up-to-par on here and the recording/mixing was a little flat sounding but the music takes over and that's the end of it all. Total annihilation. These guys are way up there on the list of bands who stayed consistent over the years and didn't change their style of music. That's why it's so cool to go through their succession from album to album and see what's change vs. what's stayed the same.

A lot of tremolo picking and down-picking riffs. It makes it brutal an somewhat fast. Their not lacking whatsoever in the songwriting capabilities. Pretty solid as ever! I like the vocals too, they're not as brutal as in the past but still they're good alongside the music. I enjoyed this album immensely. It's one you wouldn't think would measure up to the standards of the past records. But it does! Really good release and despite the sort of echo that the drums emit because of the mixing, everything else is fine. It's that snare drum that's a bit overpowering in ruse. However, everything makes up for the deficiencies.

I didn't download this album though I bet you could on Spotify I ended up buying the actual album. So yeah, it was definitely worth it. You won't get the same effect as their first two releases but it's a great modern or more modern Suffocation album. It's I think one of their better more modern releases even though it's itching away as being almost 20 years old. Still superb recording and I wish it didn't end at eight tracks. You'll enjoy this release if you give it a chance. No expectations. Just remember, they're more mature on here and deserve praise to staying true to their roots. Own it! (Death8699)

(Relapse Records - 2004)
Score: 75

https://relapsealumni.bandcamp.com/album/souls-to-deny

Suffocation - ...Of the Dark Light

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal/Techno Death

Intricate, polished, and devastating, Suffocation has consistently stood at the helm of the most brutal ship in the death metal armada with mind-bending complicated riffing semaphore, tight ropes of musicianship and production, and an ever-focused eye on what maneuver will cause the most mayhem in the fewest measures. This death metal institution has kept many a fan enamored with its unabashedly aggressive music and innovatively skewed approach that mimicked its insane, slaughterous, and gratuitously gory lyrics. Alongside Immolation, Suffocation formed New York's barbaric response to Florida's death metal monopoly in a jarring outpouring of concrete rhythm, creating an offshoot that abandons the search for melody in favor of a gritty texture on which to flatten its audience.

As Suffocation's eighth full-length, '...Of the Dark Light' is from an era somewhat removed from the seminal '90s albums. The album cover is merely a person being atomized in open space rather than a monstrous machine consuming a victim. The monsters have all but disappeared from the band's contorted universe. Changing form to become either metaphysical torments in a balanced domain where they could be deserved punishments or appearing as inhabitants of an unforgiving universe where such pain is predetermined.

Musically striking out from its tremendous template, Suffocation's '...Of the Dark Light' continues the legacy that the band has laid out over nearly thirty years to further explore this expansive evolution. Massive sounding open and palm muted guitar notes lead erupting double bass bursts in the stunning opener, “Clarity Through Deprivation”. Breakdowns are a staple feature of Suffocation's sound and in these early few minutes the desolate atmosphere leaves large spaces for a head-crushing delivery. Unlike the numerous bands it has inspired, Suffocation uses breakdowns more sparingly and with great impact to absolutely demolish a structure and drive home the intensity and immensity of the aesthetic for which it aims. The polished production doesn't diminish the impact of bass as the thumping energy patters against a chest in anticipation of the pummeling it will receive at a live show. The guitars clasp together in horror-striking harmony without blending while maintaining the down-tuned vibrations that tear at the sanity of a listener with the psychotic sincerity that the twisted mind narrating each song projects, instilling sense and rationale for its malicious universe.

The rip-roaring tremolo riff in “Some Things Should be Left Alone” displays the evolution well as the band showcases its incredible talents in spurts between meditative and sensible stomps into the death metal pit. “The Warmth Within the Dark” is the catchiest song on this album with a most melodic moment when a riff rises in an almost metalcore fashion, dancing its way across a long looping bridge that crumbles beneath the weight of the ensemble's backlash against such an out-of-place moment of hope. Suffocation betrays to its listener how conscious and dulcet its music is within immense, brash, and frantic structures. The calm of “Caught Between Two Worlds” is as delicate as it is intense when delirious guitars start screaming against the percussive weight tumbling down upon them. The bass comes through beautifully in the re-recording of “Epitaph of the Credulous”, rounding the album out with an homage to the lesser-known album “Breeding the Spawn”.

As Suffocation has been reminding its audience of the 1993 album on every new album since 2006, with “Prelude to Repulsion” appearing on the self-titled album, “Marital Decimation” on “Blood Oath”, and “Beginning of Sorrow” on “Pinnacle of Bedlam”, these re-recordings show how much the band's sound has changed from its bouncier beat-'em-up template in 1993 to the uncompromising assaults that this 2017 iteration offers. The little bits of personality found throughout the masonry of such imposing musical constructs keep this album fresh. An upward driving scale in “Some Things Should Be Left Alone”, a sitar-sounding riff adorning “Return to the Abyss”, and an extra tier to a by-the-numbers breakdown in “Your Last Breaths” enhance the multi-dimensional approach that Suffocation used to make a name for itself. '...Of the Dark Light' is no 'Pierced from Within'. Rather than shove its every fluctuation down the listener's throat, there is a nuance to this album that can easily go unnoticed in the first listens, something that shows its fury as one that burns for longer, not to be taken lightly, for each assault is coldly calculated, premeditated. While the lyrics are doomed to their confinement, the sophisticated exploration of the guitars, like a British expedition into the untamed heart of darkness, show a smarter and faster band, versatile enough to endure a drastic lineup change and still succeed. Listening to Suffocation is like attending Hell's opera. The masquerade is a refinement of tone within a frantic and chaotic tableau. Each intensely crafted scene has an air of improvisation while simultaneously featuring tightly-crafted choreography, displaying exceptional musicianship and a professionally cultured finishing, betrayed only by the casual cursory first glance that seems base and barbaric.

Suffocation has been around the bend throughout the outfit's twenty-nine year history and has consistently come out on top delivering an impactful sound, even as its members' passions may have fluctuated. As one of the originals of its day this band still creates the signature churn of complex sounds that metalheads have grown to love, a rare cacophony that has inspired death metal offshoots that explore and expound upon certain moments of Suffocation songs in order to write their own full albums. Being a fan of Suffocation is a privilege, exploring its music is a joy, and having the chance to do the band some justice through a fan's words is something that I see as a necessary homage to this all-powerful pioneering group. '...Of the Dark Light' is no 'Pierced from Within', it is a maturation bred of those fundamental days and an expansion of the band's instrumental path, ever seeking excellence and without such smug satisfaction in itself that the chase is ever done. Suffocation has soldiered on since the 1990s to corrupt any sense of propriety in favor of indulging our most basic human desire, murder. Death can deal with its namesake, Akercocke can have all the sex it wants, but Suffocation has always explored the why and how while innovating a direction so obtuse and multi-faceted that new techniques had to be invented in order to achieve these ambitions. (Five_Nails)

(Nuclear Blast - 2017)
Score: 90

https://www.facebook.com/suffocation