Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotton / Pierced From Within

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Music reviews of Effigy of the Forgotton / Pierced From Within

Music Review: Double your pleasure with Suffo!
Rating: 5 Stars

"Effigy" is a steamroller of stunning power and heaviness, with Frank Mullen's impossibly low gurgling grunt serving as an extra instrument to complement the crushing riffs of Terrence Hobbs and Doug Cerrito and Mike Smith's crazy drum patterns. The opening "Liege Of Inveracity" and the following title track, especially, are among the most oppressive death metal songs ever. Both tracks demonstrate just how masterful this band was at mixing their aural punishment with equal amounts of musicianship and groove. It's on the stunning "Pierced From Within," however, that Suffo really showed what they could do. If "Effigy" established the band as leaders of the death metal pack, "Pierced" separated them from said pack completely. Death's "Symbolic" and Carcass's "Heartwork" came out the same year, and while those albums are both justly praised as classics neither one is as relentlessly vicious or viscerally impacting as Suffocation's masterpiece was. While "Effigy" was a finely honed killing machine of an album, "Pierced" saw the band refining their approach even further, adding even more reams of complexity to their already potent sound.

Perhaps the most notable change on "Pierced" is in Frank's vocals. His throat-scarring grunt from the band's debut was gone, replaced by a vicious, menacing growl that added clarity without sacrificing brutality. The songs themselves became more rhythmically complex and less predictable, with frequent tempo changes and some astonishingly intricate riff structures from Doug and Terrence. Most important of all, though, was the addition of drummer Doug Bohn. His predecessor, Mike Smith, was great himself, but Doug is just a machine, taking every bit of the skill of math metal drummers like Meshuggah's Tomas Haake and Candiria's Kenneth Schalk and applying it to death metal. Blastbeats, double-bass, you name it: Doug did it, and in a creative and unpredictable manner as well. I don't think I've ever heard another drummer make use of dynamics as well as Doug did here, varying his assault constantly for some of the most endlessly fascinating drumwork these ears have heard. Not even to mention, Chris Richards's bass lines were heavy enough to shake houses at their foundations.

I'd write a long conclusion to this review right now, but I have to get back to work. So to sum up: this albums are great, and this package is essential for anyone looking to discover Suffocation. So stop reading and pick it up now!

Description of Effigy of the Forgotton / Pierced From Within

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Hard Rock & Metal
• Rock