The Brutal Death Metal Thread
Suffocation - "Effigy Of The Forgotten" (1991)
I'm sure that we all have those bands that we got onboard with very early & stayed with for life. The ones that manage to transcend the ups & downs of the music global trends & seem to suit your unique taste palate personal taste so well that it's almost like the tailored their sound specifically for you. Well New York brutal death metal legends Suffocation are that band for me & their 1991 debut album "Effigy Of The Forgotten" was a pivotal moment in the history of death metal because it took extreme music to all new levels of technicality, brutality & sophistication. The production was ultra-compressed & superbly heavy, Frank Mullen's vocals are as monstrous as you'll find, the blast-beats are as fast & powerful as any to the time & the intentionally chromatic guitar solos are insane. This album is often credited with giving birth to the divisive slam death metal movement & that is certainly true but don't take this in a bad way because these chunky slam riffs are nothing short of untouchable. The first three tracks are the strongest on the album & leave the listener in no doubt that they're experiencing something altogether next level. "Effigy of The Forgotten" is a true classic that defined an entire subgenre & has rarely been matched since.
For fans of Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy & Pyrexia.
4.5/5
For this week's top ten list I've opted to go for my Top Ten Brutal Death Metal Releases Of All Time. Unfortunately though, I've found it to be impossible to avoid having it completely dominated by my all-time favourite band:
01. Suffocation – “Pierced From Within” (1995)
02. Suffocation – “Despise The Sun” E.P. (1998)
03. Suffocation – “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” (2013)
04. Suffocation – “Effigy Of The Forgotten” (1991)
05. Suffocation – “Human Waste” E.P. (1991)
06. Hour Of Penance – “The Vile Conception” (2008)
07. Hour Of Penance – “Paradogma” (2010)
08. Suffocation – “Suffocation” (2006)
09. Deadly Remains – “Severing Humanity” (2012)
10. Pyrexia – “Sermon Of Mockery” (1993)
https://metal.academy/lists/single/144
What's your top ten look like?
Cryptopsy - "Blasphemy Made Flesh" (1994)
Canadian brutal death metal outfit Cryptopsy popped up at the perfect time to grab my interest as I'd become totally infatuated with the more extreme end of death metal through Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse & the like a couple of years earlier & was totally obsessed with tape trading so when their 1993 "Ungentle Exhumation" demo tape made its way into my eager hands shortly after release I really wanted to like it. I think I managed to convince myself that I did too as I'd never heard blast beats that possessed the speed & fury of Flo Mounier's & the sheer insanity of Lord Worm's vocals were nothing short of hilarious. I guess you could say that it held far more novelty value than it did substance & the same can be said for their 1994 debut album "Blasphemy Made Flesh" which contains mostly the same material.
"Blasphemy Made Flesh" has gone on to become somewhat of an underground classic over the years but I feel that this is largely off the back of the band's sophomore album "None So Vile" as it really isn't terribly special when you examine it closely with a number of obvious flaws being hard to overlook. Despite what people might tell you, I'd suggest that it's sound possesses just as much old-school death metal as it does blasting brutal death metal. It's just the ultra-fast blast beats & stupidly gutteral vocal delivery that see it so unanimously slated as the most brutal of the brutal. There's definitely a strong deathgrind influence to some of it too actually. The production is often criticized & rightly so but it's not the fuzzy rhythm guitar sound that annoys me as that was pretty common at the time. The things that I struggle with are the poppy bass guitar sound which is too high is the mix & stands out too obviously over the top of the guitars & the heavily reverbed & quite pingy snare sound that's really hard not to obsess over given the amount of times that Mounier is capable of hitting it per second. Plus, Lord Worm makes no attempt whatsoever to enunciate words, instead choosing to act like a drunken fan who has grabbed the mike but has no understanding of the lyrics. Are there some good riffs here? Sure there are (particularly during the half-time sections where Mounier goes double-time on his ride cymbal) but the reality is that this style of death metal can be done so much better than this. The melodic guitar solos seem almost a touch TOO melodic in the context of Cryptopsy's sound & Flo needed to lay off those bouncy 1-2 beats he had a habit of turning to once or twice every track too. Admittedly Flo doesn't over-extend the human ability for speed as often as he does on "None So Vile" where you can obviously hear his endurance failing at the end of the faster blast beats sections which was something that really annoyed me about that record at times.
Ultimately I just think that once the novelty factor wears off there's not a lot of meat on these bones & I don't actually find myself getting all that much enjoyment out of the experience these days even though I can definitely see why an 18 year-old me would have got into it. "None So Vile" was a much stronger & more mature record but I can't say that I can understand the unbridled obsession that fans seem to have with it either. Never mind... I'll always have my beloved Suffocation.
For fans of Wormed, Dying Fetus & "Human Waste"-era Suffocation.
3/5
P.S. Please be advised that (despite the common tendency to incorrectly label Cryptopsy's first two albums as technical death metal) there's nothing technical about this record whatsoever.
Effluence - "Psychocephalic Spawning" (2021)
Given the glut of high ratings I've seen for this debut full-length from US solo act Effluence, I thought I'd better give it a few spins before January was out. It's been touted as an avant-garde take on brutal/technical death metal that takes the extremity to.... well.... the extreme... & that's not an understatement by any means but sadly "Psychocephalic Spawning" offers far more in novelty value than it does in substance. You see, this record is guilty of pushing the threshold of what can logically be considered to be music further than I'm comfortable with & ultimately comes across sounding like Devourment & Phyllomedusa collaborating on a Naked City/Painkiller cover project. Not in a good way either. Matt Stephens has used a bunch of non-traditional instruments here but do I really ever need to hear recorder used in my extreme metal? The answer is a categorical "Fuck no I don't!" I'm afraid. In fact, it all comes across as sounding pretty silly to be honest. I mean the vocals are just one long continuous gurgle. Does this album really qualify as a brutal death metal release? Yeah there's definitely enough common elements here to make that claim with the focus being primarily on pure savagery & the blasting drums ascending to gravity blast levels at times. I have my doubts about the tech death claim though as there's virtually no precision on display here, despite some quite adventurous song structures. The gutteral nature of the vocals & some of the mid-paced riffage hint at a slam death metal influence however the ridiculously over the top wall of noise showcases stronger affiliations with the divisive gorenoise subgenre. At times the chaos borders on being completely improvised but you definitely get the feeling that Stephens knows exactly what he's doing. The longer pieces seem to be the ones that are getting the majority of the praise but personally I found the shorter tracks to be the most tolerable as they were perhaps a touch more traditional in structure. At the end of the day "Psychocephalic Spawning" seems to be designed for stoned teenagers to laugh their arses off to but it offers very little in the way of genuine replay value for me personally. I guess I just prefer a more serious brand of death metal.
2/5
Nile - "Black Seeds Of Vengeance" (2000)
I have to admit that, even though I've always found Nile's highly regarded sophomore album to be an enjoyable listen, "Black Seeds Of Vengeance" has never struck me as being as worthy of high praise as the band's next couple of releases. I think the unrelenting reliance on guest skinsman Derek Roddy's undeniably impressive blast beats was perhaps a little over the top for me early on there & the vocals & production still sounded a little bit like a work in progress when viewed in hindsight but the years have been kind to this record & when revisiting it with fresh ears I've found it to be a much more engaging experience. The lead guitar work is full of fireworks as usual & is a real highlight. As is the occasional use of eerie middle eastern melodies during the crushing doom/death sections which should really have been explored further. I don't agree with the common consensus that this is a tech death record though. Yes, there's some complexity to the arrangements but it's just so obviously a brutal death metal record & that's kinda par for the course with much of that scene so there's really no need for the additional tag in my opinion. Overall, I've revised my view a bit & upped my rating by a half star as I can't deny that this is a high quality example of its type. "Black Seeds of Vengeance" really should be essential listening for fans of the more brutal end of death metal.
4/5
Dying Fetus - "Destroy The Opposition" (2000)
Maryland brutal death metal outfit Dying Fetus are one of those bands that I respect more than I do enjoy. They're a fantastic live act but their studio albums always leave me feeling like they promise so much more than they deliver with their 2000 third album "Destroy The Opposition" being a prime example even though it's one of the band's better releases. I love the more brutal end of death metal, especially when it's beautifully produced & performed like this record is, however there are definitely some elements that I struggle with here. Firstly, the trademark sweep-picked riffs sound a lot more like practice exercises than they do art & I immediately find my interest waning as soon as they pop up. There are also a few pretty unintelligent groove metal riffs in "Epidemic of Hate" which is the clear weak point of the album. The band's strength is definitely in their slower slam riffs which are somewhat of a signature & were a huge influence on the deathcore scene. Dying Fetus aren't at their best when they try to get too technical. In fact, I find that the simpler they are the more I enjoy them. There's a noticeable hardcore influence here too & I'll be darned if I don't dig it. Ultimately this is a reasonably entertaining if slightly overrated piece of brutal death metal.
3.5/5
Dying Fetus - "Reign Supreme" (2012)
Maryland-based brutal death metal trio Dying Fetus have been on my radar since the very beginning of their recording career when I first picked up on their 1993 demo tape “Bathe In Entrails” through the tape trading scene. They represented one of a fairly limited list of bands that were taking a more brutal approach to the standard death metal model, a sound that I was very much looking for at the time & one that I obsessed over to an extent too. But over the years I’ve found Dying Fetus to be a bit of an underachiever given their reputation & credentials if I’m being honest. They’re certainly amazing live & I’ve been lucky enough to experience them on a number of occasions, including the tour to support this particular record. But their albums often leave me feeling like I enjoy the idea of Dying Fetus more than the reality & there’s a number of reasons for that that we’ll explore here.
The now to kick things off, let me be clear that 2012’s seventh full-length “Reign Supreme” may be Dying Fetus’ finest work. It possesses all of the things that they’ve made their signature over the last few decades & presents it in a very attractive, well-produced & stunningly executed package. Even the cover art is arguably their best. In fact, when viewing the band's credentials on paper anyone that knows me would immediately peg them for a band that’d be right up my alley & justifiably so but there are a few minor quibbles that I have with Dying Fetus’ approach that always seem to get in the way of my affections transitioning from “like” to “love”. The first is their undying fascination with needless technicality. “Reign Supreme” certainly isn’t their most technical record but you can still find pointless scale runs & sweep picking exercises positioned inside their riffs that offer little in the way of artistic value & are clearly intended to showcase the band's technical skills. This approach unfortunately comes at the cost of a little song-writing integrity in my opinion. The second thing is that some of their slower, slammier stuff tends to be a little bit… I dunno… unintelligent? I guess I find some of the structures to be pretty basic & unimaginative at times.
On the positive side though, the musicianship on display here is wonderful, particularly the drumming of Trey Williams who is the very definition of the human metronome. He’s almost too precise to be believable at times & you’ll fairly find someone with more controlled blast beats that are so perfectly synchronized with his machine-gun double kick work. The dual vocal attack of John Gallagher & Sean Beasley is truly monstrous too & should go down a treat with the vast majority of death metal fans. As usual, there’s a noticeable New York hardcore influence incorporated into some of the more crunchy mid-tempo riffs which is somewhat of a trademark for the band & is a major contributor to the band’s live appeal. This gives Dying Fetus a bit of a deathgrind feel at times. You’ll also see the odd thrashy section thrown in here & there, particularly on “In the Trenches” which presents a clear Slayer influence. And don’t forget the old-school death metal bits that Dying Fetus have never been averse to including either. I guess you could say they have many strings to their bow but they all combine to produce a sound that’s well-defined & easily identifiable after all these years.
Overall though, I can’t deny that I come away from “Reign Supreme” feeling a touch disappointed as it doesn’t really live up to the hype around it being one of the elite brutal death metal releases. It won’t see you reaching for the skip button or anything but it doesn’t really fulfill its potential either. Most of the songs have strong sections but they rarely manage to fully capitalize on them by producing a genuinely classic death metal track. Instead you’re left with an enjoyable record that fails to see Dying Fetus elevated to the top tier of their field.
For fans of Suffocation, Nile & Deeds Of Flesh.
3.5/5
Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain (2022)
Never thought I'd be around these parts, but here we are I suppose. Even though the guttural vocals still rub me the wrong way sometimes, I've gotten a ton out of Artificial Brain's self-titled after a few initially rocky listens. Eventually it opened up and I've been enjoying my time with it as it's a swirling mess of chaotic passages and more than a few punchy riffs here and there. I'm surprising even myself with this one considering I really didn't like Artificial Brain's previous release. I don't think this is the start of something new for me, but I'm glad I'm starting to find a few albums in this genre that I genuinely enjoy, and I'm looking forward to spinning this one more throughout the rest of the year.
4/5
Skinless - "Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead" (2006)
Some fairly straight forward yet very effective brutal death metal from New York. I really dig the vocals which remind me of Grave. The production is thick & chunky & there's enough of a classic death metal sensibility to the riffs to see Skinless offering some appeal outside of the BDM space too. I could definitely have done without the Black Sabbath cover that closes the album though as it stands out like a sore thumb.
For fans of Dying Fetus, Aborted & Broken Hope.
4/5
Suffocation - "Breeding The Spawn" (1993)
If there's one record in the history of extreme metal that has a right to feel hard done by then it must surely be New York brutal/technical death metal legends Suffocation's 1993 sophomore album "Breeding The Spawn" as there has rarely (if ever) been an album that offered so much but was let down so badly by production issues. On the surface it sounds absolutely horrible but if you can manage to dig a little deeper & uncover the actual content you'll soon find that it had the potential to be as influential as any of the band's other classic era releases. "Breeding The Spawn" sees the band upping the ante on the technicality fairly significantly while maintaining the ultra-brutal sound they'd developed on "Effigy Of The Forgotten". When you hear a song like the title track re-recorded for the classic "Pierced From Within" album you can see very clearly the class that this era of the band had to offer & I don't think death metal song structures had been this complex before. Strangely there are a couple of tracks that suffered even worse production issues than others (see "Epitaph of the Credulous" & "Ignorant Deprivation" which were pretty much ruined) but the rest of the album has the potential to be enjoyed if you try hard enough. I'm pretty sure that most of our regulars will already know of my 30+ year love affair with Suffocation & that probably sees me being a little more lenient than some might be here though. Nostalgia would also come into it as I absolutely idolized these guys at the time.
For fans of Dying Fetus, Deeds Of Flesh & Pyrexia.
3.5/5
Broken Torso - "The Ultimate Abhorrence" (2000)
I was particularly late in the game in discovering this underground release given that it didn't confront my ear holes until around 2009 but I shouldn't feel too ashamed because it really has been one of those records that's built its reputation over many years & kinda crept up on the competition very slowly through word of mouth. This sole album from Austria's Broken Torso now seems to be regarded as somewhat of an unheralded classic amongst brutal death metal aficionados however I can't say that I see it quite as positively as that to be honest.
Despite "The Ultimate Abhorrence" being universally claimed as a brutal death metal release, it's definitely not as cut & dry as that. You see, Broken Torso have a few other strings to their bow & tend to balance out the brutal blast beats with more melodic riffage that's similar to the more accessible sounds of Swedish bands like Edge of Sanity & Dissection. The vocals are super-deep & ultra-dark which adds a nice contrast to some of the more melodic riffs. There are no guitar solos included & I tend to think this may be due to the technical deficiencies of guitarist Alex Mayrhofer because he's obviously the weakest link for Broken Torso. Whereas some fans refer to his guitar work as unhinged & psychotic, I tend to think of him as lacking control & timing because he struggles to stay in time with very capable drummer Thomas Breiteneder throughout this short 27 minute album & this is somewhat of an obstacle for me to be honest. You see, while Breiteneder does a fantastic job at blasting away with genuine precision, it almost sounds like Mayrhofer is having trouble his monitor speaker & can't hear what's going on around him with the other musicians in a live environment. This is particularly noticeable during the middle of the record where things start to fall apart pretty noticeably during weaker inclusions like "Thrill of Terror" & "Unforgotten Sins". Thankfully the quality level picks up significantly over the last couple of tracks & I'm left with a generally positive feeling by the end of the album.
"The Ultimate Obhorrence" may not be the unheralded classic that it's made out to be but it's definitely worth a few spins for those extreme metalheads that don't mind a bit of melody amongst all of the blasting violence. It reminds me very much of bands like Slovakia's Nomenmortis & France's Kronos in that way while the both ways bet Broken Torso take in regard to the more brutal & more traditional styles of death metal should appeal to fans of bands like Dying Fetus whose original band logo the band have so clearly ripped off.
For fans of Kronos, Nomenmortis & Dying Fetus.
3.5/5
Dying Fetus - "Wrong One To Fuck With" (2017)
The most recent full-length from Maryland death metallers Dying Fetus has seen me drawing very much the same conclusion as I have with the vast majority of their previous releases. While I certainly find “Wrong One To Fuck With” to be a more than decent brutal/technical death metal album, it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from them with very little variation on past themes. The production is very clean (almost as clean as the pristine performances from the trio who can no doubt play the living shit out of their instruments) while the band’s trademark hardcore grooves are still very much in effect along with the thrashier sections that remind me a lot of Slayer. Then toss in the consistent use of blast beats & slam riffs as well as those intentionally technical & often sweep-picked wanky parts that server very little purpose other than to show off the band members techniques & you get a Dying Fetus album…. any Dying Fetus album really.
Now that’s not such a big deal in theory as I generally love my brutal death metal & it doesn’t always need to be anything too original to get my juices flowing but the thing with Dying Fetus is that they seem to lack a bit in the way of soul. Everything sounds so intentional, calculated & precise but the song-writing is often where the band’s attention could have been better spent. Many of the transitions sound jerky & pieced-together while the groove sections are often a bit too basic. In direct contrast though, those technical parts I mentioned earlier are far too obvious & (as with every other Dying Fetus record) sound much more like practice exercises than they do actual music. Even the vocal phrasing is lacking in ambition as it often simply follows the rhythm of the riffs & lacks a bit of sophistication. Dying Fetus are definitely at their best when they’re simply blasting away with reckless abandon though & there’s enough of that to justify your interest if you’re a fan of the more brutal end of death metal.
Overall, I’d suggest that “Wrong One To Fuck With” is another decent but fairly uneventful Dying Fetus record that’s fun while you’re listening to it but doesn’t command much in the way of repeat listens. That’s very much par for the course in how I’ve felt about their albums since day one however I’d suggest that earlier releases like “Reign Supreme” & “Destroy The Opposition” still have a slight edge over this one. There’s an undeniable consistency of quality across the ten tracks included (eleven if you’re listening to a version with the bonus track “Induce Terror”) but sadly there are no genuine highlights here & the tracklisting does tend to sound a little samey as a result. Every track has great parts mixed in with flatter parts with the good clearly out-weighing the bad but never by an emphatic margin.
For fans of Suffocation, Nile & Cryptopsy.
3.5/5
Dying Fetus - "Killing On Adrenaline" (1998)
Another Dying Fetus release that brings you exactly what you expect with eight brutal death metal tunes chock full of hardcore grooves & techy sweep-picked wankery. As usual I find it hard to fault but rarely fully connect with it. It's not a bad record but I'd probably reach for albums like "Reign Supreme", "Destroy The Opposition" or "Wrong One To Fuck With" before this one.
For fans of Aborted, Benighted & Suffocation.
3.5/5
Fleshgod Apocalypse - "Agony" (2011)
I got onboard with Italian extremists Fleshgod Apocalypse very early on as their 2009 debut album "Oracles" landed right around the time that I was returning to metal after a decade-long hiatus. I thoroughly enjoyed it's super-brutal brand of techy death metal too it has to be said but found myself struggling a little with 2010's "Mafia" E.P. (widely regarded as the band's best work) due to the cheesy neoclassical component & the excessive use of over-the-top blast beats which saw the tracks bleeding into each other. "Agony" landed the following year & saw Fleshgod Apocalypse taking the symphonics they'd hinted at previously & bringing them into the foreground to create a genuinely symphonic brutal death metal sound. Now if that sounds like a bit of a contradiction of terms then you wouldn't be entirely wrong as the orchestration definitely sounds a little out of place over what must surely be one of the most consistently brutal releases ever to grace our ears. The ultra-fast drumming of band leader Francesco Pauli is utterly mind-blowing in its execution & you'd have to suggest that there is no one that can top him in the speed & precision but there's no doubt that the individual tracks struggle to differentiate themselves from one another for much the same reasons as I mentioned previously so I kinda find myself torn given that it's Pauli's drumming that I find to be the main attraction with a record like "Agony". Ironically, it's the slower sections that work best given that the symphonic arrangements simply make for a better accompaniment when they're given more space to create atmosphere. I do find the neoclassical lead guitar work to be better integrated into the band's sound on this occasion though & the solos often work as crescendos of sorts.
At the end of the day I think a lot of extreme metal fans will appreciate "Agony" for it's novelty value more than anything else. It's an exhausting listen at times as the sheer weight of sound is relentless & it could definitely do with more dynamics. The Italians seem to hold the title in terms of brutality these days & if that's the case then Francesco Pauli may just be the central figure in the local movement given his ties with Hour of Penance who also push the limitations of human endurance to their most extreme levels. Unlike their buddies though, I can't say that I easily connect with Fleshgod Apocalypse's music on a more visceral & aggressive level as I'm not a fan of symphonics in my metal. It's lucky for them that I'm a sucker for elite level extreme metal drumming & they certainly aren't short of that.
3.5/5
Defeated Sanity - "The Sanguinary Impetus" (2020)
German brutal/technical death metallers Defeated Sanity have been a very consistent performer over the years with every new album commanding a level of respect from a small niche market within the underground extreme metal scene that I once dedicated my life to. They’re a more challenging prospect than many of their peers at times due to their flat-out refusal to compromise on technicality in the interest of brutality & I can’t deny that there have been times when I’ve struggled to make sense of all the chaos over the years but I inherently WANT to like this band as they tick so many of my musical boxes with 2020’s “The Sanguinary Impetus” album (their sixth full-length) being a prime example of what I’m talking about.
Upon first listen it’s very easy for Defeated Sanity’s savage wall of noise to wash over you without much sticking as “The Sanguinary Impetus” is astoundingly technical & complex yet possesses a production job that’s been left intentionally dark & murky. It’s only upon repeat listens that the nuances start to become clear. You see, this record is surprisingly ambitious in its structure & scope. The band have seriously thrown the kitchen sink at both the brutal & technical elements of their sound here. It doesn’t always work but there can be no denying that it’s a consistently intriguing & challenging experience with the rewards eventually coming for those that are willing to persist.
Despite being one of the most relentlessly brutal bands in death metal, Defeated Sanity present a jazzy influence at times & I suspect that bands like Atheist & Watchtower have received many plays in the band’s rehearsal room. You can hear the clear technical proficiency in the instrumentation but the production job does it’s best to mask it with the overall soundscape regularly being tempted to descend into a mess but usually pulling back just in time through a more traditionally structured section. Drummer/band leader Lille Gruber doesn’t sit still for a second & while he may not be the tightest skinsman in the scene he’s certainly one of the most interesting. The rhythmic complexities on display even move into polyrhythmic territory at times which won’t be for the ears of the faint-hearted when presented within the scope of a brutal death metal backbone. Front man Josh Welshman’s indecipherable grunts remind me very much of an early 90’s Chris Barnes (Cannibal Corpse) meets Lord Worm (Cryptospy) hybrid & he does a pretty good job to be fair but I think a touch more intelligibility could give Defeated Sanity more appeal.
"The Sanguinary Impetus" certainly contains some exhilarating material in its own right & I’ve really enjoyed the experience, even if I can never quite let go of that niggling voice in my head that wishes that Defeated Sanity would tighten up a little more. They're clearly wanting to play in the same space as my favourite band Suffocation in their approach to creating music. They manage to match them in terms of brutality & even surpass them in the technicality stakes but they lack the same level of precision in their execution for an album like this one to play at the elite level of the subgenre. In saying that though, it’s this characteristic that separates the band from their peers as they don’t sound anything like copycats & have created their own identifiable sound.
4/5
Suffocation - "Souls to Deny" (2004)
Most people associated with Metal Academy for any sort of period will already be aware that New York brutal/technical death metal legends Suffocation are my favourite band & have been for many years. There are certainly releases from other bands that have matched or even surpassed the masters of muscular death metal extremity but there is no one whose style better fits my concept of what metal should aspire to be or who ticks all of my creative boxes as regularly. I was totally obsessed with the band from the very start of their career & throughout the 1990’s but Suffocation’s unfortunate demise after their classic 1998 “Despise The Sun” E.P. would signal the beginning of a six year hiatus that would come to an end during my own self-imposed decade-long exile from metal. You can bet your life that they were the first band I checked in on upon my return to metal in 2009 though but I have to admit to being a touch disappointed with 2004’s “Souls to Deny” fourth album at the time. It’s been many years since I’ve revisited it though so it’ll be interesting to see whether anything’s changed in that regard.
Upon pressing play on “Souls to Deny”, one of it’s Achilles Heals becomes immediately obvious. As with 1993’s heavily tarnished “Breeding The Spawn” sophomore album, the production gods have not been kind to Suffocation here although the impact is nowhere near as severe as it was with that unfortunate release. This time we get a noticeably bass-heavy mix where the rhythm section sounds full & beefy but the rhythm guitars are hamstrung by a muddy mix that lacks brightness & articulation. The guitar solos sound very thin too & struggle to cut through the mix while Frank Mullen’s monstrous vocals lack depth & power. The real winner in this battle is returned extreme metal drumming superhero Mike Smith who puts in a stellar performance with his light-speed blast-beats coming at you with the weight of a thousand giants. In fact, this may well be his best performance to the time which is saying something. The other thing that I feel may have limited my scoring in the past is the programming of the tracklisting with the album opening with what I consider to be its two most melodic & least intense tracks, both of which are pretty entertaining but lack the unbelievable intensity of Suffocation in their prime. Things pick up significantly after that though with the two best inclusions on the album hitting you in quick succession in the title track (my personal favourite & possibly the most brutal of the eight songs) & the very popular “Surgery of Impalement”. The B side is extremely solid & rarely puts a foot wrong but I think I’ve found it hard to look past those opening two tracks in the past which has caused me to score “Souls to Deny” a touch lower than it deserved.
At the end of the day this is another high-quality death metal release from a band whose class is unparalleled in the brutal death metal scene. The production issues certainly see this record being restricted to the also-rans of Suffocation’s back-catalogue but it’s by no means a failure. In fact, I found it to be really enjoyable & I think the fact that my listening habits don’t touch on brutal death metal as much as they used to helps to enable a record like this one to have the impact it rightfully deserves. There’s no doubt that Suffocation are guilty of a bit of self-plagiarism though. You shouldn’t go into one of their releases (or any BDM release for that matter) expecting them to reinvent the wheel but there are some pretty obvious references to past glories here & very few elements that you haven’t heard before. In fact, the more melodic approach to those first two tracks may well be the most significant change-up & I’ve already pooh-poohed that so maybe I’m a part of the problem.
At the end of the day I simply love Suffocation. I love their sound. I love their lyrics. I love their look. I love their girlfriends. I love their dirty socks. Yep, everything about them. So, while “Souls to Deny” may not compete with their best work, it certainly deserves credit for reigniting their flame in a scene that still had a big hole where this band used to sit. There’s only one Suffocation after all. Thousands have tried to match them & failed dismally over the years & brutal death metal MVP Terrence Hobbs puts them all to shame with very little effort here as he's the absolute master of the super-charged death metal riff, whether it be a fast & complex up-tempo blaster or a gutt-wrenchingly slow breakdown chugger. It’s just a shame that all of the hard work wasn’t rewarded with a more appropriate production job to better highlight how strong a death metal album “Souls to Deny” really is.
P.S. I'd never noticed that the final track fades out with the same riff that the opening track fades in with before now. It's kinda cool when you play the album multiple times back to back.
4/5
Suffocation - "Suffocation" (2006)
How good are favourite bands then? In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I quite often enjoy my favourite bands more than other bands which is interesting, isn't it? They just seem to appeal to me a little more for one reason or another & New York death metal legends Suffocation have been the long-time leader of that pack as their sound & technique is simply so in tune with my own view on what extreme music should be. I’ve made no secret about the fact that Suffocation’s classic period is about as good as metal gets for me personally but what makes them sit in such a prominent position in my affections is the quality of lesser known releases like this one, the second full-length after their solid return to the scene through 2004’s “Souls To Deny” album.
The general consensus around 2006’s self-titled record has always baffled me to be honest. Sure, it doesn’t try anything terribly new & tends to reside primarily in realms that Suffocation had built for themselves more than a decade earlier but it just does what it does so fucking well guys. I truly believe that the only difference between a merely decent Suffocation release & a truly mind-blowing Suffocation release is the quality of the production job because I don’t think they’re capable of writing anything that’s not ridiculously strong. They sit way too far above the competition for that.
And when I say “they” I’m really talking about chief song-writer Terence Hobbs & front man Frank Mullen because they’re the only band members to have stayed the entire course yet Suffocation continue to churn out records that… well… sound exactly like Suffocation. Unlike the AC/DC’s of the world though, I find that I can not only handle another helping of exactly the same shit as Suffocation have dished up several times before but I go back for triple helpings. A lot of the reasoning behind that can be attributed to the fact that bands of this ilk simply don’t come around very often. There’s a class about Suffocation that literally no one can touch, including the highly regarded peers that they’re generally compared with like Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy & Nile. The incredible knack for balancing brutality & complexity within their riff structures could have come from no one else & those twisted yet highly expansive chromatic guitar solos are a clear trademark (check out the lengthy one that makes up the entire mid-section of "Abomination Reborn" for an example of one of Terence’s best). Despite my close affiliations with the brutal death metal scene, I've always preferred a bit of intelligibility in my death grunts too & Mullen is the best example you'll find as he somehow manages to achieve monstrous savagery while still allowing the listener to understand the message behind some pretty imposing lyrical content (see "Entrails of You" for example).
If we take a look at the self-titled album in a little more detail though, the first thing that’s worth mentioning is that (unlike “Souls To Deny”) they’ve got the production right this time. As soon as I heard that I knew that I was in for a devastating journey & indeed that’s what I received. Short, hellish intro track “Oblivion” is perfectly suited to introducing the annihilation that’s to come with opener “Abomination Reborn” being one of the band’s most brutal offerings & highlighting powerhouse drummer Mike Smith’s incredible strength & endurance in no uncertain terms thanks to an ultra-heavyweight drum sound. It’s a great way to kick off the record. Things settle down for a few tracks from there with some solid & muscular outings that don’t disappoint but can’t quite match the dizzying heights of their opener. By the time we hit the midpoint of the tracklisting though, order has been well & truly restored with four of the next five songs being elite examples of the brutal death metal subgenre, particularly “Translucent Patterns of Delirium” (my personal favourite) & “Regret” which are nothing short of perfect in my eyes. The album closes with the now obligatory rework of a song taken from Suffocation’s poorly produced “Breeding The Spawn” record in “Prelude To Repulsion” which easily manages to eclipse the original version. It does sound just slightly out of place here though as it’s both a lot more consciously technical & a touch less chunky & brutal than the other nine proper songs.
At the end of the day, I can’t imagine why any true Suffocation or brutal death metal fan wouldn’t completely flip out for this stuff to tell you the truth. Some tracks have less impact than others but the highlights are so strong that I’ve found it hard not to continue to return to this release repeatedly over the 14 years since I first encountered it. Does it compete with the band’s classic period releases? You know what, it might not be a match for Suffocation’s most accomplished & ultra-premium works (“Pierced From Within” & the “Despise The Sun” E.P.) but I wouldn’t place it too far behind classics like “Effigy of the Forgotten” & the “Human Waste” E.P. if I’m being completely honest. I think some of that comes down to the fact that those releases don’t sound quite so fresh these days due to the unmitigated flogging I’ve given them over the years as well as the slightly more polished & modern sound that the self-titled benefits from but don’t let this one pass you by if you have even a passing interest in this band or in brutal/technical death metal in general.
4.5/5
Aborted - "Goremageddon: The Saw and the Carnage Done" (2003)
The very enjoyable if inessential third album from these Belgian brutal deathgrinders. "Goremageddon" is a very consistent record however I don't think it has the riffs to worry the bigger boys of the death metal scene. The rhythm guitar tone is a touch dry but the blasting performance of future Soilwork/Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren is exceptional & the energy levels are always kept high with the dual vocal attack being borrowed from the grindcore scene. If you listen closely you should be able to pick up the influence of Carcass' classic "Heartwork" album in some of the more melodic riffage too. It's been a long time since I heard it but I think I might prefer Aborted's 2001 sophomore album "Engineering the Dead" over this one but "Goremageddon" will no doubt be of interest to fans of grind-infused brutal death metal bands like Benighted, Cattle Decapitation & early Dying Fetus.
3.5/5
P.S. Aborted were absolutely psychotic when I saw them play live just over a decade ago & may just have created the most violent mosh-pit I've ever seen in my life which is saying something.
Suffocation - "Pinnacle of Bedlam" (2013)
New York brutal/technical death metal godfathers Suffocation have been my favourite band since way back in the mid-1990’s so when I finally returned to the metal scene from my decade-long sabbatical in 2009 I wasted no time at all in catching up on their three 2000’s albums with the quality ranging from pretty decent (2009’s “Blood Oath”) to very solid (2004’s “Souls To Deny”) to fucking superb (2006’s self-titled). I’d have to wait four more years until I’d hit another new Suffocation full-length in real time though so when 2013’s “Pinnacle of Bedlam” finally landed I got all hot & bothered & waxed lyrical about it to anyone that’d listen. It’s been quite a while since I revisited it though so I've been quite keen to reassess it, especially after awarding the self-titled album an impressive 4.5 star rating only a month or so back. To be open & transparent, I’ve long suspected that my initial five star rating for “Pinnacle of Bedlam” might have been a touch ambitious so a reassessment to firm up its positioning against an album of the undeniable strength of the self-titled was well overdue.
Now let’s get one thing straight right from the get-go, if you don’t like Suffocation’s previous work then this record isn’t going to do anything to change that as it’s very much an example of the bands signature sound. The difference here however is the stunning production job & polished performances which ooze of class & enable the listener to achieve maximum reward for the aural battering they’ve subjected themselves to. “Pinnacle of Bedlam” is everything that Suffocation aspire to be. It’s unwaveringly brutal although perhaps not as relentlessly blasting as some of their other works. It might be one of their more technical releases though as it sees the instrumentalists confidently & powerfully working their way through a string of ambitiously structured riffs that will no doubt see your average extreme metal fan bowing down in worship of the greatest brutal death metal band of all. I’d also suggest that this might be one of Suffocation’s most melodic releases with guitarists Terence Hobbs (Criminal Element/Deprecated) & Guy Marchais (Internal Bleeding/Pyrexia) & bassist Derek Boyer (Criminal Element/Decrepit Birth/Deprecated) working their way through some quite challenging & angular runs & harmonies while returning skinsman Dave Culross (Malevolent Creation) completes a flawless example of high-precision extreme metal drumming. Legendary front man Frank Mullen doesn’t let the team down either with a stellar display of how to create monstrous yet still completely intelligible death metal grunting. He’s certainly one of the all-time greats in his field for mine.
“Pinnacle of Bedlam” gets off to a magnificent start through “Cycle of Suffering” & “Purgatorial Punishment” which are classic Suffocation tunes if I’ve ever heard them but I’m afraid the tracklisting doesn’t stay at that level consistently enough to warrant full marks if I’m being honest. Album highlight “Rapture of Revocation” is right up there with the bands very best work & “Sullen Days”, “Inversion” & the title track aren’t far behind it either but then we also see a few less-inspired hardcore riffs & slightly lethargic beats seeping into songs like “Eminent Wrath” “As Grace Descends” & “My Demise” which leaves them struggling to overcome the “very solid filler track” tag. The re-recorded version of “Beginning of Sorrow” is equally solid but doesn’t add a lot to the album from a creative point of view in my opinion, despite being an improvement on the already reasonably enjoyable original that opened 1993’s “Breeding The Spawn” sophomore album. I mean, there’s nothing that I’d rate as any less than four stars included here as this is an undeniably classy death metal record but I’m not sure that it challenges the elite of the elite. In saying that though, I do still rate it just slightly ahead of the massively underrated self-titled album which puts it right up there with my favourite releases of the decade. If you’re a fan of bands like Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy & Nile then you owe it to yourself to indulge in this wonderful example of the genre leaders flexing their muscles. "Pinnacle of Bedlam" is yet another classic release from my favourite band of all time.
4.5/5
Here's my adjusted Top Ten Brutal Death Metal Releases of All Time list following this week's revisit of Suffocation's "Pinnacle of Bedlam" album:
01. Suffocation – “Pierced From Within” (1995)
02. Suffocation – “Despise The Sun” E.P. (1998)
03. Suffocation – “Effigy Of The Forgotten” (1991)
04. Suffocation – “Human Waste” E.P. (1991)
05. Hour Of Penance – “The Vile Conception” (2008)
06. Hour Of Penance – “Paradogma” (2010)
07. Suffocation – “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” (2013)
08. Suffocation – “Suffocation” (2006)
09. Deadly Remains – “Severing Humanity” (2012)
10. Pyrexia – “Sermon Of Mockery” (1993)
https://metal.academy/lists/single/144
Here's my adjusted Top Ten Brutal Death Metal Releases of All Time list following this week's revisit of Nile's "In Their Darkened Shrines" album:
01. Suffocation – “Pierced From Within” (1995)
02. Suffocation – “Despise The Sun” E.P. (1998)
03. Suffocation – “Effigy Of The Forgotten” (1991)
04. Suffocation – “Human Waste” E.P. (1991)
05. Hour Of Penance – “The Vile Conception” (2008)
06. Hour Of Penance – “Paradogma” (2010)
07. Suffocation – “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” (2013)
08. Suffocation – “Suffocation” (2006)
09. Deadly Remains – “Severing Humanity” (2012)
10. Nile - "In Their Darkened Shrines" (2002)
https://metal.academy/lists/single/144
The new Cryptopsy, As Gomorrah Burns, it quite simple and absitively posolutely... meh.
I'm redoing my review of In Their Darkened Shrines right now, because I just found out the playlist I listened to mixed the track names and even left out one. It shows in my old review, and I wanted to fix that before more people saw it and I looked like a fucking idiot. I went and fixed the mistakes, but it's still not a review I'm fully proud of, so I'm redoing it.
Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines (2002
Genres: Brutal Death, Tech Death
Secondaries: Traditional Death, Death Doom
Normally it takes me one listen to an album to grasp it all. But sometimes I need to flesh things out a little more. In this instance, it was relistening to Nile's tertiary album, In Their Darkened Shrines, after going through a bunch of brutal death metal. I'm in the middle of my death metal standards and opinions changing drastically, which may also reinvent how I rank my overall top 100 metal albums. Now there was a lot I appreciated about this album, and there was a little I criticized. Let's see how it pans out this time.
The intro started out similarly to how I would start out a tech metal album, weird and melodic at the same time. Overtime, the album would cover a variety of moods and atmospheres with this single genre, taking time to be proggy, epic and doomy like with Unas, Slayer of the Gods, or speedy and catchy, like with Kheftiu Asar Butchiu, or just plain evil like Churning the Maelstrom, which reaches Devourment levels of brutality. Notice, that this is only in the track 4-6 string. The general consensus after comparing this to albums by Suffocation and Defeated Snity, as well as ones I heard less recently but am still familiar with like Devourment and Disfiguring the Goddess, tells me that this album's primary focus is depth, not necessarily brutality or technicality. However, the brutality never suffers. Honestly, this is as brutal in its instrumental delivery as the Human Waste EP, but this album boasts a presence drawn in by its Egyptian subject matter, which means Nile are operating on a spiritual level, truly making ART in order to rise about the ranks of their genre.
While the style itself and the formatting of each song isn't always new or revolutionary, their moods and tricks are all healthy enough to keep the album entertaining. This is largely because of a very strong depth to the band's personalities, effortlessly perfecting the "mood" aspects and overshadowing their own technical and songwriting skills, as good as the writing is on its own. Our epic Unas, Slayer of the Gods is probably one of the finest death metal songs I've ever heard. It's an 11-minute track I'd easily return to if I was in the mood, and honor I've only ever given two 11-minute epics in my life: Through Silver in Blood by Neurosis, and the album version of Anything for Love by Meat Loaf. And after having heard the doomy masterwork Cause of Death by Obituary and the slower and psychedelic Gateways to Annihilation by Morbid Angel, I have a much deeper appreciation for the ghostly depths of the droning sound effects of slower songs like I Whisper in the Ear of the Dead. If I were to make a Halloween playlist, it wouldn't have any corny metal covers of Spooky Scary Skeletons. It would be all about truly creepy atmospheres like the one I Whisper in the Ear of the Dead provides. And the best part is that songs like that feels so consistent with faster-paced blasters like Wind of Horus, and even then, that track has an atmosphere in the middle that's not only furious, but slow building with an atmospheric guitar drone similar to atmo-black metal.
All of my needs for brutal death metal, specifically the begging for more depth and variety, are met in this hour long entry to a genre where even a half hour can feel overlong thanks to monotony and velocity. The greatest albums in the world need DEPTH, and this is an album that's loaded with it. It provides a unique experience that only Nile could provide thanks to their passion for myths, legends and themes. I'm honestly having trouble deciding whether or not this is the greatest death album I've ever heard because it covers so much within the genre, and it doesn't even need brutal's famous subgenre, slam. This might be a death metal album, but it goes beyond that. In Their Darkened Shrines is a spiritual journey of the souls of the undead and their suffering over several millenniums.
100/100
Suffocation - "Reincremated" demo (1990)
The crude demo tape represents the beginning of a life-long love affair between myself & New York brutal death metallers Suffocation. It's also where death metal reached the next level in both brutality as well as technicality. "Reincremated" shows off a previously unparallelled level of intensity & sophistication & pretty much single-handedly created a new sub-genre of death metal. Although all of these tracks were re-recorded in later years, the song structures & performances stayed pretty much the same which really highlights how fully realised these pieces were even at this early stage. There's no out-of-time sections or mistakes that were so common with other death metal demos of the time & you can easily tell that these guys were the real deal. The hyper-speed blast beats, the monstrous vocals & the twisted nature of the guitar solos all became part of the signature Suffocation sound & claimed thousands of immitators world-wide. It's a landmark release for brutal death metal & for myself as a teenage tape trader in the early 1990's.
4/5