Review by Sonny for Suffering Hour - Impelling Rebirth (2025)

I first took notice of Suffering Hour with their 2021 album, "The Cyclic Reckoning", which I found interesting for its incorporation of influences from Eighties' gothic rock into its blackened death maelstrom. This EP is a different beast however, the gothic element to the guitar sound has been completely stripped away and replaced with dissonant guitar leads and the tempos have been ramped up, resulting in a more immediately visceral and in-your-face experience. The production here is somewhat thicker and muddier than previously and when coupled with such frantic and hectic material it kind of feels to me like Gorguts playing War Metal. I have only recently really been converted to the charms of disso-death (mainly thanks to Ulcerate) and the version of that employed here by Suffering Hour works really well with the rampant black metal blasting. The opening title track is probably the most accessible track on the EP and does still exhibit a little bit of the gothic feel of earlier material, but after that it is pretty much a relentless maelstrom with the sub-two minute "Anamnesis" that follows "Impelling Rebirth" leading the charge. At less than fifteen minutes total runtime, none of the five tracks on offer here are likely to become boring, but that is even less likely when you hear how much is going on within such short compositions.

At my advancing age, I generally prefer to stick to stuff I suspect I will enjoy, but I am glad I have persisted with delving into more dissonant styles because sometimes a record like this comes along and revitalises my jaded perceptions with a good old-fashioned (metaphorical) slap in the face.