Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten (1991) Reviews

Suffocation pretty much single-handedly took death metal to a whole new level of brutality back in 1991 (Cannibal Corpse also deserve some credit). Their Human Waste EP displayed what they were capable of, but it was Effigy of the Forgotten that crushed thousands of metalhead minds (in a good way of course) across the globe. I must admit that at the time, I wasn't ready for it. Having cut my teeth on Metallica and Pantera, then just made the move to Sepultura, this album was just a fist to the face that I wasn't able to swallow. To my 14-year-old ears, the death growls were indecipherable and brutally guttural, the drumming was chaotically fast and technical, the riffs were nasty and ever changing. It took me another step through Death, Morbid Angel and Deicide to be able to come back to Suffocation and take it all in. Once I connected with it, this album would never let go.

While the album doesn't have an enormous amount of variety, that's not really the point of Suffocation. They've just always had a God-like ability to create riff after riff of awesome death metal and when combined with Mike Smith's inhuman drumming and Frank Mullen's possessed vocals, it makes for a mesmerising experience. The only reason I can't give Effigy of the Forgotten 5 stars is due to several tracks not really doing anything to distinguish themselves from each other. That said, Liege of Inveracity, Infecting the Crypts and Mass Obliteration are some of the finest examples of brutal death metal you could ever hope to hear. This is essential for anyone into this style of music, but for those new to extreme metal, I suggest working your way up to it or check out Pierced from Within.

I have a strong aversion to brutal death metal that stretches back to when I returned to metalhood around the turn of the millenium and I was still reading metal mags. Every cover disc from Terrorizer or Zero Tolerance seemed to be made up of about 60% crappy brutal death metal bands, so I gained a disdain for the genre as it all sounded basically the same. Suffocation is a name that I have come across many, many times over the years, but my distaste for the more brutal flavour of death metal meant that I had never investigated them further, at least until now. I had, of course, listened to a fair bit of Cannibal Corpse's discography and didn't mind them too much, especially in small doses, so there was hope yet that Suffocation might do it for me.

It's pretty obvious from the very off that Effigy of the Forgotten is superior to 99.9% of the shit that "adorned" those metal mag cover discs as, despite Suffocation's brutality, there are a whole heap of subtleties and nuances contained within it's nine tracks. Now I am not going to insult anyone's intelligence by making out that I know what makes a great death metal album (brutal or not), but I will say that these seemingly insignificant subtleties make all the difference to a borderline "fan" like myself.

Suffocation certainly seem to be aptly named because, initially at least, their sound is so dense that it feels claustrophobic and asphyxiating, leaving the listener gasping for air come albums end. Repeated listens, however, reveal that the band don't just seem to be about blasting you away with sheer bravado and brutality, although they certainly don't lack in that department either, but the ever-shifting riffs, searing, laser-focussed soloing and the technically superb-sounding, but totally badass, maniac behind the drum kit all combine to produce a ridiculously tight sound that contains far more than at first appears and rewards the listener the more invested in it they become. Hell, there are even times when the riffs turn downright "groovy" although those sections are short-lived, so don't let me mislead you that this is anything other than the unmitigated assault on your senses that it is. The vocals are one of the possible sticking points for me as sometimes this style feels far more forced and "put on" than, say, Chris Reifert or Dave Vincent. I don't hate Frank Mullen's growls altogether, but I feel they are one of the weaker aspects of Effigy of the Forgotten although they are much better than some of the "stuck pig" style of vocals that seem to have become popular in more modern brutal DM.

In summation, I would probably have to say that this is as good as it gets for me with brutal death metal as it isn't a genre I think I will ever come to truly love, but this is an album I could listen to again and whilst it doesn't tick all my boxes, there is more than enough here for me to get my teeth into without being overwhelmed by a band seeking brutality for brutality's sake.