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Jewel of Brutal Death Metal, Pierced From Within by the New Yorkers Suffocation is the masterpiece album of this genre. There are no words to describe the magnificence of this record.
The dark vocals of Frank Mullen, the bone-crushing bass of Chris Richards, the intricate guitars of Terrance Hobbs and Doug Cerrito, and the monstrous drumming of drummer Doug Bohn, who will only appear on this album replacing the other monster Mike Smith, create an absurd record (produced as always by the God Scott Burns), much heavier and more destructive than the other records of the era that will influence all the Brutal Bands to follow. Characterized by the exquisite technique of all the musicians and a perfect production that highlights all the instruments, the album composed of 9 tracks is a concentrate of extremely fast Grind assaults, purely Brutal heavy slowdowns, and Technical Death Metal rhythms.
This album is pure malice. Already the title track starts fiercely, and together with the following Thrones Of Blood forms an impeccable duo that combines ignorant destructiveness with exquisite and annihilating technique. The intro with the bass of Depths Of Depravity is chilling, an immense monolith of Groove and extremely tight outbursts. Listening to track by track, you see the Suffocation stamp, a dense and complex network of schizophrenic rhythms and brutality that constitutes every single song, aimed at achieving an overwhelming and devastating result. It's nice to underline how intelligent Suffocation was in not creating brutality for its own sake, but a reasoned assault that never bores; The bouncing drum and guitar rhythms of Synthetically Revived are the example.
There is also room for the reprise of Breeding The Spawn, taken from the album of the same name, but recorded this time with clearer sounds and perfectly inserted in the tracklist to conclude a masterpiece that is impossible not to have. This album is also very heterogeneous, as it still kicks the ass of many modern things today and sounds like it was recorded in the 2000s given how impeccable the performances and sounds are. Along with None So Vile by Cryptopsy and Tomb Of The Mutilated by Cannibal Corpse (the only records that, in my opinion, can hold a comparison since it’s a masterpiece). This is an unreachable peak of Brutal Death Metal, a beastly work of art that will shatter your eardrums.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
03 Depths of Depravity (05:33)
Why do you torment me?
You make me hate my existence.
You will soon surpass your own fucking life.
Now the time has come for you to see your death.
I cut your flesh.
I receive much pleasure.
As you start to bleed.
I no longer control my urges.
The feeling is so complete.
I'm finally at one with myself.
Now that I control the rest of your existence.
How does it feel to be in pain and misery.
For many years you made me feel that way.
I praised you for so long.
I'm now your God.
I cannot control my urges.
Now I must take my revenge.
I slice at you.
You begin to die.
The pleasure was all yours.
To have the strength to leave and not look back.
To give up completely.
No more will to survive.
Now that all is done.
My completed masterpiece.
This sinful life of mine.
Will not go to waste.
The pleasure's all mine.
To have taken your mortal life.
I am what you created.
To inflict my own pain and misery.
You manipulated my mind.
Filled it with your lies.
Feasted on my soul.
Destroyed my will.
Now there's nothing.
No reason for reason.
Now I must take life.
To repent my sins
05 Torn Into Enthrallment (05:26)
Brain patterns altered since birth.
To serve the higher cause.
Pawns of twisted vision.
Manipulate to do thy bidding.
It is easy for them.
To control us this way.
To think is obsolete.
Therefore no way to question their rule.
A mindless, lifeless zombie.
To walk the rest of it's days.
There's only one law to serve them.
All else results in termination.
Breeding is done by means of test tubes.
It seems strange to me to end up this way.
Torn from my state of being.
Stripped of all my worth.
I can no longer feel what is being done to be.
I have awakened.
Yet cannot move.
Paralysis has stricken me.
I pray for death.
I cannot speak.
Enslavement now possesses me.
Bleed, bleed.
You scream at me.
Draining.
Worthless is my soul you say.
You feed the lie.
The collapse my will.
Feed, feed.
On what's left of me.
Eating away at a life I once lived.
You left me in your wake.
Or so you think.
Vigilant in your plans to deny.
You will not overtake.
To win the stakes.
I will not cower to your lies.
Your foolish greedy mind.
Is filled with selfish pride.
It will bring you to your knees.
Flailing in the cess.
This convoluted mess.
The origin of your disease
07 Synthetically Revived (03:53)
Chemicals revive my life, reanimated, brought back again.
My diametrical state has assured me eternal life.
Serum no longer fluid.
Respritoral terminus.
Artificial resurrection.
Dosage inefficiency.
Potency too weak to perfect.
Cartilage reaching gelency.
Misconception of technology.
Unknown duration to live.
Decadence, your state of being.
Putrification progresses.
Subside.
Bones that collapse in time will heal.
Brain patterns submerged in unconsciousness.
Only to be awakened by the peroneal senses.
To see once again, to be reborn.
Needles perforate my neck.
Cyanide smothers my existence.
My torso lies raped of essence.
Impotent state.
I cease to exist.
As my former self.
Synthetically revived
09 Breeding the Spawn (05:09)
Eulogy inscribed in the scrolls of humanity.
Ancient scriptures of predicted demise.
A world encased in the womb of it's ignorance.
Extinction will be swift, relentless butchery.
The structure collapses, spewing forth mutation.
Plague bathes the earth from infected skies.
Chaotic saturation into the pores of existence.
Breeding the spawn.
Effigy awake in it's mummified region.
Silent tombs concealed from the light.
Grueling afterlife christened by their deaths.
Malignant offspring of decrepit birth.
Impurity of souls.
Visions of the agony tightly close the weeping sky.
Spirits ty feeds on eachinvert the earth unfertile.
Anxiously await reprisal for the deprived life.
Horrifying rituals of unorthodox intelligence.
Premature suffering from within their charred domain.
Altering the promises of peaceful rest and afterlife.
Hideous denial of a once forgotten life.
Ascending messiah.
Conqueror of the apocalypse.
Divine majesty.
Giver of supreme entity.
Churches rise from disturbed grounds.
Symphony of depression purifies.
All will be altered.
The dead choir will sing.
Hymns of blasphemous irreverence
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Other reviews
By jigoro
Simply, listen to it. Let each track crush you, overwhelm you, violate you, drag you to places where brutality reigns supreme.
A masterpiece... the virtuosities of Terrance Hobbs and the phenomenal Doug Cerrito explode powerfully in every song.
By Gueddo666
Suffocation were the first with their 'Effigy Of The Forgotten' to invent a new way of playing death metal.
The album flows like this, full of slowdowns... but the impact is almost greater.
By snes
It’s the album with which I discovered that I was interested in the stuff I didn’t know, that “who knows what’s inside?” interests me more than “the new album of your favorite band is out.”
If I hadn’t been a metalhead, the only good things I would have listened to in my life would all be due to suggestions I had from others.
