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I am here to talk to you about a groundbreaking band, the legendary Suffocation from New York! Indeed, the band, along with Cannibal Corpse, has created Brutal Death and is a true symbol for death metal itself.
Unfortunately, I find that this band has been very underrated and overlooked compared to their colleagues, Cannibal Corpse, despite being much more important. Of course, I don't take any credit away from the legendary Cannibal, but Suffocation were the first with their 'Effigy Of The Forgotten' to invent a new way of playing death metal. In fact, their colleagues from Buffalo debuted with 'Eaten Back To Life' a year earlier, but the album was very attached to traditional death, and even now, although Cannibal Corpse undeniably play Brutal, they remain very fond of more traditional rhythms. Suffocation, on the other hand, completely changed the game, just think of the guitar riffs, as intricate as they are violent, but also the drum and bass parts, the slowdowns that explode into guitar frenzies and blast beats. As we all know, the band also presents immense technique, just think of the lightning-fast solos of the two guitarists, or the "miracles" of the drummer. And Frank Mullen, with that dark and gritty growl, completes and supports it all. But let's move on to the album in question.
This 'Pierced From Within' is dated 1995 and is considered the best album by Suffocation after the immortal 'Effigy Of The Forgotten', and rightfully so. The album opens with the Title Track and immediately it's a massacre, Frank with his growl devastates us, while Terrance Hobbs and Doug Cerrito grind out riff after riff, increasingly intricate and complicated, leading to lightning-fast solos, where they mix melody with sonic impact by making extensive use of harmonics and other guitar techniques. On drums, we find Doug Bohn, a drummer with very different technical characteristics from Mike Smith, the former drummer who still plays with the band. On bass, we have the immense Chris Richards, a true monster of technique and compactness, delivering truly breathtaking bass breaks while always maintaining the Suffocation style, meaning low and dark. The album flows like this, full of slowdowns, in fact, we find a slightly more reflective and slower rhythm compared to 'Breeding The Spawn', but the impact is almost greater. Indeed, this great group showcases all their feats but never neglects the emotional factor, and the proof is the legendary growler Frank Mullen, who gargles and adds a sick touch to the entire work.
Moreover, the fantastic production doesn't penalize any instrument but instead allows each to express itself. 9 tracks all around 4-5 minutes that never bore, but instead, each has different characteristics from the other, while still maintaining the same unmistakable style. In conclusion, one of the best death metal bands in history (in my opinion, the best), they have inspired many brutal groups since '92 and have laid the foundations for playing this genre.
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 Insect_Reject
There are no words to describe the magnificence of this record.
This album is pure malice… a dense and complex network of schizophrenic rhythms and brutality aimed at achieving an overwhelming and devastating result.
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.
