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After delighting us with two true masterpieces that are essential timeless works of Brutal Death Metal, Suffocation returned in 1995 to destroy our ears with another immense piece of work.
When it comes to brutal music, Suffocation are perhaps the first to be named, and with immense merit: having recently returned to tread (again unfortunately without that immense genius named Doug Cerrito) the path of the most extreme and disorienting Death Metal with the excellent "Souls To Deny" (read Judah's review, it's truly worth it) after an exhausting hiatus and promising us even greater things for the near future, the fundamental New Yorkers had drawn from their musically advanced taste real milestones of Death such as the debut "Effigy Of The Forgotten," the excellent "Breeding The Spawn," and this incredible "Pierced From Within."
And to think that this masterpiece was anything but expected, given the departure after "Breeding The Spawn" of the original drummer Mike Smith, which had fueled tension within the band and consequently had turned Suffocation into a giant with feet of clay, ready to crash down at any moment (imagine what a boom!), a crash avoided by the sudden recruitment of the many-armed Doug Bohn, technically superior to Smith (he is a drummer with a jazz background) but in my opinion slightly less effective and incisive in blastbeats, Suffocation created a true brutal paradise that saw them take the initial breathtaking high-speed sound and, after integrating it with ever more technique and originality and losing the initial influences that gave the band a vaguely thrashy sound, bring it to its logical conclusion, meanwhile taking the opportunity to get lost in technical and compositional flourishes and exhibitions that rather than being described should just be listened to (an overused phrase but always effective).
A masterpiece, as we were saying: the tempos slow down but the riffs lose absolutely none of their innate originality, always presenting the trademark sound, the technique becomes increasingly excellent and refined, and the intricate compositions of Doug Cerrito strike again.
If there was a flaw in the previous "Breeding The Spawn," it was found in the lousy production, which rendered the sounds chaotic and, given the explosive and impressive frequency of very fast blastbeats, hid, undermined, or even made incomprehensible the terrifying accompaniments of the string instruments.
Suffocation knew this, so...What would you have done?
What Suffocation cleverly did: they contacted Scott "Parsley" Burns, the most renowned and effective metal producer of the time, who guaranteed the band the hard, dry, piercing, and heavy sound that they had been needing for far too long and exploited it to the fullest once they had it available, creating a true sonic attack that left one in awe but was inflected with some "melodic" undertones that made everything even more original and lyrics with deeper meaning, especially featuring frontman Frank Mullen grappling with religious issues and the deeper recesses of the human soul, occasionally interspersed with a fair dose of that inevitable Gore that makes Brutal so...brutal.
Simply perfect: in this album, defects are not detected and the merits are too many to list.
The virtuosities of Terrance Hobbs and the phenomenal Doug Cerrito explode powerfully in every song, masterfully supported by a never too praised Chris Richards, who, to be honest, is slightly less inspired here than on the predecessor but still offers a divine performance (listen to believe), and by a Doug Bohn on a roll and often engaged in steamroller-format blastbeats. All, of course, overshadowed by the cavernous growl (although slightly more "calm" than on "Breeding The Spawn," perhaps due to the production) coming from the ungracious throat of the brilliant Frankie Mullen.
Simply, listen to it. Let each track crush you, overwhelm you, violate you, drag you to places where brutality reigns supreme, let yourself be trampled by Mullen's voice, be devastated and hammered by Bohn's killer rhythms and by the excellent deliberately dirty sound of Richards, let your eardrums whistle at the power of the two guitarists, listen to it at full volume until you can't take it anymore.
Suffocation asks nothing more of you.
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 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 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.
