Suffocation
Souls To Deny

THE REVIEW

For every respectable deathster, the return of Suffocation to the scene was one of the most anticipated events of 2004.
The New York band had been off the radar since 1998 with the EP “Despise The Sun,” after producing fundamental chapters of the genre in preceding years such as “Effigy Of The Forgotten,” “Breeding The Spawn,” and “Pierced From Within.”

Suffocation made history in brutal, there's no doubt about it.
Their great merit was in demonstrating to the entire metal scene that even in a genre not known for the technical virtuosity of its representatives, it was possible to combine brutality and heaviness with frightening technical and compositional abilities. This paved the way for numerous imitators who, in the following years, only partially succeeded in inheriting the heavy legacy of these five sinister figures.

The wait was nerve-racking, and Doug Cerrito's departure certainly didn't make it easier, given the indispensable role he always played in the band's songwriting.
Many, including myself, considered them to be dead and buried.
The doubts disappear as soon as “Souls to Deny” begins to play menacingly in the player.
The opener “Deceit” makes it clear: the throne is still theirs, and it's time for the good kids to go to bed.
The Masters have returned.

Heavy, evil, complex; the tracks don't give a moment of respite, transporting us with incessant and relentless tempo changes into a vortex of dark emotions that only Suffocation can give us.
Guy Marchais (ex-Internal Bleeding) does not make us miss Cerrito. Now he's the one—together with Terence Hobbs—to torture the six strings, showing off massive, intricate riffing that is at the same time delightful in harmonic solutions, always unpredictable and stimulating.
Frankie Mullen's growl is monstrously effective in merging with the inhuman rhythmic base created by the relentless steamroller represented by the Boyer–Smith duo.

Mentioning individual episodes would, besides being an injustice, be a big waste of time.
A single warning: don't be discouraged after the first listens. “Souls to Deny” is not an easy album, it takes time to get into your system, but as soon as it starts flowing inside you, it will be very hard to remove it from the player, believe me.