Blood Oath

The first time I heard Suffocation (“Effigy of the Forgotten”) some time in 1991, I ran away terrified and headed towards the most remote corners of the Balkans, determined to stay there for the next few months, maybe even years. A thorough search was commenced involving most of the police and military forces in Bulgaria; reportedly even veterans from the late-30’s/early-40’s partisan movement were summoned to help in this massive operation as they knew these mountains inside out…

but seriously, the impact was even bigger with Cannibal Corpse’s “Eaten Back to Life” recorded on the other side of the cassette. I was sure that the end of the metal world as we knew it was coming with such outbursts of brutality becoming the norm, and that those were much worse offenders than the new groove/alternative/industrial trends that everyone was pointing at. No, it was brutal death that was going to bring the Apocalypse, a stance I was holding onto for some time as the brutal death metal followers were rapidly increasing around me. It wasn’t exactly an “adapt or die” situation in this case, especially with so much music, both old and new, being offered in heaps at the start of the 90’s.

Things changed with time, and now death metal is an indelible part of my life although I warmed up quite slowly to the Suffocation repertoire compared to the one of other outfits. The major role for my conversion for their cause was the excellent “Souls to Deny” which I instantly liked, from beginning to end. Little did I know about the history around it, like it being the comeback album after a lengthy hiatus, and that there was quite a bit of pressure on the band’s shoulders in terms of expectations’ fulfilment.

A comeback well noted as said album was another exemplary showdown the fathers of the dazzling brutality movement, who have instigated a tsunami of more or less faithful imitators through the years, doing what they could do best, to pummel the listener into oblivion with bouts of aggressive hyper-technicality. The self-titled already spelt “caution” with the title, and indeed the shift towards less brutal, not as speed-prone delivery left some of the audience cold. Not me, though, as I found this unmitigated change more than welcoming, adding more depth and versatility to the band’s approach.

In other words, Suffocation were doing the trick for me after the comeback, and I only too gladly laid my hands on the album reviewed here when it came out. If the guys have voted to continue in the same not as covertly dynamic direction so be it… and the punishing pounding riffs at the start of the title-track promise exactly that, steam-rolling intricacy carved by spasmodic outbursts of blasting violence and superb melodic walkabouts, a perennially surprising shred-fest that didn’t exactly sound like a leftover from the preceding saga. But this is just the beginning as later on one will come across more surreal, expansive soundscapes (“Dismal Dream”) that nicely stretch just outside the familiar Suffocation signature; heightened guitar acrobatics (“Pray For Forgiveness”) that may have prompted Necrophagist to indefinitely postpone the release of their proverbial third instalment; short frantic rifforamas (“Images of Purgatory”) that keep all that made the mentioned movement so arresting firmly in place; and some of the finest “melody vs. technicality” juxtapositions of the new millennium in the form of shape-shifting hectic labyrinths like “Cataclysmic Purification” and “Mental Hemorrhage”.

In the long run this album is not a logical follow-up to its predecessor as there isn’t a single full-blooded mid-paced number here the leaden seriousness of “Undeserving” and “Provoking the Disturbed” invariably carved by strokes of elaborate brutality, and although direct references to the band’s earlier repertoire from the mid-90’s are not that many, the furious less bridled character of “Marital Decimation” notwithstanding, this opus is not very far from the impetuous spirit of, say, “Pierced from Within”, only presented in a decidedly more polished shape. The latter greatly enhances the guys’s endeavours as it gives a solid clicking sound to the guitars also helping the more melodic configurations in gelling better with the clinical technical surroundings thus ensuring an ephemeral atmospheric flair that was missing from the band’s previous recordings. There’s no poignancy at play under any form, mind you; it’s just that the overall package is wrapped in first-class production qualities that spell the word suffocation… sorry, sophistication in a way not quite done before regarding the guys’ arsenal. Well, in the midst of the 21st century one shouldn’t expect murkiness and noisy riff-mongering; the scene has moved on way beyond the Neanderthal age, and this album here is a most shining representation of professionalism both on and off stage.

Whether this could be viewed the band’s finest hour is debatable, but the truth is that it did provide some kind of a small climax in the guys’ discography from the new millennium as the two subsequent efforts, the recently released “...of the Dark Light” included, were built on the same patterns, both convincing and compelling enough, but hardly superior in any aspect. There’s a certain sense of deja-vu instilled throughout them as the veterans don’t strain themselves too much, preferring to merge with the voluminous competition at present. Well, there’s not much novelty to be squeezed out of the good old death metal template nowadays, truth be told, unless one wants to join the diversification campaign, of course; a thought that has never even remotely crossed the minds of the Suffocation team who have long since sworn allegiance to this gorgeously “off-putting”, mind-bogglingly complex on occasion, age-old genre.