Suffocation – Hymns From The Apocrypha

Written by on 23-11-2023 at 18:25.

You’re out if you don’t know the legendary albums The Effigy Of The Forgotten and Pierced From Within. In the early nineties, the American death metallers of Suffocation immediately torpedoed their way to the top and since then the band has become an indispensable part of the world of death metal. Although the interval between new albums is starting to get longer and in 2021 – four years after the last album …Of the Dark Light – we had to deal with Live In North America, fans of brutal and technical death metal can be relieved again with a new full-length: Hyms From The Apocrypha. Yet this is not ‘just’ number nine in the band’s catalog: co-founder Frank Mullen officially put his microphone away in the meantime, although the vocals during live performances have often been provided by Ricky Myers and Kevin Muller. The former is also the man who makes his definitive debut with this new sledgehammer.

Fortunately, Ricky also knows his stuff, as he was previously drumming for the brutal slam death band Disgorge (USA). If you don’t know that band’s classic She Lay Gutted: check it out! Oh, and of course you’re still finished now. Anyway, although Myers wore out a lot of drumsticks in that band, the best man also appears to have an awfully brutal voice. He obviously cannot make up for the lack of Mullen, but the wonderfully low growls fit perfectly into the more modern picture that Suffocation presents to us today. Modern indeed, because compared to the first albums, this quintet has also transitioned towards an ultra-modern sound that has recently been characteristic of this genre. I have little difficulty with this, especially because the technical layering is more refined and better achieved in this way. Yet it is a fact that at many times the drums are mixed a bit too loudly forward, which in turn is at the expense of the frivolous guitar work that could have been a little louder. There is no reason not to put the great Hobbs and Errigo fully in the spotlight. Partly thanks to this ongoing duo, Hymns From The Apocrypha easily knocks many colleagues’ albums off the annual list and subsequently takes a prominent place at the top of the ranks.

From the start to the end, the blast beats clatter around your ears like ice cubes in a winter hailstorm. Myers successively burps up frogspawn at Olympic level and the guitar tandem continuously lays the foundation with static, extremely tight yet technically gifted chords. In Perpetual Deception and Immortal Execration, among others, in addition to a clusterbomb of tempo changes, the listener is also massaged with some slow slam passages that will make many contemporary death and slamcore bands feel ashamed. Move aside for the grandmasters! Other highlights during these approximately forty minutes of voluntary martyrdom include the virtuoso guitar dueling during the rock-solid Seraphim Enslavement, Descendants, and the Cannibal Corpse-like Delusions Of Mortality. That comparison is mainly made because of that damn Myers’ roar. Great performance! The brutal chopping during the devastating cluster bombs Hyms From The Apocrypha and Embrace The Suffering is also more than satisfying. And as the icing on the pitch-black cake, a re-recorded version of the dirty hit Ignorant Deprivation (Breeding The Spawn – 1993). Also with Mullen on vocals for the last time. Yes comrades: it’s a great year for (technical) death metal: Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, Incantation, Autopsy…

With Hyms From The Apocrypha, Suffocation is back again. The music sounds fresh, inspired, and eager to the core. Due to the technical layering, there is and remains plenty to discover, even though the sound mix could have been better. Musically, the quintet puts forward one of the strongest albums in their discography. If you can say that after more than thirty years of making music, you have a right to speak. May it be February soon so that we can see them live again in (among others) Drachten, Tilburg, and Antwerp!

Score:

85/100

Label:

Nuclear Blast Records, 2023

Tracklisting:

  1. Hymns From The Apocrypha
  2. Perpetual Deception
  3. Dim Veil Of Obscurity
  4. Immortal Execration
  5. Seraphim Enslavement
  6. Descendants
  7. Embrace The Suffering
  8. Delusions Of Mortality
  9. Ignorant Deprivation

Line-up:

  • Ricky Myers – Vocals
  • Terrance Hobbs – Guitar
  • Charlie Errigo – Guitar
  • Derek Boyer – Basguitar
  • Eric Morotti – Drums

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