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Suffocation - Blood Oath

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 July 27 2009 at 09:40:10 PM



Banish rooting influence of anything south of the Mason-Dixon line. Atheist, Morbid Angel, Monstrosity, Massacre, Cannibal Corpse, Cynic, Death, Deicide, Obituary – none of the above even flirted with the – yeah, extreme – chalkboard tabs and rhythm section Rambo camps underway in the last two Suffocation records. The latest, Blood Oath, works too well as some ever-apt encapsulation of whatever the fuck “Brutal Technical Death Metal” signifies, even while it’s delineated (rather) easily as an ever-brooding Bruckner aping a particularly self-impressed Shostakovich.

Maybe “self-impressed” is the adjective. I’ve never understood the aversion personally. If you ain’t impressed with yourself, who the fuck will be? Who should be? You thank Frank Mullen gives a fuck if his “intelligible” vox sound startlingly close to every single pebble passed past Dave Vincent’s asshole in “Nothing is Not?” You think Hobbs and Marchais care if even given another set of hands they’d never bump dicks with Azagthoth? You think Smith loses sleep over who holds the crown for fastest East Coast kick monkey? No competition where there’s no competition. It’s not tautology; there’s no meaning here to replicate.

But goalpost moving isn’t revealed until track four: “Images of Purgatory,” wherein the frustrating dogfight fast/slow guitar wank and a drum figure that could/would find able home with the Florida State University Marching Band is so deftly employed. The solo advances the theme and promptly dive-bombs back into the puerile Russian gymnast shtick that’s got me wondering how much wheat germ ingestion and finger exercises the day’s small hours are devoted to. The music-as-callisthenic and vice versa is wrested from passionless nub-drainers aplenty with riffs enhanced via sci-fi glow-light in “Cataclysmic Purification,” a send-up of “Images of Purgatory,” which the crew may as well reveal as a meaned ‘n’ beefed up yesteryear’s “Anomalistic Offerings” slapped out into the ring, frothing, barking, pissing fuckin’ deeply upon any possible opponent’s hopes at toe-to-toe. It’s almost anathema to bark up any tree but the band’s own. But I won’t let that stop me.

Best lyric: There is none, which is why we, men of sound mind and battered body, pray often for the words, “Solo: Hobbs.” Best riff: There’s a hornaplenty, fuckers, even if the lot of ‘em are spittin’ image front to back. Let’s go with “Pray for Forgiveness,” that show-off bullshit, dancing fingers, powered sugar noses shit. Coincidentally maybe, “Pray for Forgiveness” hosts the Best Drum fill, too, which comes forth in the last six seconds, otherwise Smith’s workout is happily no different than Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality.” Best vocal delivery: Easily “Cataclysmic Purification,” where Mullen sounds, uh, startlingly close to ever single pebble passed past Dave Vincent’s asshole in “Nothing is Not.” Best coverart: Robes... Why’d it have to be robes? The last time I enjoyed the robe was Halloween, 1994. I went as the Lord & Savior and drank Kamikazes until I pissed myself. Best moment of Halloween, 1994: Going home with Derek Boyer’s (no relation to the Derek Boyer on bass of Suffocation fame) date – dressed as Betty Rubble. Thanks for the happenin’ time, hon.

[Stewart Voegtlin]

Suffocation
Blood Oath
2009
Nuclear Blast

Comments (8)

  • 32 comments
    Invisible Oranges
    1:26 PM on Jul 29, 2009 // reply »
    I'm surprised you like this, given that it's cleaner than ODB's coke mirror. Even I wonder sometimes if it's too clean, and you know I don't mind the clean. But then all of what you mentioned kicks in, and everything's OK.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    1:39 PM on Jul 29, 2009 // reply »
    I think I really appreciate it more than like it.

    It is the first record of this year to make me sick to my stomach. I need fuckin four dramamine after the third song...

    Gotta find those Mastodon boys and play this for them. Use of excessive technique does not necessarily entail passionless music.
  • 13 comments
    Tim
    9:45 AM on Jul 30, 2009 // reply »
    Despite coming of (death metal) age around when Suffo were at their best fifteen years ago, I have never found them much to my liking. Maybe Slowly We Rot, Left Hand Path and Symphonies of Sickness ruined it for me, but I never understood Suffo's appeal. I don't deny their talent and passion, but this style of death metal always leaves me wanting more. Given the choice, I'll take the first two Obituary or Incantation records over the entire Suffo discography, Ebay resale values and all.
  • 4 comments
    Craig
    10:49 AM on Jul 30, 2009 // reply »
    It's not really that clean. Well...ok, it is, but compared to recent efforts by Spawn of Possession and Hour of Penance, it's rather filthy.

    At least they still manage to have color, depth, and tonal weight to the guitar tone, unlike those two bands. Blood Oath manages to retain at least a bit of the vomitous murk that characterized the early American death metal aesthetic.
  • 15 comments
    Anthony
    2:28 PM on Jul 30, 2009 // reply »
    The Terminator is a cool movie, and I like it, but I'd rather watch City of the Living Dead any day. Old Suffocation, for me at least, was enjoyably in-between. The vampire ball in Phantasm, maybe?

    I haven't heard this new one yet. The band is still great live, at any rate.
  • 1 comment
    Terrorform
    1:14 PM on Jul 31, 2009 // reply »
    Voegtlin, your reviews are getting way too cutesy. Break up with yourself and see if that helps.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    9:33 AM on Aug 03, 2009 // reply »
    "Getting?" Moe, they been cute befores they were borns.
  • 2 comments
    bob
    9:32 AM on Aug 07, 2009 // reply »
    Shit album, tbh. zzzzz
 

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