UMUR
"The Suffering" is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Dawn of Demise. The album was released through Unique Leader Records in August 2016. It´s the successor to "Rejoice in Vengeance" from 2012 and features two lineup changes compared to the predecessor. Guitarist Thomas Egede has been replaced by Astor Kristian Palsson and drummer Simon Blaabjerg has been replaced by Bastian Thusgaard. The remaining members of the lineup are Bjørn Jensen (bass, vocals), Scott Jensen (vocals), and Martin Sørensen (lead- and rhythm guitars).
Stylistically the music on "The Suffering" is brutal technical death metal with a lot of focus on heavy grooves. The vocals are brutal yet intelligible growling with the occassional dry lung effect laden growl put in. Dawn of Demise are a very well playing act and deliver their parts with militant precision and with great conviction. It´s never at the expense of the heavy groove laden parts that they do so well, and those parts also ensure an organic touch to the music.
The material on the 11 track, 37:06 minutes long album are well written and quite catchy for the style. Dawn of Demise skillfully incorporate thrashy parts, breaks, tempo changes, and hardcore grooves to their brutal technical death metal sound, and "The Suffering" is therefore a relatively varied and dynamic release. Add to that the melodic guitar solos played by Martin Sørensen and "The Suffering" is a brutal technical death metal album which isn´t a one-dimensional listen (which seems to be a disease on that scene). It´s not that I would call it particularly original and all elements have been heard before (including the horror- violence- and gore lyrics), but Dawn of Demise just manage to combine the elements in a most effective way, and perform their material with great conviction.
The album is packed in a powerful, clear, and brutal sounding production, which suits the material perfectly, so upon conclusion "The Suffering" is a high quality release by Dawn of Demise. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.