SUFFOCATION — Effigy of the Forgotten (review)

SUFFOCATION — Effigy of the Forgotten album cover

Album · 1991 · Brutal Death Metal

4/5 · 2016-04-27
UMUR

"Effigy of the Forgotten" is the debut full-length studio album by US, New York based death metal act Suffocation. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in October 1991. Suffocation was formed in 1988 and the "Human Waste (1991)" EP, which preceeds "Effigy of the Forgotten", was released in May 1991. There´s no arguing the EP showed great promise, but it was on "Effigy of the Forgotten" that Suffocation unleashed their full arsenal.

Graced with a time-typical Dan Seagrave cover artwork, and one of the better early 90s Scott Burns credited sound productions, to come out of Morrisound Studios, "Effigy of the Forgotten" is in many ways the arch typical US death metal album from the early 90s. The sound production is ultra heavy and brutal, yet clear enough for all details to be heard, the musicianship is on a high technical level, and the songwriting is inspired too.

The material is not easily accessible as it´s relentlessly brutal and there are very few hooks and next to no melody to hold on to. Instead Suffocation focus on sharp riffs, tempo changes (anything from ultra heavy breakdowns to fast blasting parts), breaks, and sub woofer deep unintelligible growling vocals. This is about as "death metal" as death metal comes. There´s not a second of compromise throughout the album. One of the features which sets Suffocation apart from many of their contemporaries are their brutal grooves and breakdowns, which are probably inspired by them growing up in the hardcore temple of New York. So while this is first and foremost brutal technical death metal there are still lots of groove to be found in the material. Which is probably why quite a few deathcore acts mention Suffocation as a major influence. They were simply one of the first death metal bands to incorporate hardcore influenced grooves to their music. Leaders and pioneers.

When all the positives have been accounted for, it´s hard not to notice that the material is bit one-dimensional and that the tracks are hard to tell apart, even after repeated listens, and that is a minor issue, although it´s to be expected with music as brutal as this. Given enough spins the tracks do begin to stand out a bit more and there are several of the tracks which today are considered Suffocation "classics". Tracks the band play regularly when they perform live. "Infecting the Crypts" (with it´s infectiously brutal groove) is probably the most well known, but tracks like "Mass Obliteration", "Liege of Inveracity", and the title track have also often appeared on the band´s setlists.

So upon conclusion "Effigy of the Forgotten" is a high quality US death metal release from the golden year of 1991. It took death metal to another level of brutality and it´s one of the seminal albums in the most brutal end of the death metal scale. To my ears it´s not without flaws though and especially the songwriting could have been a bit more varied. The unintelligible growling vocals could also have prospered from being slightly more intelligible. They would have made more impact if the listener at least occasionally could have catched a phrase or two (something which changed on subsequent releases), but Suffocation went all in on this one, trying to create the ultimate brutal death metal album released at that point. If that was their intention they succeeded well. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.