It’s been 6 long years since the last time New York-based death metal legends Suffocation last released new material. Everyone knows of what has happened in that time, with the group splitting shortly after the release of Despise The Sun only to reform, revitalized and refocused in 2002 with a fresh "old look". Gone are guitarist Doug Cerrito, bassist Chris Richards and drummer Dave Culross, replaced with pre-demo guitarist Guy Marchais (formerly of Internal Bleeding and Pyrexia), original bassist Josh Barohn and another founding member in drummer Mike Smith. After several live appearances and hundreds of hours of rehearsal, the group finally felt confident enough to enter FullForce studios in January of 2004 to record their newest full-length effort, Souls To Deny. The result? From the moment you press play, you instantly recognize that the music blaring through your stereo is Suffocation, and not one of the endless half-assed clones that’ve popped up copying the group’s style. The vocal delivery is as powerful as ever, the drumming is as tight as ever, and the riffing is textbook Suffocation. Musically, they sound very sharp, however, the departure of Cerrito is very obvious in the album’s overall feel, as the technical aspect of the music has gone down a few notches and the creativity isn’t at the level I’d been hoping for. Upon listening to the album for the first time, I had several moments where I felt like I’d heard the music before, as a lot of the music on the album sounds like it was rehashed from Pierced From Within, which was both surprising and a little disappointing. The overall level of ferocity is down from where it once was as well, with Souls To Deny taking on a much more melodic approach, for the most part, rather than the over-the-top technical blast fest of old. That said; let me be the first to admit that I honestly really do enjoy the overall sound, as the melodious segments are matched by equally blazing and crushing speed-death assaults. What really impressed me about the album is the drumming of Mike Smith. After more than a decade away from extreme metal, I was expecting him to be rusty, but that’s not the case at all, coming back stronger and better than ever, demolishing his drum kit with unrelenting fury. The highlights of the album are the opening track "Deceit" which is an amazing blend of technicality, melody and brutality, "Subconsciously Enslaved", which, while sounding very reminiscent of material of Pierced From Within is still punishing in every sense of the word, and the final track "Tomes Of Acrimont". My only major issue with the release is the overall production, which is a little rough and leaves Frank Mullen’s vocals sounding almost Corpsegrinder-ish, although not as bad as the horrid job on Breeding The Spawn is still a bit of an annoyance, as I’m a huge fan of Mullen’s and his vocal approach and was hoping for something a bit less raspy. A lot of the minor imperfections can be fixed on future releases, and, given more time to write and record, and with a steady, stable line-up (Josh Barohn was kicked out of the group shortly before the album was recorded with Mike Smith and Terrance Hobbs filling in on the recording), I’m confident Suffocation will write something that tops Effigy Of The Forgotten, but, I still think the album would have sounded much better if Cerrito had been involved, the chemistry he and Hobbs had was the best in metal by far. Overall, Souls To Deny is a solid a powerful piece of music which every death metal fan should include to their collection, however, musically it’s probably their weakest effort to date, but, then again, Suffocation on their worst day is still better than 99.9% of death metal bands on their best day. I eagerly anticipate what 2005 will bring.

Review byTeufel