When Suffocation returned to active duty in 2002 after a 4 year hiatus I was totally stoked, but the group’s "return" album, 2004′s Souls To Deny, left me, and many other die hard Suffocation fans feeling greatly underwhelmed by the lack of "Suffocation"-sounding tracks. We were left wondering "Have Suffocation lost ‘it’? Are they now incapable of writing a solid album without Doug Cerrito?" With a few more years of rehearsing and touring under their belt Suffocation have returned to release their 7th studio effort and have shoved their mighty fist in the mouth of all of the doubters, myself included.

Where Souls To Deny failed was in the lack of original songwriting and relatively poor production. The album felt rushed and the songwriting just felt like one riff from one song was copied and pasted in with a riff from another song to try to make one super song, rather than starting with fresh ideas and creating something new. To be fair, however I don’t think the dismissal of bassist Josh Barohn just prior to the album’s recording, forcing Mike Smith and Terrance Hobbs to handle the bass playing duties, helped in giving the album a "tight" sound.

In 2006, with the addition of Decrepit Birth bassist Derek Boyer and two full years of playing together as a steady, stable band, the group have returned to form with the recording of Suffocation. While not every track is an instant classic, there is enough solid material here that the disc sounds exactly like what one would expect from a Suffocation CD; savage, fast, catchy, technical, crushing brutal death metal.

Production-wise this album sounds infinitely better than Souls To Deny, having a sound similar to that of Despise The Sun and Pierced From Within. The songwriting is much improved as well, making the album sound more like the next step from Pierced From Within than a mere "Suffocation-inspired" release. Suffocation also contains the one thing Souls To Deny sorely lacked; solos. If you listen to any of the earlier Suffocation releases one of the things that stands out are the crazy shredding trade-offs of Doug Cerrito and Terrance Hobbs. This time around Guy Marchais really steps it up and puts on a performance even Cerrito would be envious of.

Mike Smith also takes his drumming to another level on this release, easily out blasting kids half his age, and putting on a technical clinic of drum kit annihilation. With the cleaner production Frank Mullen’s patented guttural snarls come across much more clearly and powerfully.

Though it took me many listens over a period of many months to warm up to Suffocation‘s self-titled release, I can honestly say that the album, as a whole, is one of their finest releases to date. The last time I listened to an album that took me this long to warm up to was Immolation‘s Here In After, which is my all-time favorite death metal album. While I don’t see it taking top spot in my "all time favorite death metal albums" list, and it may not surpass Pierced From Within or Effigy Of The Forgotten, but it is definitely one of the finest death metal releases of the past 10 years and is a perfect addition to the Suffocation discography. If you don’t already own this album, do yourself a favor and pick it up. If you don’t get into it right away, just give it some time and eventually you’ll warm up to it, and when you do you’ll thank me.

Review byTeufel