Roadrunner must be desperate for a few extra bucks. For some strange reason, 13 years after parting ways with Suffocation they’ve decided to release a "best of" compilation featuring 12 tracks taken from Effigy of the Forgotten, Breeding the Spawn and Pierced From Within. Best of all, all of the material has been left in it’s original format, no remixing, no remastering, why would Roadrunner want to shell out a few bucks to get the production cleaned up for Breeding the Spawn material when they can just rehash it in all of it’s poorly-produced glory?

I don’t want anyone getting the impression that I dislike Suffocation, if anything I’m one of their biggest fans, but this best of collection is a cash grab and nothing more. The selection of tracks is pretty solid containing a lot of Suffocation’s best and most beloved songs, however, Roadrunner Records recently released Effigy of the Forgotten and Pierced From Within as a two CD pack a few years ago which is still readily available in stores and online shops everywhere for the same price. Two full albums or bits and pieces of three for the same price? Gee, let me think as to which is a better bargain?

If you don’t own any Suffocation material and are interested in hearing what the hype is all about, you definitely need to pick up the two CD compilation, no extreme metal head should be without Effigy of the Forgotten and Pierced from Within in their collection. That’s not to say I didn’t have a great time listening to this album, I fucking love early Suffocation and can listen to this material endlessly, but I already own all of the original discs and with nothing extra, and especially with the "best of" missing material from the band’s remaining four albums this disc is completely unnecessary. Great, but unnecessary.

Review byTeufel