RSS Feed


SUFFOCATION
Hymns From The Apocrypha

Nuclear Blast (2023)
Rating: 8.5/10

The arrival of a new Suffocation is like being hit in the skull with a jackhammer. It’s hard to digest a Suffocation album though that is bereft of Frank Mullen’s pulverising low growls but his replacement Ricky Myers (Disgorge) does an admirable job in filling such big boots. Not only does Myers cough at some truly astonishing guttural bellows but he is also the chief lyricist spewing out tales of deceiving entities hoping to destroy mankind through ancient texts.

It’s been six years since the band’s last opus, …Of The Dark Light, but this one hits with extra vigour and exuberance that, dare I say it, harkens back the early 90s when Suffocation were at their peak. Hymns From The Apocrypha twists, turns and pummels, as you would expect from the New York band, especially senior axeman Terrance Hobbs who lets rip an orgy of destructive plays that are as unpredictable as they are brutal. You know it’s Suffocation from the off with its slamming dynamics, crunchy riffs, hostile percussion and Derek Boyer’s crisp bass which is wonderfully punchy due to the excellent production.

The album comes armed with nine tracks, one of which is a re-recording of ‘Ignorant Deprivation’ which first appeared on the 1993 Breeding The Spawn outing and features Mullen as a guest vocalist! Elsewhere, you get ransacked by the ultra-heavy ‘Immortal Execration’ bolstered by Eric Morotti’s technical beats which come as complex waves of violence. There are not many better drummers around and Morotti really makes this opus his own with his hostile transitions and hammering D-beats.

Hobbs works brilliantly in tandem with fellow juggernaut Charlie Errigo who brings ample meat on tracks like ‘Perpetual Deception’ and the monstrous ‘Seraphim Enslavement’ where all instruments collide like molten waves of thick larva which acts like a slow, dense menace before the shift in gear to obliterating pace. The same could be said for ‘Descendants’ or ‘Delusions Of Mortality’, both intricate yet punishing constructions that twist the innards and scramble the brain.

Hymns From The Apocrypha is a fine return from the legendary lords of chaos and one which suggests, now that Myers is on board, that the band is as fit, healthy, creative and as devastating as ever.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share