It is hard to overstate the influence of Suffocation. Active from the late 1980s, the New York band are among the inventors of technical, brutal death metal, that of cascading riffs, furious blast beats and breakdowns that spread throughout the genre. Hymns from the Apocrypha, hailed by the critics (an 80 average across six reviews), marks an awaited return, notably marked by the arrival of a new singer.
What the press underline is the remarkable stability of a craft. Suffocation have forgotten nothing of the science that made their reputation: those complex rhythmic architectures, those abrupt tempo changes, that harmonic density which demands a flawless execution. The record unfurls this mastery with a quiet obviousness.
Musically, the thick, detailed production does justice to the band’s technicality. The riffs stack, answer one another, collide in a precision mechanism. The new singer, whose growls fall within the tradition of his predecessors, ensures continuity without distorting the identity.
One may, however, find a whiff of the already-heard about the record: Suffocation execute their programme with brilliance but without real surprise, and the album struggles to match the founding summits of the discography. It is a very good veterans’ record, more than a new cornerstone.
Verdict: 8/10. A solid return, respectful of its heritage, reminding us why Suffocation remain a reference. The craft, if not the revolution.
