Single Slam – Return to the Abyss by Suffocation (Of the Dark Light)

American death metallers, Suffocation, have released a new single called Return to the Abyss. Return to the Abyss will feature on the band’s 8th full length album which is due to be released on the 9th of June via Nuclear Blast. Suffocation are very much pioneers of the death metal genre. Forming in 1988, they released their debut album in 1991. That album was called Effigy of the Forgotten and became the blueprint used for the genre for many, many years to come. Their use of complex riffs, growled vocals, open chords and sophisticated song writing mixed with their unpolished sound inspired countless other bands.

Suffocation are fronted by vocalist Frank Mullen with Terence Hobbs on lead guitar and Charlie Errigo on rhythm guitar. The bass is in the hands of Derek Boyer while Eric Morotti is the drummer. Both Charlie and Eric are new to the band having only joined in 2016.

Suffocation are a heavy band and Return to the Abyss is not a change in direction. The track is 4 minutes long and attempts to pummel you from the first few seconds. The song starts off with throaty roars, blazing drums and a quickly played riff. Everything happens fast leaving the listener with little time to reflect. You just repeatedly get hit with the deep, dark vocals and heavy rhythm.

The riff switches up in sections breaking up the almost chant like vocal rhythm. We get a descending guitar line over off beat drums and vocals nearer the end which is really interesting. It’s quite an aggressive sound but also shows that level of sophistication the band are known for. A neat little solo materialises out of the dark pits of death before the song returns to an incantation like rhythm punctuated with high guitar notes. The song ends as swiftly as it started. With brutality on repeat until bang – silence!

If you like death metal, this is going to really please you. It is really heavy and shows pioneers still being pioneering. That is awesome. There is real complexity in the riffs and rhythms and intelligence in the song structure. It’s really a very well made and well played song.

Check out Return to the Abyss for yourself here. You can preorder …Of the Dark Light from here. If you want to learn more about Suffocation, check out their website. You can also look them up on Facebook and Twitter too.

You can pick up Return to the Abyss, or some of Suffocation’s other material from Amazon or iTunes via the links below.

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