Suffocation
Pierced From Within


4.5
superb

Review

by Tyler EMERITUS
August 5th, 2008 | 1994 replies


Release Date: 1995 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Faster than a speeding bullet, deeper than my poetry, this album fucking slays.

Suffocation has a lot in common with Faith No More. Faith No More lit a fire under the butts of the alt-metal world, farting out a funky concocted "rap metal" sound that went on to be shortchanged by a shortbus full of tattooed red hat wearing douchebags. In an alternate dimension, Suffocation were pillaging the death metal world with their blatantly New York aesthetic; a sound ripe with gluttonous technicality, hate filled breakdowns and drummer Mike Smith's eponymous "Smith-beats" [blastbeats to the un-elite laymen] and now we have bands like Despised Icon and Dying Fetus -- I'm sure you can fill in the stuff that went on in between.

Replete with a low end so throbbing it's bound to shock the bowels of all who listen to it, calling Pierced from Within "heavy" would be doing it a disservice. Released in 1995 to an audience of lesser talented musicians who'd go on to make a career in ripping it off (Muhammed Suicmez instantly comes to mind), Pierced from Within took the angry and volatile death metal brought to life on Effigy of the Forgotten and added on a thick layer off bile and hatred, which basically means that it's bigger, faster, stronger and heavier. Mike Smith let Doug Bohn "borrow" his invention and with it Bohn pounds the skins with such intensity that it can only be truly explained in bad "metalphors" and cheap puns. Frank Mullen's growls are animalistic, pissed off and occasionally intelligible. Doug Cerrito and Terrance Hobbs manage to combine chuggy breakdowns, technical shredwork and thrashy, hardcore infused riffs that slice alongside the album's most distinguished element: the invasive, unavoidably awesome but wholly polarizing bass playing. Saying Chris Richards is fully utilized on the album is a gross understatement; with only four-to-six strings, Richards makes his bass play a dual role as it adding to the album's rib-rattling low end as well as contributing to its technical slant.

Faster than a speeding bullet, deeper than my poetry and with more shred, juns and breakdowns than you can shake a stick at, Pierced from Within is an absolutely essential component of death metal canon, if not for its crushing brutality and technical propensity than certainly for its sheer, clear influence on not just death metal, but metal as a whole.



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user ratings (1413)
4.4
superb
other reviews of this album
Greenman (5)
"Pierced from Within" is Suffocation's magnum opus, displaying their sheer, unadulterated brutality ...

circleofdeadchildren (5)
...



Comments:Add a Comment 
Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

the other review for this sucked (worse than this one) so I wrote a short and immature one really fast.

Thor
August 5th 2008


10357 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

It's a bit too short, but it's wayyyyy better than the previous one. Boo for the shot at Suicmez, but an otherwise funny and solid review.



Thrones of Blood for the motherfucking win.

brandtweathers
August 5th 2008


2006 Comments


this or ceremony?

Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

It's long enough whatever. There isn't much to say and there isn't any reason to point out individual songs because they're basically all a variation on the same awesome sound.

Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

because he's an idiot

Polaris
August 5th 2008


246 Comments


Wondering about the relevance of that statement myself.

But yeah, I've always been intrigued by Suffocation, but i've never really bothered with looking into them. I probably will now.

brandtweathers
August 5th 2008


2006 Comments


why is that a ridiculous question?
wondering what you preferred
edit: and wondering which to put first on dl orderThis Message Edited On 08.05.08

Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

You can get the "Two from the Vault" release of this that comes with Effigy of the Forgotten for like 10 bucks.

charlesfishtitz
August 5th 2008


783 Comments


this or human waste?

Lunarfall
August 5th 2008


3178 Comments


They're really lacking reviews here though.

Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Which is why I did this one real quick. I'm gunna do a bunch more really short ones for albums that need reviews. Gonna review Desultory tomorrow.

brandtweathers
August 5th 2008


2006 Comments


seriously tho tyler
do you have a preference bt the two bc im having trouble finding both

Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

nocturnus

UnderFlames
August 5th 2008


268 Comments


Good review, never got into Suffocation.

Athom
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


17244 Comments


Nice, short and to the point. Excellent album too. I wish their newer stuff lived up to this.

brandtweathers
August 5th 2008


2006 Comments


thx

Tyler
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Souls to Deny was pretty bad but I remember the s/t being at least decent. They've apparently got a new one coming out this year.

Athom
Emeritus
August 5th 2008


17244 Comments


i wouldnt say that their stuff since reforming was bad, it was just painfully average.

beans
August 5th 2008


2328 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

this is a great reivew man, i hated reading the other one lol i like the name now too

rasputin
August 5th 2008


14968 Comments


[quote=Cocaine]You can get the "Two from the Vault" release of this that comes with Effigy of the Forgotten for like 10 bucks. [/quote]
yeah that's what I have, one of the best value things I've bought



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