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Suffocation
Pierced From Within


5.0
classic

Review

by circleofdeadchildren USER (18 Reviews)
September 7th, 2005 | 30 replies


Release Date: 1995 | Tracklist


Line-up:
Terrance Hobbs - Guitar
Mike Smith - Drums
Guy Marchais - Guitar
Frank Mullen - Vocals
Derek Boyer - Bass

Former members:
Doug Bohn - Drums
Josh Barohn - Bass
Doug Cerrito - Guitar
Chris Richards - Bass
Dave Culross - Drums


A phenomenal landmark in the vastly over-saturated realms of death metal. "Pierced From Within" is one of the finest death metal efforts ever and in my opinion, Suffocation's best. There is so much to say about this album, the riffs are incredible, the drumming is superb, the vocals are intelligible and powerful, the lyrics aren't cheesy and in fact pretty damn good....this album conveys death metal in an advanced and evolved form, creative and groundbreaking.
From beginning to end, your senses are assaulted with the finest in death metal creativity. The riffs shine thier dynamic light ALL OVER this CD with speed picking, palm-muted "jun's", quick chord changes and atonally rendered fretboard chaos (solos) that put the icing on the cake! You can just feel your wrists burning when listening to the guitars! This album is the holy grail to any death metal musician!
Guitarists take note! This album is essential to understanding the profound and excellent stylings of death metal guitar...taking dynamics and technique and displaying an open door of endless creativity and style possibilities. Many bands have shown us this incredibly vast spectrum of extreme metal possibilities...Nile, Morbid Angel, Theory in Practice, and definitely Suffocation! Endless streams of heavy palm-muting and twisted speeding picking runs that take infinite forms until the CD stops...the only breather being the bass/clean guitar intro to "Torn into Enthrallment", giving you some time to feel the awesome atmosphere of that beautiful riff until just giving way to the heavy, palm-muted reiteration of the same riff. The solos are mainly tremelo-pick based and rely on atonal exploration, a trademark of great death metal! (goddamn, it's ALL about guitar work on albums like this!)
The vocals add to the already insurmountable instrumental work that graces this CD with power and conviction. Gutteral and brutal as hell, yet intelligible and not ridiculous...amazing...the lyrics are fitting and cover topics that aren't reliant on the shock value of gore that most bands adopt exclusively....very well written and performed, I give the vocals and lyrics alone an EXCELLENT score!
The drumming is SOOO good! Excellent blasts and endurance. The drumming fits the riffing and overall music so well, in fact, the drumming is an ESSENTIAL element to the power that Suffocation conveys through their brutal, technical death metal assault. The drumming is just all over the place with excellent timing, well-placed fills, powerful blasts and double bass.
To sum it up, the instrumental performances are beyond excellent and the un-matched creativity is quite evident and in your face. The guitar sound is probably the heaviest that any death metal band can hope to achieve and certain riffs, especially the slower "jun"-ier parts, bring this out very clearly. You know, I don't want to give just any band a perfect score, the five-star only goes out to the one's that TRULY deserve it, through their performances and overall creativity. This is one of those albums for sure! Highly recommended! Pierced From Within is, without a doubt in the eyes of death metal fans and understanding musicians, up there with high honors as one of the finest death metal creations ever made! I wish I could say that about any of the other Suffocation releases, none of the others have the quality that Pierced From Within possesses...but don't get me wrong! They are very good! Effigy of the Forgotten, Breeding the Spawn, and Despise the Sun are really good in their own way and style...but "Pierced..." is the one that it's ALL about! Don't hesitate about this one...a sure buy that you'll appreciate and love years down the road. Take time to actually LISTEN to this and not just grow impatient and let the technicality and depth of this music just fly right by your attention span.



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user ratings (1414)
4.4
superb
other reviews of this album
Tyler EMERITUS (4.5)
Faster than a speeding bullet, deeper than my poetry, this album fucking slays....

Greenman (5)
"Pierced from Within" is Suffocation's magnum opus, displaying their sheer, unadulterated brutality ...



Comments:Add a Comment 
Shadows
Moderator
September 8th 2005


2530 Comments


The review looks good. I've heard great things about these guys and can't wait to see them live in two months.

But next time, keep in mind the concept of paragraphs instead of a solid block of text. Nice work anyway.This Message Edited On 09.07.05

Ad Absurdum
September 8th 2005


44 Comments


Nice review; it's a great album but I wouldn't say Suffocation are one of the bands I would cite as a representation of the "vast spectrum of extreme metal possibilites", then again niether would Nile or Morbid Angel be.

Toaster
November 13th 2005


343 Comments


This review inspired me. I'm going to pick this up for sure the next time I see it. Is this Suffocation's best? Or should I think about getting the newer stuff?

circleofdeadchildren
November 14th 2005


119 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

In my opinion this is there best.

Poofy 666
December 18th 2005


27 Comments


i only have Souls to Deny, but i dont really like the vocals. Otherwise its pretty awsome.

Arrakakaka
December 19th 2005


685 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Ah, these guys are brutes. Complete brutes. Awesome release.

Blindguardian
December 19th 2005


186 Comments


I absolutely love Boyer's basswork on this. Its a pity he wasnt with them for Soul's to Deny.This Message Edited On 04.23.06

Arrakakaka
December 19th 2005


685 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

He did a supreme job here.



Stoic
April 17th 2006


161 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

It's unbelievable how fucking influencial this band/album is. You can hear bits of Suffocation in the majority of modern brutal death bands.This Message Edited On 04.17.06

Blindguardian
April 24th 2006


186 Comments


this needs more recognition

listening to Depths of Depravity right now, the bass in the song is incredible, and the slow break into a solo at 2:23 is sublime

halfdeadhippo
May 21st 2006


52 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

[quote=Poofy666]i only have Souls to Deny, but i dont really like the vocals. Otherwise its pretty awsome.[/quote]It's funny you should mention that, because I think that the vocals are the worst part of Souls to Deny as well. I just think they sound kind of processed. This one is the only of their albums to have been properly mixed/recorded, in my opinion.



/lateThis Message Edited On 05.22.06

k4t4lyst
June 7th 2006


201 Comments


Paragraphs would've been useful...Decent Review though...

Unconditional_hate
September 11th 2006


12 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I agree with Blindgaurdian this needs tons more recognition.

LifeInABox
October 7th 2006


3709 Comments


why can i not find this album because i heard its kinda of their best album but Human Waste was awesome and Breeding the Spawn was good minus the production so idk i think it might be hard to top those

Nosferatu
October 17th 2006


1 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

http://www.dealtime.com/xPR-Pierced_From_Within_Suffocation~RD-15192395396



um... double u tee eff? this guy wrote it back in 2001...lol, nice plagiarism circleofdeadchildren...

LifeInABox
November 8th 2006


3709 Comments


can someone add Breeding the Spawn on here? i just realized that it is missing and for some reason the last album i tried to add, didn't work

kalkal50
August 24th 2007


2386 Comments


um this review is plagarised that's not cool

Knuckles
August 24th 2007


74 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

No, it just isn't a very good review

kalkal50
August 24th 2007


2386 Comments


dood im serious, but yeah it's not that good of a review

kalkal50
September 7th 2007


2386 Comments


The bass is amazingThis Message Edited On 11.05.07



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