Hot off the success of their pioneering 1991 debut, Effigy of the Forgotten, Long Island, NY death metal quintet Suffocation had their hearts dead-set on returning to Tampa, FL’s Morrisound Recording and reuniting with producer Scott Burns to record 1993’s Breeding the Spawn. The ever-polite, patient and relaxed Burns had made sense of Suffocation’s sonic fracas where riffs changed on a dime, and Frank Mullen’s vocals went beyond indecipherable—they went into the crypts. It was a match that both parties reckoned was fit to continue. Instead, Roadrunner Records A&R guru Monte Conner (who, admittedly, was “burnt” on Burns’ recordings) insisted the band stay in Long Island and record with unproven producer Paul Bagin. The results, unfortunately, were disastrous.
Bagin’s digital recording setup was ill-equipped to harness Suffocation. Mike Smith’s snare drum levels fluctuate throughout to the point where “Epitaph of the Credulous” and “Prelude to Repulsion” sound as if two different sets of drums were used. (Also M.I.A.: Smith’s bass drum.) A thin, trebly, warbly guitar tone halved the festering technicality of Doug Cerrito and Terrance Hobbs. Chris Richards’ bass suddenly appears—then disappears. And the album’s final mix neutered the inherent brutality that made Suffocation the hottest death metal act outside Florida. Breeding’s sub-standard production is both part of death metal history and Suffocation’s cross to bear, a happening they’ve since attempted to rectify by re-recording a song from Breeding on each of their ensuing studio albums.
Incensed, Suffocation demanded that when it came time to cut album number three, Burns was to be behind the board. Owning up to his mistake, Conner agreed to send the band back to Morrisound in the early fall of 1994 to make Pierced From Within, where, in a once-in-a-lifetime death metal moment, Deicide were making their way through Once Upon the Cross, Morbid Angel were laying down Domination and now-former Burns client Death were putting the finishing touches across the hall on Symbolic.
Leading up to Pierced From Within, Smith split, opening up the drum stool to crossover-thrash sticksman Doug Bohn. Mullen started a family, while Cerrito and Hobbs applied the lessons learned from Breeding into an LP lavished with technical, brutal, slam-oriented extremity that, upon further inspection, outduels the cuts on Effigy. From the jump, Pierced goes for the throat, with an unrelenting yet understandable Mullen commanding the mic with rapid-fire vocal rhythms. The breakdowns, slams—whatever you want to call them—on “Thrones of Blood,” “Depths of Depravity” and “Torn Into Enthrallment” are entangled with agile, metastasizing riffs—unrivaled in their tightness and execution. To top it all off, holding down the beat was Bohn, a man who, prior to joining Suffocation, had no clue about death metal.
Pierced From Within is the rapid maturation of Suffocation into a lean, punishing death metal machine that, through no accident, launched a generation of bands seeking the heaviest “slams.” However, death metal circa 1995 was in no shape to help Suffocation take the next step when Pierced was released. By year’s end, the band was dropped by Roadrunner, Dave Culross replaced Bohn, and Mullen had to sit out select tour dates in favor of his day job. Suffocation would limp to its early demise three years later, and would lie dormant until 2002.
All things considered, no one in death metal has slammed harder than Suffocation. A lot of that is owed to Pierced From Within, which—despite being overshadowed by Effigy and released at a time when death metal was approaching its creative and commercial nadir—is worthy of the honor of being inducted into the Decibel Hall of Fame.
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