{"id":101860,"date":"2023-11-03T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T00:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=101860"},"modified":"2023-11-08T15:10:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T15:10:16","slug":"album-review-suffocation-hymns-from-the-apocrypha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-suffocation-hymns-from-the-apocrypha\/","title":{"rendered":"SUFFOCATION – Hymns From The Apocrypha (2023) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUFFOCATION
Hymns From The Apocrypha<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2023)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The arrival of a new Suffocation is like being hit in the skull with a jackhammer. It\u2019s hard to digest a Suffocation album though that is bereft of Frank Mullen\u2019s pulverising low growls but his replacement Ricky Myers (Disgorge) does an admirable job in filling such big boots. Not only does Myers cough at some truly astonishing guttural bellows but he is also the chief lyricist spewing out tales of deceiving entities hoping to destroy mankind through ancient texts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been six years since the band\u2019s last opus, \u2026Of The Dark Light<\/em>, but this one hits with extra vigour and exuberance that, dare I say it, harkens back the early 90s when Suffocation were at their peak. Hymns From The Apocrypha<\/em> twists, turns and pummels, as you would expect from the New York band, especially senior axeman Terrance Hobbs who lets rip an orgy of destructive plays that are as unpredictable as they are brutal. You know it\u2019s Suffocation from the off with its slamming dynamics, crunchy riffs, hostile percussion and Derek Boyer\u2019s crisp bass which is wonderfully punchy due to the excellent production.<\/p>\n

The album comes armed with nine tracks, one of which is a re-recording of \u2018Ignorant Deprivation\u2019 which first appeared on the 1993 Breeding The Spawn<\/em> outing and features Mullen as a guest vocalist! Elsewhere, you get ransacked by the ultra-heavy \u2018Immortal Execration\u2019 bolstered by Eric Morotti\u2019s technical beats which come as complex waves of violence. There are not many better drummers around and Morotti really makes this opus his own with his hostile transitions and hammering D-beats.<\/p>\n

Hobbs works brilliantly in tandem with fellow juggernaut Charlie Errigo who brings ample meat on tracks like \u2018Perpetual Deception\u2019 and the monstrous \u2018Seraphim Enslavement\u2019 where all instruments collide like molten waves of thick larva which acts like a slow, dense menace before the shift in gear to obliterating pace. The same could be said for \u2018Descendants\u2019 or \u2018Delusions Of Mortality\u2019, both intricate yet punishing constructions that twist the innards and scramble the brain.<\/p>\n

Hymns From The Apocrypha<\/em> is a fine return from the legendary lords of chaos and one which suggests, now that Myers is on board, that the band is as fit, healthy, creative and as devastating as ever.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUFFOCATIONHymns From The Apocrypha Nuclear Blast (2023)Rating: 8.5\/10 The arrival of a new Suffocation is like being hit in the skull with a jackhammer. It\u2019s hard to digest a Suffocation album though that is bereft of Frank Mullen\u2019s pulverising low growls but his replacement Ricky Myers (Disgorge) does an admirable job in filling such big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,496],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-suffocation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101861,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101860\/revisions\/101861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}