Suffocation - "...Of The Dark Light" (CD)
"...Of The Dark Light" track listing:
1. Clarity Through Deprivation
2. The Warmth Within the Dark
3. Your Last Breaths
4. Return to the Abyss
5. The Violation
6. Of the Dark Light
7. Some Things Should Be Left Alone
8. Caught Between Two Worlds
9. Epitaph of the Credulous
Reviewed by Greekbastard on June 12, 2017
Suffocation is STILL delivering cut throat, technical death metal close to three decades after forming… can you believe that shit??? Its mind blowing to think that the longest lapse between albums was 6 years, yet the recipe has relatively remained the same: successfully brutal albums one after another, after another…
“Of the Dark Light” is what you would come to expect from Suffocation at this point of the band's existence. The intensity hasn’t let up and neither has the velocity of double bass kick drums and single noted picking that attacks the listener’s ears without mercy. The bass balances the cacophony in lieu of hiding behind the guitars and Frank “The tank’s” vocals are the definition of brutal as per the Suffocation formula.
Without any hesitation, my favorite track on the album is “Return to the Abyss.” Standard death metal triplets and blast beats start it off and then it goes full-fledged grind during the chorus. There’s some slow sludge thrown in for good measure because, well, why the hell not? The highlight of this song though arrives just over halfway mark. Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fucking A!!! Those off-time crash cymbal stops combined with that final china at the end cements “Return of the Abyss” as one of my favorite songs I’ve heard so far this year.
There are times past and present when I think that death metal has reached its apex, then an album like “…Of the Dark Light” proved me wrong... again! Maybe it’s because Suffocation consists of veterans of the genre, or maybe it’s because my ears have ingested death metal longer than some of you have been alive? Whichever reason it may be, Suffocation shows no signs of slowing down.
Highs: “Of the Dark” surpasses expectations on their 8th full-length album, in fact, they shatter them.
Lows: The album clocks in at a “Reign in Bloodesque” 35 minutes. Le sigh…
Bottom line: Suffocation has long been entrenched as one of best American death metal bands of all time. “…Of the Dark Light” is a prime example that Suffocation is not losing that moniker anytime soon.
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