Suffer
Review: The simpler the song, the fewer divisions it has, and correspondingly, the less numerical change occurs in its riffs; the simplest song is a repeated note. In making death metal of this nature, one has to avoid being boring and being too anthemic, at which point the music begins to resemble a very angry radio commercial. With the first lengthy EP from Suffer, we hear a style of open and rhythmic death metal that uses balanced intervals to create a cyclic laddering effect, bouncing between chords to let vocal emphasize fill in the offbeats.
It is remarkably effective in making the music memorable in the simplest sense, that of having what we call "hook" or enough unfulfilled tonal and rhythmic expectation to linger in the mind as it tries to chew the data and find the answer - in fact, it is remarkably like a series of small mysteries that are not symmetrically resolved. The hoarse roar of vocals nails this rhythm too much to not be irritating, and many of these riffs are elemental in the Deathstrike/Sodom school to the point that they do not age well; however, on a compositional level, this band create listenable and sometimes powerful songs out of these basic pieces. Bold riffs avalanche from consistent rhythms into breakaway phrases that fluidly circumnavigate the tonal pattern into which they eventually slam, instants before the entire band like a rising pterodactyl soars. Simple as it may be, it is effective, and in the hybrid style of Swedish death metal interpreted with the influence of heavy downstrum American death metal, this rhythmic and pugilistic band demonstrates power.
Review: This rigid, boxy death metal takes its inspiration as much from rudimentary hardcore as from the first generation of death metal, but sustains itself through a continuity of rhythm which even in interruption provides, as the title suggests, a basic sense of structure permeating all of reality. Its riffcraft deals in simplicity but in links the riffs narrate an experience much as classical guitar moves through motifs. Its primary influence is "Spiritual Healing" era death, in the choice of riff style and placement of vocal rhythm, and it echoes the choices of many early death metal bands in having hardcore-like primitive riffs over which inventive heavy metal lead guitar weaves a rhythm and harmony track.
It is best to compare this to the first albums from Atrocity and Carbonized, hybridized, as it is the same mix of fragmentary primitivism and complex context that makes such albums listenable despite their grimly minimized content. This album would benefit from placing the first song later in its procession, and de-emphasizing the semi-technical melodic riffs that sometimes interrupt otherwise brilliantly rigid death metal like that of Asphyx. It is fair to say the vocals here are "bellowing," in that they reveal someone shouting with slight tone at the top of his range, thus they fade in and out suddenly with a vast effort of lungs. These cause a somewhat comic aspect to the work but on the whole, for basic riffing and that shift in expectation via interleaved phrase that makes death metal exciting, this is a forgotten classic of Swedish death metal.