Long Island death metal veterans Suffocation played to a hometown crowd on October 16th at the Gramercy Theatre and totally pummeled every person in the venue. Bringing along The Faceless and several others, this was a night of headbanging delight.As direct support, The Faceless reveled in the legions of fans that helped packed the venue. With a whipping fury, they called for flying circle pits with devastating results. I had first seen them over the summer on the Summer Slaughter tour and thought they were pretty solid then. They were even better this time around. Just like they did over the summer, they went out and performed like they were headlining or vying to be picked up by a label. A completely unforgiving performance, they stirred up a frenzy.
When Suffocation was setting up, their sound checks were earsplitting yet extremely crisp. There wasn’t an issue of one instrument drowning out another or the vocals getting lost in the mix. When they finally took the stage, the sound quality shone through as this was one of the most well mixed death metal shows I’ve ever attended. The over distortion that usually plagues death metal shows was non-existent. The entire show was album crisp.
Having only an hour to kick ass, the band didn’t waste any time getting down to business. They were ferocious as can be and totally uncompromising all night long and kept the crowd in a destructive state from beginning to end. Frank Mullen’s speeches between songs alternated between his love for Suffocation’s friends and fans and the sick twisted banter expected from a death metal frontman. I’m referring to his description of binding, torturing, and killing a hypothetical victim (want to guess what song that was introducing?) or of the best way to murder someone, by beating them to death with a slab of beef so you can cook the evidence as well as the body and then serve it to your friends and investigating officers. Of course, this was all in good fun… or was it? All in all this was a fantastic performance and wasn’t lacking in any way, shape, or form. There’s a reason Suffocation are so highly regarded in the death metal genre, they truly know how to put on a show.
Setlist:
Thrones of Blood
Suspended In Tribulation
Liege of Inveracity
Cataclysmic Purification
Bind Torture Kill
Blood Oath
Pierced from Within
Effigy of the Forgotten
Come Hell or High Priest
Funeral Inception
Infecting the Crypts