Entry 115 - Suffocation - Pierced from Within

 

Pierced form Within... I wasn't ready for it the first time I heard it. I had just started my journey into metal and was listening to the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera and other 90's heavy hitters. I came across the CD to Pierced and thought it looked cool. I grabbed it and took it home.

My virgin ears were so innocent. This sounded like noise and I threw it by the wayside. I held that opinion for many years, even as I started to gravitate towards the more extreme end of the spectrum. I was wrong.

Pierced from Within is simply put one of the finest examples of 90's death metal. This thing crushes. Every time I listen to it now I am floored by the immense power of the riffs. They are h e a v y.

There is zero melody on this album; none. Somehow the band manages to still create songs that get stuck in my head. That is impressive given the chromatic riffing and lack of traditional song structures.

Outside of the riffs the vocals and drumming deserve special mention. Frank's vocals would be a little less potent in later years, but here... here he puts on a death metal clinic.

Mike Smith on drums also displays why he is considered one of the best to ever do it. He is technical, precise, and he hits hard - god he hits hard. He never steals the show though, this is merely an extension of the music - and the music requires all of these traits in a drummer.

Pierced from Within could easily be Suffocation's best album. The only problem is that they released Effigy of the Forgotten a few years before this. While Pierced is one of the best death metal albums of the 90's, Effigy is just simply one of the best death metal albums ever recorded. It's not really a fair fight.