'No Morality, No Tolerance, No Human, No God', that's the credo of this Polish black metal act. Fueled by nihilism, misantropy and occultism, this trio has released a crushing debut e.p. According to the biography the album was recorded during the full moon nights in June and July of 2012. This can actually explain the aggressive and dark nature of this album. If people really are more aggressive during full moons, metal bands should follow Suffering's example and record only then.
The band exists since 2007 but faced a few creative differences with former members. This resulted in a delay in recording and releasing this debut. After the problems were dealed with, founding and remaining members Armagedon and Astaroth decided to finally get this stuff on CD. They were absolutely right to do so because this has become one hell of a debut.
Suffering offers no intro, they just start blastbeating the hell out of the listener and that eternal damnation lasts for almost half an hour. They don't seem to care about a modern sound, lengthy instrumental passages or elaborate keyboard soundscapes. No, they want your soul and they're smashing your head to pieces to get it. Blastbeats are more furious and guitars are colder than in most black metal bands these days. Vocals are awesome, perfectly mixed into the music.
'I'm the existence' takes a step back. It's a slow song but in no way less intense. The double bass is vicious, drilling bleeding holes in every body part you can imagine. The atmosphere is bleak and frightening. The drums are amazing on this album, very intense and powerful, at moments almost mechanical or at least inhuman. The whole really reminds me of the Scandinavian scene of the nineties with bands like Impaled Nazarene or Beherit. Yet, the sheer speed of most of the tracks is astonishing.
If we have to talk about influences, well, let's just say the only influence seems to be old school black metal. Suffering takes the genre to an even more extreme level than I'm used to and it's simply stunning. Picking favourites is not easy, I love the previously mentioned 'I'm the existence' for its atmosphere but 'Essence Of Sin' and 'Frozen Faith' are equally awesome. I'll just go with the closer 'Ofiara', an epic piece that combines all the qualities of the other songs.
This has got to be one of Satan's favourites....
Serge