Search - Suffocation :: Best of Suffocation

An Abomination Reborn

Darkslide | New York, NY USA | 06/19/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'd really like to give this collection 5 stars but it's kinda flawed. Suffocation are, in my opinion, easily the best and most consistent death metal band out there. I love this band and have all their albums to date. Why only 3 stars? Two reasons: Value and song choice.

This CD is a collection of tunes from their Roadrunner 3 roadrunner albums, Effigy of the Forgotten, Breeding The Spawn and Pierced from Within. Honestly, you should own all of these albums. This album is a good jumping in point for people who don't know them and want to get into them, but I would honestly REALLY recommend just spending the extra 4 bucks and getting Roadrunner's re-packaged/re-mastered Effigy/Pierced double CD. Two full albums vs. a collection? You do the math.

The song selection on here is not exactly what I would call the BEST OF SUFFOCATION. First of all, half of the disc is songs from their first album. That's a good album, but also their weakest as far as songwriting, production and guitar solos. These guys got much better as they went along and I think having the remaining 6 songs split between their best material is just criminal. And then the songs! How could The Invoking not be on this? The riffs in Depths of Depravity are insane, but instead we get Thrones of Blood and Brood of Hatred.

Suffocation are a great band and even though this disc is hardly their best material, it's still great songs and a decent price here on Amazon. This is a good place to start if your making your first death metal purchase or exploring the band, but hardcore fans will find nothing new here worth dropping the cash for."

Please don't buy this

Johnny | Boston, MA | 08/30/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This "best of" only consists of material from Suffocation's 3 Roadrunner releases, so that excludes a sizable chunk of their discography. Effigy of the Forgotten and Pierced from Within can be bought together from Roadrunner's recently released installment of the "two from the vault series", so it's really sickening that they would actually market this to people just a short time later. What do you get that you don't have from the other two albums? Just 3 songs from Breeding the Spawn. BTS is more in need of a remaster than perhaps any other album in death metal, and if it didn't sound so awful many more people would view it as Suffocation's very best release. But here we have Roadrunner rehashing the same material without spending a dime (even the cover is a picture straight from the Breeding the Spawn booklet...at least find a photo we haven't seen). It's really a shame that they have no respect for their history as a death metal label, because a revisiting of Breeding the Spawn would be a huge gift to the genre. Instead they plop 3 tracks on an album and try to squeeze out a little more of your money."