Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten

When it comes to brutal death metal, only Suffocation seem to do it right. And their debut Effigy of the Forgotten is the band's most essential album. It is Suffocation in their most brutal and raw form. What better way to cleanse oneself of poser music - read, Behemoth - than with Suffocation's masterpiece of technical aggression Effigy of the Forgotten? This album is perhaps one of death metal's greatest and most underappreciated classics.

This album is home to so many fantastic riffs. The riffs here are heavy enough for any brutal death metal fan, but also technical enough to keep you interested. Some riffs are slower and mostly rhythm based, like the opening track 'Liege of Inveracity' and 'Reincremation'. Others provide a solid layer of melodic and narrative soundscape for some great atmospheric work, like on 'Seeds of the Suffering', 'Effigy of the Forgotten' and 'Jesus Wept'. There is no overstating how influential this album was, not just to death metal but to black metal as well. The way the songs are constructed in a complex, neurotic and sometimes difficult to follow 'riff maze', while always remaining melodically coherent, can be found in many of Suffocation's contemporaries, such as Phantom and Vermin, to name only the best of Suffocation's black metal children.

The first three Suffocation albums are all brilliant in their own right, but even amongst these great classics, Effigy of the Forgotten stands above all. Second only to Incantation's Onward to Golgotha, this album is one of death metal's finest masterpieces.

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