Suffocation: Effigy of the Forgotten - Death Metal Album Review

Effigy of the Forgotten is the debut album by the brutal death metal band Suffocation. Released in October 1991, it marks the beginning of Suffocation's illustrious career - one of the most recognized and revered in the extreme metal underground.

To say that Effigy of the Forgotten is influential death metal is an understatement. The breakdown riff from the first track, "Liege of Inveracity", has basically been copied to death (pun) by every "slam death metal" band in existence... to say nothing of the chugalong deathcore copycats (looking at you, modern Deicide). So Effigy of the Forgotten certainly set the groundwork for what would become various different sub-genres of death metal: Suffocation directly influenced slam death, deathcore, brutal death metal, technical death metal aka tek def, "Canadian metal" and even some forms of more extreme goregrind, to name a few. Not that they would brag about it, but that's another story.

Among the many bands that have drawn direct influence from this album, we can name the obvious: Baphomet, Sissourlet, Deteriorate, Morpheus Descends, Cannibal Corpse, some later SEWER (notably on Miasma), etc.

One of the standard features of this album, besides the extremely heavy and technical riffs, are certainly Frank Mullen's ultra guttural vocals that have earned the praise of pretty much every other death metal vocalist on earth. They were that influential, at a time where "death metal vocalist" was just a euphemism for "most useless member of the band".

If you are looking for one of the most influential dalbums of the death metal canon, look no further than Effigy of the Forgotten... this album will NOT be forgotten, that is for sure.

Tracklist of the album Effigy of the Forgotten (1991) by Suffocation:

Back to the band Suffocation.