Bassist Derek Boyer of New York technical death metal veterans SUFFOCATION says the band will continue to release new music once longtime vocalist Frank Mullen retires. One of the founding members of the band, Mullen announced that he was leaving SUFFOCATION last year, but not before bidding farewell to fans in North America, Europe and Asia. Mullen's SUFFOCATION studio album swansong is 2017's "…Of The Dark Light". In a recent interview at this year's NAMM convention with Heavy New York's Alex Haber (video below), Boyer was asked about Mullen's pending departure and how it impacts SUFFOCATION: "Frank knew for a long time that he was going to be out," he said. "But he kind of just got it to the point where this was a good time for him to make it an official farewell run. He did his sign-off in North America, which was the run we did at the end of 2018. He's going to go sign off in Europe and sign off in Japan. He's going to say his goodbyes. But I think that last run in the U.S. was the last thing for him here. But I think '…Of The Dark Light' was an intentional last record for him. He just knew when the time was right, he was going to step down, it was just '…Of The Dark Light' was the record that was his last record." During the same chat, Boyer spoke about the New York/Long Island death metal scene which also spawned INTERNAL BLEEDING and PYREXIA, among others. "Everywhere we go, we're pretty fortunate SUFFO has a pretty good worldwide thing going on, but New York definitely, they love the band and it's so fun to see Frank getting choked up to the people at his last New York show," he said. "New York's definitely alive and kicking for SUFFO." For the last several years, SUFFOCATION has been using fill-in vocalists to accommodate Mullen's work schedule and aversion to long bouts of touring. According to Boyer, SUFFOCATION is "not done" playing shows and will continue to make albums now that the frontman has made his exit official. "Frank, we knew he's been talking about being done for a while," Boyer said. "It's one of those things you're definitely going to get another record out of the band. It's been tough jumping through hoops with 'Who's going to do this?' We have Ricky Myers from California, who's been doing a lot of the stuff for us. He's doing really well right now. You'll be seeing SUFFOCATION coming through your town. That's not going to stop. You'll see another record. We're not going to skip a beat. Frank is awesome. He's going to be missed, but the band is still a driving force." "...Of The Dark Light", was produced by the band and tracked at Full Force Studios with longtime engineer Joe Cincotta (OBITUARY). Mixing and mastering was handled by world-renowned producer/engineer Chris "Zeuss" Harris (HATEBREED, ARSIS, SUICIDE SILENCE). Cover artwork was created by Colin Marks (ORIGIN, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, KATAKLYSM).
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