Great idea. Love how people come up with new ways to make the whole thing exciting. Anyway, I'm being air-deprived as we speak listening to Suffocation's new album, Pinnacle of Bedlam. The tour is coming up quick with Exhumed, Jungle Rot and Rings of Saturn. Sadly, Frank Mullen is quitting after this tour.
The album is a marvel of brutal technical death metal. I mean, these guys go back to '88 for fuck's sake. They really are pivotal. Terence Hobbs is consistently rated as one of the best guitarists in the genre and he certainly doesn't disappoint here ripping off impossible solos and creating dense, complicated structural riffs with cohort Guy Marchais. Frank's vocals are perfect primordial death metal.
There's just so little money in it for these guys that they are forced to find other sources of income. But, there's something absolutely precious in the underground.
Most of us disdain anything resembling pop or commerciality. Not in anyway demeaning great groups that also become successful in the commercial world, but if the masses like something it usually means a certain quality is lacking for most serious music and, specifically, metal freaks. Everybody who appreciates brutal "pre"-technical death metal should really make the effort to see them. How great would that be looking back in 20 years and saying, "yeah, I saw Suffocation, one of the most important bands of the genre". But, not just for that but because you'll be gasping for air, blowing your mind, and perhaps moshing into oblivion. It's about the music and they will deliver, especially if the new album is any indication.