It was time for me to experience some brutal death metal again as Suffocatin was once again on this side of the Atlantic. This time supported by the largely unknown extreme German metal band Obscura. Openers however were the Dutch deathrash band Devious.

As I got to the venue the first band almost immediately started played, so pretty good timing on my side here. Anyway, Devious had to open the evening and did that quite well. The band was enthusiastic and that showed off on the audience, although the hall was still only half-full. The music was pretty decent deathrash, with variation aplenty.

After a short time of changing the set-up a young German band came on stage. They call their music “extreme metal art”, which I found a bit pretentious (and their bio is even more pretentious!), yet also appropriate as they play a blend of death metal inspired heavily by bands like later Pestilence, later Death, and some more brutal death metal, a la Suffocation. Their debut album (Retribution) has just been released. Most of the songs they played came off that album. The opener was a very fast song and nearly all-through blasting, which set my hopes for the remainder of the set rather low, as I tend to get bored rather easy by all-out blasting. Nevertheless the other songs were more varied and incorporate more intricate riffing and on top of that were executed well too. The band was allowed to perform an encore in the form of a Vader cover (Wings).

The headlining band had some problems for this tour. Suffocation was missing their lead guitarist – Terrance Hobbs – as he has trouble with his passport (these idiotic security measures for the sake of fighting terrorism are starting to become really obnoxious nowadays) and Derek Boyer had broken his leg and was forced to sit during the set. Suffo was frantic as always; singer Frank Mullen was seemingly pissed off yet enjoying himself of the stage. Also he was rather talkative – a bit too much perhaps. The rest of the band was tight as always and working their way through a set comprised of classic songs such as Breeding the Spawn, Liege of Inveracity, Catatonia, Funeral Inception, Effigy of the Forgotten, Pierced from Within, Infecting the Crypts, Torn into Enthrallment. And despite the lack of lead guitar – which was pretty annoying in some places, particularly Breeding the Spawn and Catatonia, it all sounded brutal as hell. After about an hour the band walked (limbed?) off stage, only to return for one more song a few minutes later. A new song was the encore – Abomination Reborn, which will be featured on the new self-titled album.