Search - Susperia :: Cut From Stone

Great Album

Christopher Greenhill | Saratoga NY | 01/07/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Susperia's Wikipedia page describes them as Melodic Black Metal/Thrash Metal. Honestly I don't know what the hell Melodic Black Metal is and given the many overlapping subgenres that heavy metal music has been parsed into I doubt that many metalheads do either, but I'll do my best to describe what "Cut from Stone" sounds like to me.



Susperia's previous album, "Unlimited", was somewhat reminiscent of Testiment's "The Gathering" with murkier production, but "Cut From Stone" actually sounds almost groove-metaly at times, with songs that remind me of "Cleansing" era Prong, Damage Plan, and DevilDriver.



The production is quite good... better than "Unlimited", but the guitar tone is a little too low midrangey for my tastes. The leads cut through pretty well though. Drums sound good, snappy kicks and snares, blast beats and long rolls sound tight. Vocals are also much more discernable than "Unlimited", Athera sounds similar to Tommy Victor's dry growel at times, and Chuck Billy at others. There's even a few moments of straight singing with harmonies. The overall mix seems to favor the low midrange, but that could just be the stock car stereo I've been listening to it on.



The songs range from forgettable to excellent. The first couple songs fall into the former category, but the 3rd track is much better. One of the album's high points is definitely track 4, "Distant Memory". Somewhat like "Devil May Care" off of the previous album, there's clever use of harmonies and guitar leads. It builds to a crescendo of brutal ascending riffs and harmony vox. The 5th track "Release" is a mid tempo very thrash/groove metal sounding beast. The 10th track "Brother" is furious.



All in all I'd say this is a very good album. I hope it gets a domestic release.

"