As the old saying goes, “What goes around comes around.” Slowly but surely, it seems that the thrasher crop of the early ’10s, who abandoned the genre for the more mature stylings of black and death metal roughly a decade ago, are revisiting their old Slayer and Dark Angel records, asking themselves, “Why did I start pretending I was too cool for this in the first place?” Yeah, why did you? I guess that’s between you and Paul Baloff, but I digress. Amongst the hottest of this trendy black/death wave is Suffering Hour, who’ve been rather quiet since their last studio album, The Cyclic Reckoning: An album that left this purist on the fence, yet admiring of their oddity from a safe distance.
I guess the biggest question I had while listening to The Cyclic Reckoning, besides “What the hell is this?”, was “Where does Suffering Hour go from here?” Seriously, how much further down into the abyss or void or other ominous gaping holes can these disso-core bands descend before ending right back where they started? In the case of Suffering Hour, that’s exactly what’s happened. Their latest EP, the aptly titled Impelling Rebirth sees the band fusing their signature blackened death unease with a serious thrash metal intensity that hasn’t been explored since their earliest days (i.e. 2014’s Foreseeing Exemptions to a Dismal Beyond).
Admittedly, the thrashing that takes place on Impelling Rebirth is far from the brainless pizza ilk, and even rather distant from the hellish stylings of the aforementioned Slayer and Dark Angel. I’d argue the most influential ’80s thrash act on this album is none other than prog-thrash pioneers, Voivod (go figure). After all, they always were the missing link between King Crimson and Gorguts. These weird, unsettling Voivod-esque guitar riffs take centerstage on short and anything but sweet rippers like “Anamnesis” and “Incessant Dissent”, as if to present a challenge to thrashers everywhere. Good luck headbanging and moshing to this!
There is, of course, no shortage of grim black metal and suffocating death metal scattered as well, particularly on the Morbid Angel meets Gorguts banger that is the opening title track. More so than any other track on here, “Impelling Rebirth” bridges the gap between The Cyclic Reckoning and whatever this new era of Suffering Hour entails. The blast-laden “Revelation of Mortality” doubles down on the band’s black metal leanings, especially with those chaotic tremolo riffs taking charge, while the closing “Inexorable Downfall” yet again nails that denser Morbid Gorguts formula. While I’m not sure the latter eclipses anything Luc Lemay could pen today, I’m definitely certain it out-morbids Morbid Trey.
Perhaps it’s because the focus is less on atmosphere and more on meat and potatoes old school extreme metal, but Impelling Rebirth resonates with me more than any Suffering Hour release to date. Its unpredictable blend of black, death, and thrash with avant-garde insanity thrown in for good measure is quite unforgettable, as are the songs and the riffs themselves. Here’s to hoping this “rebirth” leads to a full length of the same nature. Until then, I plan on thrashing through the chasm.
7 out of 10
Label: Profound Lore Records
Genre: Black/Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Voivod