About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

A strong Suffocation performance, but not a crucial album.



Pros

• Better than similar live death metal releases from artists like Cannibal Corpse and Deicide.
• Production appropriately highlights each instrument.

Cons

• Album was originally released in limited form; performance was in 2005.
• Can't match the intensity of seeing Suffocation perform live.

Description

• Released October 27, 2009 by Relapse Records.

• Suffocation’s latest full length Blood Oath was released earier this year by Nuclear Blast.
• Suffocation formed in 1990 in Long Island, New York.

Guide Review - Suffocation - 'The Close Of A Chapter: Live In Quebec'

There’s no dispute that Suffocation is one of the best death metal bands to ever grace the scene. Their albums Effigy Of the Forgotten and Pierced From Within are required listening for any death metal aficionado. They are also a potent live band; if you haven’t seen them perform please go watch these veterans make younger, more testosterone- fueled bands look like junior varsity ham-and-eggers.

All of this brings us to Suffocation’s live album Close The Chapter. The album was available in limited release in 2005, and is now available to the masses via Relapse. The title, however, takes on a bit of a double meaning considering that Suffocation left Relapse for Nuclear Blast for their latest album Blood Oath.

Technically, there’s nothing wrong with this set; I wish I could have been at this show.

Suffocation rips through classics like “Liege of Inveracity,” and “Pierced from Within” with precision and intensity. Frank Mullen shows that his vocals work as well in a club as they do in the studio, and drummer Mike Smith’s herculean drumming shines. Mullen’s between-song banter and relentless use of the f-bomb gets a little grating after the first few tracks, but if you were there and had four beers in your system you wouldn’t notice. The release is certainly much stronger than similar outings like Deicide’s When Satan Lives, which made the band sound like an indecipherable wall of sound.

Perhaps I find live albums to be a bit of a waste unless they document a historic moment. There’s a reason fans seek out bootlegs of Rob Halford or Ian Gillan fronting Black Sabbath; these are our only chances to hear these performances. With Suffocation, you can simply get a ticket and witness their trademark death metal in-person and leave with a sore neck and a great buzz.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with the performance on Close The Chapter. Suffocation sounds fierce…would you expect anything less? If you are a Suffocation die-hard than you’ll want this album if you don’t already have it. If you’re not, you might want to hear it once or twice and spend your money on a concert ticket instead.