SUFFERING HOUR

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal • United States

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Tour & shows updates
Press & news updates
Forum discussions
Videos (Youtube)
Buy music
Discography
Reviews
Official website

Suffering Hour biography
An American avant-garde blackened death metal trio, Suffering Hour are based in Forest Lake, Minnesota and active since 2013. The lineup, consistent since their beginning, consists of guitarist Josh Raiken, bassist Dylan Haseltine and drummer Jason Oberuc; all three contribute vocals. With an intent to create forward-thinking and boundary-pushing music, Suffering Hour play an atmospheric and technical fusion of black and death metal replete with unorthodox riffing and dissonant guitarwork, with their oblique lyrics reflecting on mental illness and nihilism.

Suffering Hour's roots lie in a thrash metal band Raiken joined in high school, which - in keeping with its progressive-minded ambitions - changed its name to Compassion Dies in 2010 in reference to St. Louis ensemble Anacrusis. Whittled down to Raiken and guitarist Eddie �lssen, the group released two demos during its three-year tenure, with �lssen departing while Hasletine and Oberuc were recruited into the fold as auxiliary live members. After touring and finding the original name incongruous with their new direction but aiming to pay homage to Anacrusis, the unit renamed themselves Suffering Hour in 2013, with Hasletine and Oberuc made permanent additions. Their inaugural EP, 2014's Foreseeing Exemptions to a Dismal Beyond, demonstrated an aggressive new approach influenced by the Chasm and aptly described by the title of its second track, "Prog Thrashing Death."

Suffering Hour's style and visual aesthetic took a marked departure in the ensuing three years, mining inspiration from groups like Dead Congregation, Inquisition and Mgła, and evidently informed by Deathspell Omega and Ulcerate as well as their followers in the Icelandic extreme metal scene. Via Blood Harvest Records, Suffering Hour made their debut to positive critical press with 2017's In Passing Ascension. Seeking to experiment with their sound and push themselves as songwriters, the band followed up with 2019's Dwell EP, featuring a single dynamic eighteen-minute track. Elements of psychedelic rock and post-metal appear on 2021's sophomore LP, The Cyclic Reckoning, released on Profound Lore. 2022 saw the band's eclectic non-metal influences take the forefront with Time's Withering Shadow, a split with Irish death metal band Malthusian, demonstrating dark Americana and slowcore flavours infiltrating their sound, with Suffering Hour also contributing an exclusive cover of This Heat's "Makeshift Swahili" for the compila...An American avant-garde blackened death metal trio, Suffering Hour are based in Forest Lake, Minnesota and active since 2013. The lineup, consistent since their beginning, consists of guitarist Josh Raiken, bassist Dylan Haseltine and drummer Jason Oberuc; all three contribute vocals. With an intent to create forward-thinking and boundary-pushing music, Suffering Hour play an atmospheric and technical fusion of black and death metal replete with unorthodox riffing and dissonant guitarwork, with their oblique lyrics reflecting on mental illness and nihilism.

Suffering Hour's roots lie in a thrash metal band Raiken joined in high school, which - in keeping with its progressive-minded ambitions - changed its name to Compassion Dies in 2010 in reference to St. Louis ensemble Anacrusis. Whittled down to Raiken and guitarist Eddie �lssen, the group released two demos during its three-year tenure, with �lssen departing while Hasletine and Oberuc were recruited into the fold as auxiliary live members. After touring and finding the original name incongruous with their new direction but aiming to pay homage to Anacrusis, the unit renamed themselves Suffering Hour in 2013, with Hasletine and Oberuc made permanent additions. Their inaugural EP, 2014's Foreseeing Exemptions to a Dismal Beyond, demonstrated an aggressive new approach influenced by the Chasm and aptly described by the title of its second track, "Prog Thrashing Death."

Suffering Hour's style and visual aesthetic took a marked departure in the ensuing three years, mining inspiration from groups like Dead Congregation, Inquisition and Mgła, and evidently informed by Deathspell Omega and Ulcerate as well as their followers in the Icelandic extreme metal scene. Via Blood Harvest Records, Suffering Hour made their debut to positive critical press with 2017's In Passing Ascension. Seeking to experiment with their sound and push themselves as songwriters, the band followed up with 2019's Dwell EP, featuring a single dynamic eighteen-minute track. Elements of psychedelic rock and post-metal appear on 2021's sophomore LP, The Cyclic Reckoning, released on Profound Lore. 2022 saw the band's eclectic non-metal influences take the forefront with Time's Withering Shadow, a split with Irish death metal band Malthusian, demonstrating dark Americana and slowcore flavours infiltrating their sound, with Suffering Hour also contributing an exclusive cover of This Heat's "Makeshift Swahili" for the compilation album Milim Kashot Vol. 4.

Fans of groups in the vein of Haunter, Ad Nauseam, B�lzer, Convulsing, Zhrine and Golgothan Remains are advised to investigate Suffering Hour further.

- Gordy, March 2023read more