SUPURATION

Stylistically it´s also a continuation of the relatively brutal (for the time) death metal style Supuration initiated on their 1990 releases. Supuration have a bit more up their sleeves than your regular death metal act though, and there´s a progressive edge to their music (including the use of keyboards and clean vocals), which was quite unusual for the time. "Isolated" is culled from the August 1991 "Promo tape '91", while "Sultry Obsession" as far as I can hear is culled directly from the 1990 "Sultry Obsession" demo/EP. "The Creeping Unknown" is culled from the 1991 "The Creeping Unknown" single (but ultimately also comes from the August 1991 "Promo tape '91").

As the case is what almost all of Supuration´s early 90s releases, "Isolated" is a good quality death metal release with progressive leanings. Although the material are culled from different releases, the sound production on all three tracks are relatively well sounding (considering that this is early 90s demo/single/EP death metal recordings). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Both the title track and "Sojourn In The Absurd" are good quality death metal compositions with a progressive edge. Powerful growling vocals, intriguing riffs and rhythms, melancholic lead guitar work and an overall interesting atmosphere. The sound production is of a good quality too, so upon conclusion "The Creeping Unknown" is another intriguing release from the early 90s Supuration catalogue, which is well worth investigating. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Stylistically the two tracks on the single is death metal with progressive leanings. It´s still primarely rooted in old school death metal but Supuration are not content with just playing straight forward death metal and their songwriting is pretty adventurous and eclectic for the time. Clean futuristic/robotic vocals (on "In Remembrance of a Coma" they are more of the spoken variant) compliment the growling death metal vocals, and the music features both keyboards, clean guitars, and a good portion of tempo-changes and compositional shifts in direction.

"In Remembrance of a Coma" is the more regular Supuration track of the two tracks on the single, while "1308.JP.08" is quite unconventional sounding like a death metal song where the songwriters have listened to a lot of Voivod and Killing Joke. It´s a pretty odd track, but certainly intriguing. The material is well produced and this is overall a good quality single release from Supuration and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Empheral Paradise" is a track showing the many different elements of Supuration´s sound from this period. Both thrash- and death metal riffing, tempo-changes, occasional doom/death heaviness, atmospheric lead guitar work, growling- and futuristic/robotic sounding clean vocals, eerie keyboards, and a generally unconventional and adventurous approach to death metal songwriting. "Reveries Of A Bloated Cadaver" is a slightly more brutal and death metal oriented song, but of course that track also features one or two progressive inclined moments.

Qaulity wise I think "Empheral Paradise" is the better composition of the two, but "Reveries Of A Bloated Cadaver" is still a good quality track featuring the unique sound of early Supuration. The sound production is of a good quality, although the clean guitars on "Reveries Of A Bloated Cadaver" sound a bit "off" in the mix. Considering that these tracks were culled from a demo the sound production is just fine though. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

So it´s now established that "Promo tape '91" is a seminal release in Supuration´s discography. But not only that...it´s also a high quality release showing the world the unique and sometimes progressive oriented death metal style of early Supuration. They would get increasingly more progressive from 1993 onwards, so the material on "Promo tape '91" is a chance to hear Supuration while they were still predominantly a death metal band toying with progressive songwriting ideas, rather than the other way around, which became the norm for them after 1993.

Featuring no less than eight tracks and a total playing time of 30:31 this could almost have been Supuration´s debut album if a label had opted to release it. Instead the promo tape was send to various labels shopping for a recording contract. The sound production is also of a high enough quality for this to be put out as a label release instead of a demo. I´ve heard much worse sound productions on official studio albums. So upon conclusion "Promo tape '91" is a high quality demo recording and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Stylistically Supuration play a rhythmically varied and for the time brutal type of death metal, but featuring both thrashy riffs and progressive songwriting ideas. Eerie sounding keyboards suddenly appear and there´s also some Voivod Sci-fi influenced dissonance and futuristic "robotic" clean vocals. This is still first and foremost a death metal release though, and the progressive songwriting ideas only occur here and there as spice and atmosphere enchancing moments. Supuration would further develop their style over the next couple of years and release a highly progressive death metal debut album in "The Cube" (1993).

Upon conclusion "Sultry Obssession" is a very impressive EP release from Supuration. Considering that the material is culled from a 1990 death metal demo it´s quite advanced in the songwriting department, and there´s some high level musicianship on display here too. Add to that a near-professional studio sound production and "Sultry Obssession" comes off quite intriguing. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Sultry Obssession" is Supuration´s first studio demo recording, as their first demo was recorded live at their rehearsal space. No tracks from the first demo were re-recorded and included on "Sultry Obssession", so the demo features all new material. The material is also exclusive to this demo as none of the tracks would be re-recorded and included on Supuration´s debut full-length studio album "The Cube" (1993).

Stylistically Supuration have become a bit more brutal since the first thrashy death metal demo, but also more progressive. Already this early on there is a Voivod sci-fi influence heard here and there, and considering that this is a 1990 death metal demo, it´s actually quite impressive in terms of the eclectic nature of the songwriting, the high level musical performances, and the near-professional sound production values. It´s no wonder that Supuration opted to re-release this demo as an EP. The quality certainly warrants such a move. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

While Supuration are mostly known for playing a progressive death/doom metal style on their album releases, this early demo recording is thrashy death metal. The rawness and lo-fi nature of the recording suits the equally raw material well. Despite this being a pretty savage and murky sounding recording, most instruments and vocals are actually distinguishable in the soundscape, which isn´t always the case on contemporary rehearsal demos from other death metal artists.

It´s obvious from this recording that Supuration were already relatively skilled musicians, but maybe a bit more surprising they write some pretty good quality death metal (think contemporary Death or Pestilence and you´re halfway there). It´s both brutal, relatively memorable, and nicely aggressive. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Still in the Sphere" features five tracks and a total playing time of 27:39 minutes. So it´s a mini-album length release rather than an EP length release. Four tracks are new originals which are exclusive to this release and the closing track is a cover of "Shout" by Tears For Fears. Supuration already turned things on their head on "The Cube", where they produced a pretty unique sounding progressive death metal album, and naturally they continue that trend on "Still in the Sphere". The death metal elements have been scaled back a bit, although lead vocalist/guitarist Ludovic Loez still performs death metal growls. He also sings a lot of clean vocal parts too though, so the two vocal styles are pretty evenly distributed on this release.

The songwriting is quite intriguing and Supuration continue to come up with interesting and unconventional ideas. Not everything works wonders and the relatively weak sounding production job isn´t a positive either. But "Still in the Sphere" is still overall a quality release from a very unique act, which Supuration can be proud of. It´s a varied and dynamic release featuring a subdued death metal element, and otherwise leans more towards progressive metal. Not progressive metal like Dream Theater or Fates Warning, but more just an unconventional type of metal. The original material is of a good quality and the odd futuristic sounding doom/death metal cover of "Shout" is actually pretty great too. It´s definitely not a one to one interpretation of the original song and Supuration deserve praise for that. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Reveries..." is however not an album featuring freshly written material, but instead a release featuring eight re-recorded tracks which in their original form appeared on the 1990 "Official Rehearsal" demo, the 1990 "Sultry Obsession" EP, and the 1991 "Empheral Paradise" single. In addition to the "old" tracks, Supuration has also recorded three covers by Paradise Lost, Twisted Sister, and Anthrax for the 48:10 minutes long album.

The original material is old school death metal with a semi-progressive twist. Relatively intelligible growling vocals placed high in the mix, good rhythmic variation, and overall a fair amount of brutality. A couple of thrashy sections are also featured in the music. Regarding those sections the sound production is a slight problem though, as the palm-muted rhythm guitars sound very thin and muffled. It's too bad because other than on those sections the sound production is relatively well sounding. The semi- progressive tag is mostly a result of the sometimes unconventional song structures, and a few dissonant sounding riffs. Both features Supuration would develop upon on their subsequent releases. This is predominantly old school death metal though.

The three cover tracks are all of a decent quality. "Shattered" by Paradise Lost is delivered very true to the original, which is alright but nothing too exciting. "Among the Living" by Anthrax, is well performed but it's a track that sounds slightly odd with growling vocals. Supuration has picked a perfect Twisted Sister track to cover though, as "The Beast" is delivered with commanding brutality. Maybe it's the relatively slow pace and anthemic nature of the track, which suits Supuration so well, but to my ears it's THE highlight of the album. It's of an equally high quality as when Benediction covered "Forged in Fire" by Anvil.

While the overall quality of the material is relatively high, there are still moments where I'm thinking the original material could have been a bit more memorable. Taking into consideration when these tracks were originally written, they are actually pretty mature, but compared to Supuration's later output, the original material on "Reveries..." doesn't quite hold up. Still a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn't all wrong.