Sisters of Suffocation are not quiet anymore.
Formed in 2014 in the Netherlands, the band formed by Els Prins (vocals) and Simone van Straten (guitar) initially had an all-female line-up to play Death Metal. Today, it is with Emmelie Herwegh (guitar), Fons van Dijk (drums) and Tim Schellekens (bass) that they release Eradication, their third album.
With their first EP, followed by their first album, Sisters of Suffocation had accustomed us to Death Metal with many influences mainly focused on Brutal Death, which ended up integrating more Melodic Death elements on the second album. With Eradication, we can also see this evolution, which equally draws from both under a wide vocal flow sometimes accompanied by choirs, as on Buried in the Crowd, the first track, which offers an incredibly heady chorus before letting leads take care to close the song. Moreover, we notice that the tracks are generally quite short, letting the band align sixteen of them in a bit more than three quarters of an hour, going from bewitching elements like on Die Anyway, the catchy and groovy Pay My Dues or Cannibal Soulmate and its jerky rhythmic interspersed with melodies, to much more raw parts like the uncompromising Returning in a Cauldron and its massive riffs sometimes dissonant. Some Old School elements with Thrash influences can also be heard like the energetic riff on Hide in Plain Sight which doesn’t forget to offer some intense leads before the band ventures on the burdensome sounds side with Thick Red Meat or How They Bleed, a track which still lets the band’s softer elements soothe us, like clean vocals which accompany the melodies. I personally think the last three tracks, From Downfall, Cordon Sanitaire and The Chosen One, are perfect to close the album, showing the diversity the band knows how to display before allowing us to catch our breath with the melancholic Outerlude, which immediately makes us want to hear more.
Once again, it’s an excellent surprise that Sisters of Suffocation offers us! Between melodies, raw violence and worked riffs, Eradication is a very varied and rhythmic album which will please you no matter what style of Death Metal you prefer.
90/100