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Suffocate For Fuck Sake
Blazing Fires and Helicopters...


4.0
excellent

Review

by SnackaryBinx USER (31 Reviews)
September 17th, 2008 | 502 replies


Release Date: 2007 | Tracklist


new record "Blazing fires and helicopters on the frontpage of the newspaper. There´s a war going on and I´m marching in heavy boots" that is about loosing control of yourself. We follow a swedish girl when she's looking back to the time when she got put in a mental institute.

I'd put the band members right here, but I cannot find a lick of information on these guys.

The above quote comes from their myspace, describing what the concept and main theme of this album is all about. Suffocate For *** Sake hail from Sweden, and create an interesting blend of Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Post-Hardcore and Screamo. There myspace describes them as "Sigur ros, Breach, Cult of luna, Mono, Mogwai (at the same time)." I believe there is some other influences prevalent in here though. You'll here a lot of rhythmic riffs played throughout a la Neurosis, but you'll hear a lot of asymmetric playing also a la the screamo genre.

Most of the songs have the same structure to them. Most start off with a slow build-up to an insane burst of energy for 1-2 minutes. Then a beautiful post-rock ambient landscape will be played in the background while a girl (speaking Swedish I presume) reflects on her past life and where she went wrong. Even with almost every song following the same structure, they all sound fresh and original on their own terms. Songs such as "Twentysix and Full of Plans" start off with a huge burst of emotion, before going into a post-rock ambient section. Only after she starts talking, it bursts into a post-metal build-up that would be seen on a Neurosis album. With a driving bass and drums (the bass is especially brought out throughout the album, but never does it overpower) a guitar picks up your heart-strings and imagination and brings you this young woman's story. The guitar brings you more emotion than almost any vocals ever could.

The production can open up the widest mountain ranges in your mind, and then transform your mind into a tiny claustrophobic space with emotions barreling down at you through a tiny path. Some songs, such as the first track, "Blue Lights and Sunshine" and the fifth track, "A Japanese Flag" rely a lot more on the vocals to cause the explosion rather than the instruments. With spoken phrases getting louder and louder until it explodes into a canyon of violent screams. Even in post-rock ambient sections, tortured, emotional screams will be heard, unsettling the stomach and mind as you imagine the horrible things that must've happened to her. With the lead singer screaming "Never Forget" in "Twentysix and making plans" over a ambient keyboard/guitar section, it truly hits down at the deepest nerves possible.

You can't skip tracks, or parts on this album. Together it flows as one giant collective story. A lot of the album revolves around these ambient sections that are in Swedish (the sections have a lot in common with The Early November's "The Path" disc on their last effort, as in a nice, warm, lush guitar part is played in the back, while she reminisces about her life. If you can get through these parts, this album feels a lot more worth it. Even though you pretty much can't understand a word they are saying (I for sure as hell can't), you feel a sense of connection with the girl, a sense of pity as she has lost control of her life and can't seem to get it back together. This is the hardest part altogether to get through for the whole album, but in the end, maybe after repeated listens, it feels all the more worth it, and like these parts actually belong and add to the album as a whole.

If you can get through that one problem, this album truly is a refreshing experience. It seems to dab into quite a few genres, while not getting their heads wrapped in one or just screwing it up altogether. Even if the album name is a little bit pretentious (or very pretentious), in the bands defense, Red Sparowes song titles are way longer, and that goes for every song title. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of post-rock or post-metal. While it does have screamo parts in it, they seem to come few and far between as the album rolls on, but those parts are also genuinely worth the wait.

4/5



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user ratings (182)
3.9
excellent
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Bitchfork (4.5)
Suffocate for Fuck Sake roll out of the gate with a dense, adventurous album that's as emotionally s...



Comments:Add a Comment 
SnackaryBinx
September 18th 2008


2309 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

after my horrible forced United Nations review, it took me a while to write something I could be happy about.



comments and such.

jrowa001
September 18th 2008


8752 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

cool to see a review for this. its a good one as well. i really like this album, i got it sometime last month and ive listened to it a few times. i agree that its best to listen to as a whole

BallsToTheWall
September 18th 2008


51592 Comments


I used to think Grind had the best names, now it seems post rock has overtaken grind. This sounds interesting because I enjoy all the bands you mentioned in the first paragraph. Good review and I think you should check out Temporary Antennae from Caina for some sick post rock/ shoegaze/ b.m.

Digging: Fulci - Tropical Sun

SnackaryBinx
September 18th 2008


2309 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

if I may ask, what does shoegaze mean exactly?



and I'll check that band out

joshuatree
Emeritus
September 18th 2008


3744 Comments


albums bad dude

NortherlyNanook
September 18th 2008


1286 Comments


I've been wondering how long it'd take for there to be a review of this. Not a bad one, though.

It's pretty good, but there's waaaay too much of the spoken word.

EDIT: Wasn't this released this year?This Message Edited On 09.17.08

joshuatree
Emeritus
September 18th 2008


3744 Comments


yeah i must of forgot that when i added this back in april to change the date

I was going to review this, and I still might for a negative input. Overall this is just really pretentious and bland, and is more of a mash of better bands than anything new or interesting. And that same structure that you mentioned that every song contains is what kills this, so you saying they sound "fresh and original" was pretty lol

Monticello
September 18th 2008


805 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

boring is the word for this album.

Kiran
Emeritus
September 18th 2008


6134 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

This is definitely listenable although I think if you don't understand the Swedish commentary it takes away a lot of the meaning of some of the songs. A lot of the album seems to drag on though and it gets tedious considering there are some really cool parts.

Mendigo
September 18th 2008


2299 Comments


good review, I think you've captured its sound pretty well.
I do really like the album right now, yet it seems like it could grow off rather quickly. And I guess a little knowledge of whatever language the girl's speaking would increase the impact a lot. As it is, this is a bold experiment, and the blending of those genres that couldn't be more different from each other does work very well. But I guess the spoken passages could really become annoying after too many listens.

Sk0rpi0n
September 25th 2008


38 Comments


Nice review. I'm checking this out now and wondering how it fits best into the post rock category, but after just a couple songs I'd have to agree with Mendigo that you've pigeon holed the sound quite well.


Prophet178
July 26th 2009


6397 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

What a mess of an album. I think simultaneously listening to Sigur ros, Breach, Cult of Luna, Mono, Mogwai at the same time would sound better than this.

Plutonio
March 14th 2010


474 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Great album.

Enotron
November 26th 2010


7695 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

on the first track, holy shit i like this

FourSquare20
December 10th 2010


320 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

On first listen I thought this was great.. Could see it growing off of me though.

railpressureflip
December 11th 2010


6 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

This album grew on me. Slowly.

Now I'm in absolute love with it.





FourSquare20
December 13th 2010


320 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

On my second listen, and this is still really good.

FourSquare20
December 14th 2010


320 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Correction: This is album is fucking awesome.

AztecChieftain
February 17th 2011


57 Comments


SUFFOCATE
FOR FUCKS SAKE FUCKING DIE ALREADY

DarkNoctus
May 28th 2011


12357 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

god damn I love how raw this sounds



brilliance :]

Digging: Ataraxie - Le D?é?clin



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