If its shocking that straight ahead, early 90s style death metal has had this long of a shelf life, the fact that there are bands out there still doing it warrants a kind of grudging admiration. Even the most diehard aficionados would be the first to admit that variety isnt exactly high on the list of the genres appealing qualities at least not the traditional brand for which Suffocation has become so iconic. By the same token, its not for nothing that this veteran act and key figure in the first wave of American death metal continues to exert such a profound influence over other bands even after twenty years. Not to mention that, for a band thats essentially made a career out of repeating itself, Suffocation still sounds vital and hungry. 2009s Close of a Chapter, a live album recorded four years earlier in 2005, captures modern-day Suffo in all its stick-to-your-guns glory. In a sense, though Suffocation epitomizes death metal and all its inherent, self-imposed limits, the band also transcends them with its highly (though often discreetly) technical approach to playing and song structure. And, for whatever intangible reason, vocalist Frank Mullens horror/gore fixations always seem to rise above mere shock for its own sake. With Devil Driver, Goatwhore, Thy Will Be Done, Dying To Bleed. All ages. SABY REYES-KULKARNI
Tue., Jan. 12, 6 p.m., 2010
