Suffocation delivers straight ahead death metal with technical expertise and solid songwriting. The songs are precise, yet extremely heavy. They avoid the trap of monotony by changing tempos regularly. The title track is a powerful opener, dense and brutal, but with a hint of melody.
“Images Of Purgatory” has a nice guitar solo in additional to some crushing riffs. “Mental Hemmorhage” slows the tempo down to an oppressive crawl before taking off. “Undeserving” takes the opposite approach, galloping along at a brisk tempo before slamming on the brakes for an interlude of sonic demolition, then putting the hammer down again.
Frank Mullen is an excellent death metal vocalist. He varies the emotion of his powerful growls, and his delivery allows you to actually understand the lyrics. Guitarists Terrance Hobbs and Guy Marchais have an arsenal of catchy riffs, squeals, fills and solos. Blood Oath is an extreme and well done slab of death metal, exactly what you’d expect from a band of Suffocation’s caliber.
(released July 14, 2009 on Nuclear Blast Records)
