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Band: Suffering Souls
Album title: In Synergy Obscene
Release date: 25 January 2019
Label: Schwarzdorn Production
Tracklist:
01. Idolised And Vilified
02. In Synergy Obscene
03. Inheritance Of Irony
04. In Death Reborn
05. As The Truth Unfolds
06. The True Endless
07. The Cynic God
08. All You Little Devils
09. Unseen Phenomenon
After a full decade away from the studio, Suffering Souls main man Tobias "Lord Esgaroth" Micko finally offers up a new album and the time away has not hurt one bit.
The vocals are ripped straight from the Dani Filth playbook of false chord shrieking. Combined with the symphonic playing and emotion, an unknowing metalhead could easily believe this was some old Cradle Of Filth record they overlooked. Meanwhile, the lyrics are precisely what you'd expect from a band of the genre. Topics mainly focus on flirting with gothic culture, death and the complete dismissal of all things theological (with the exemption of the dark lord himself of course).
The first of the two most stand out cuts has to be "Inheritance Of Irony". With seemingly never ending, gorging guitar work, you're left wishing the fade would never come so you could keep drowning in the excess of the moment. On the other end, there's the album closer "Unseen Phenomenon". If this track doesn't become a single, someone made a big uh-oh and deserves a slap on the wrist. This is one of those songs with so much gratuitous energy and melody that it immediately sticks with you. Making it the perfect farewell to this prodigal album.
I find it more than a little difficult to thoroughly enjoy most modern black metal releases. Anyone who follows Black Metal Promotions on YouTube knows that the market is oversaturated with half assed clones of Darkthrone, Marduk and the like. Thankfully, Suffering Souls is not one of these clones. Instead standing more in line with the stronger works of Dimmu Borgir than the likes of Impaled Nazarene, which is absolutely a positive in the current landscape.
Though not the most groundbreaking in terms of theme or sound, there's hardly anything here that could be called bad. All songs range from solid at worst to killer at best. Anyone reading this review while blasting their favorite Satyricon record knows what I mean. Perhaps In Synergy Obscene doesn't redefine the genre, but it doesn't need to. It's one of the most well rounded efforts of black metal - not just symphonic, ALL Black Metal - that I've heard in the last couple years.
Review written by: Will Ring
Rating: 8,5/10
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