Susperia
Cut From Stone Candlelight Records

by Matthew Hoffman
Staff Writer

Comments: Norway’s five piece metal band Susperia returns with their fourth full length release entitled Cut from Stone on Candlelight Records. The brand of music played by these vicious Scandinavians is melodic black/thrash metal.

Labeled all over the internet as a combination of Testament and Pantera mixed with a dash of Norwegian melody, these boys had a lot to live up to as the laser scanned the plastic disc.

The comparisons did not ring true to this discerning ear but that does not necessarily denote a bad thing. What you do have is the heaviest, best thrash metal CD we have seen in quite a while.

Produced by Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Soilwork, Meshuggah) this CD has a wonderful combination of melodies while still being totally pernicious. No guitar down tuning bullshit here, they blaze and soar in every track.

The first cut is “More” and is heavy as hell. Monster guitar riffs of Terje Andersen and Christian Hagen emanate from the murk and mire and the drumming of Kenneth Achesson (Dimmu Borgir) is as intense as it gets.

The second cut “Lackluster Days” is where the big hooks and tight clean melodies come in making this band worth the price of admission. Hagen and Andersen torture more hellacious riffs but also lace this bitch up one side and down the other with the nice leads.

The powerhouse start of “The Clone” is slow and heavy and then the fast rocket propelled beats hit you square in the chops. Achesson is at his best on the skins and the vocals of Pal Mathisen are diverse and true. The riffs at the end are reminiscent of the New Jersey band Havochate (which includes Testament's bassist Greg Christian).

Traditionally sung vocals are really well done in the beginning of “Distant Memory” a track that has some of the best guitar sounds of the year in metal. The tuning of those instruments is killer. Included are some raucous riffs, a clean terrific solo and a bit o’ shred. This song is thrash personified but even a Bay Area Connoisseur would be hard pressed to say that it reminds them of any specific band.

A deeper bass guitar led fuck-fest starts out peeling the enamel from your teeth from the initial fat-string tap of “Release.” Bassist Håkon Didriksen is deeper then pure hell; Hagen and Andersen's vicious chops and deeply sung vocals from Mathisen succeed at creating one of the albums best songs. There is also a nicely handled guitar solo for good measure.

“Life Deprived” is a special cut with Accheson showing his top-shelf drum talents and clean guitar mixing with those beats in a down right outrageous success. A lead guitar piece played two and a half minutes in is fucking awesome without being overbearing or masturbatory. This is an instant melodic death metal classic, hell yeah!

The rest of the record kicks ass and takes names in just as unique a way, and shows this bands tremendous diversity.

Get your online and buy this God forsaken release, and you will not regret one damn beat of it. And guitarheads don’t forget to buy the hand lotion as well.

Susperia is a dominant thrash/death/black/extreme metal band and Cut from Stone is a candidate for Album of The Year.

Band Members
Kenneth Åkesson- Drums
Pål Mathisen- Vocals
Terje Andersen- Guitar
Håkon Didriksen- Bass
Christian Hagen- Guitar

Track listing:
1. More
2. Lackluster Day
3. The Clone
4. Distant Memory
5. Release
6. Life Deprived
7. Between the Lines
8. Bound to Come
9. Under
10. Brother
11. Cut from Stone

HRH rating: 8.4/10