New York death metal pioneers SUFFOCATION will release a live album, “Live In North America”, on November 12 via Nuclear Blast Records. The official music video for the first single, “Funeral Inception”, featuring photographs taken by Jason Carlson, can be seen below.
SUFFOCATION created the template for the brutal death metal genre in the early 1990s. Landmark albums such as “Effigy Of The Forgotten” and “Pierced From Within” also went on to inspire the birth of the tech-death and slam death metal genres. With the departure of original vocalist Frank Mullen, the band marks an end of an era with a live album recorded live during his last North American tour. Mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson (BEYOND CREATION, CRYPTOPSY), this release plays like a “best of” and is the perfect farewell to one of the most influential singers in extreme music. The artwork for the album was created by Jon Zig.
SUFFOCATION guitarist Terrance Hobbs comments: “We couldn’t be more excited to bring our fans our new live CD ‘Live In North America’ featuring Frank Mullen‘s last performances with SUFFOCATION. We couldn’t think of a better way to wish Frank a fantastic farewell into retirement for all his contributions to this band as a great frontman, influence, and friend — and to also share this farewell with the fans, new and old, who have been there for us over the decades. We hope the fans will hold Frank‘s last recorded live tour with us close to your hearts as we do. As another chapter from SUFFOCATION closes, we are more than ready and anxious to bring you more new music and classic death metal in the upcoming months and years. So keep your eyes and ears open, stay heavy and play it loud…. see you all on the road!”
“Live In North America” track listing:
01. Thrones Of Blood
02. Effigy Of The Forgotten
03. Funeral Inception
04. Pierced From Within
05. Surgery Of Impalement
06. Dismal Dream
07. Jesus Wept
08. As Grace Descends
09. Liege Of Inveracity
10. Breeding The Spawn
11. Catatonia
12. Souls To Deny
13. Infecting The Crypts
In a 2019 interview with Heavy New York, SUFFOCATION bassist Derek Boyer stated about Mullen‘s departure: “Frank knew for a long time that he was going to be out. But he kind of just got it to the point where this was a good time for him to make it an official farewell run. I think ‘…Of The Dark Light’ was an intentional last record for him. He just knew when the time was right, he was going to step down, it was just ‘…Of The Dark Light’ was the record that was his last record.”
For the last several years, SUFFOCATION has been using fill-in vocalists to accommodate Mullen‘s work schedule and aversion to long bouts of touring. According to Boyer, SUFFOCATION is “not done” playing shows and will continue to make albums now that the frontman has made his exit official. “Frank, we knew he’s been talking about being done for a while,” Boyer said. “It’s one of those things you’re definitely going to get another record out of the band. It’s been tough jumping through hoops with ‘Who’s going to do this?’ We have Ricky Myers from California, who’s been doing a lot of the stuff for us. He’s doing really well right now. You’ll be seeing SUFFOCATION coming through your town. That’s not going to stop. You’ll see another record. We’re not going to skip a beat. Frank is awesome. He’s going to be missed, but the band is still a driving force.”
“…Of The Dark Light”, was produced by the band and tracked at Full Force Studios with longtime engineer Joe Cincotta (OBITUARY). Mixing and mastering was handled by world-renowned producer/engineer Chris “Zeuss” Harris (HATEBREED, ARSIS, SUICIDE SILENCE). Cover artwork was created by Colin Marks (ORIGIN, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, KATAKLYSM).
