Suffocated - 窒息乐队 in Chinese - is one of the earliest melodic death metal bands in the Beijing scene. It is generally agreed upon that their early work is thrash metal, though judging by their 2006 debut album 'Dead Wind Rising' - which, admittedly, was released ten years after the band was established - it was more of a groovy death/thrash thing that could have been the lost Sepultura album released between 'Arise' and 'Chaos A.D.'. Since then, they gradually transformed into a melodic death metal band, though still with pronounced thrash elements in the riff work.
Given my preferences, it might be quite surprising that I'm particularly fond of their most recent release 'Infinity', as it's pretty much a full-on melodeath album, with symphonic elements they never really had before and occasionally more prominent Chinese melodies. The latter might be a result of guitarist Kòu Zhēngyǔ having played with Chun Qiu, but that's just guesswork from my end. As far as the catchier part of melodic death metal goes, this is excellent stuff.
Recommended to fans of Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, early mid-period Sepultura, and mid-period Testament. Here's some videos in reverse chronological order:
Given my preferences, it might be quite surprising that I'm particularly fond of their most recent release 'Infinity', as it's pretty much a full-on melodeath album, with symphonic elements they never really had before and occasionally more prominent Chinese melodies. The latter might be a result of guitarist Kòu Zhēngyǔ having played with Chun Qiu, but that's just guesswork from my end. As far as the catchier part of melodic death metal goes, this is excellent stuff.
Recommended to fans of Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, early mid-period Sepultura, and mid-period Testament. Here's some videos in reverse chronological order:
If you can't get enough of me giving my opinions without having asked for it, you can read more of it on my Kevy Metal webzine.
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