Suffering (Reissue)

Putrid Offal

PUTRID OFFAL, a French death metal band, offer up this EP before their full-length "Mature […]
By H. P. Buttcraft
January 20, 2015
Putrid Offal - Suffering (Reissue) album cover

PUTRID OFFAL, a French death metal band, offer up this EP before their full-length "Mature Necropsy" which is slated to be released this year, marking the band's first full-length album since their formation in 1991. This EP, aptly titled "Suffering", comes with three versions of the song "Suffering". It serves itself to its audience as a sort of history lesson for death metal fans. Although the three versions of the song have a twenty-three year difference separating them, I still think the 2014 demo version of "Suffering" is a good example of the condensed and claustrophobic mastering death metal fans could hear on most albums released in the first decade of the twenty-first century. And the two cleanest-sounding tracks on "Suffering", the full-length version of the title track and "Livor Mortis", are demonstrations of how acute the recording of PUTRID OFFAL has been refined.

One thing that stands out about the 1991 demo version of "Suffering" is the vocals. They are derivative of the vocals you'd hear on an OBITUARY song. Being recorded in 1991, perhaps its because the band was so influenced by OBITUARY that they decided to incorporate this influence into the original performance of "Suffering" You can see that its pretty much the main element missing from the other two, more recent versions of the same song on this EP. The subtle mixing of the 2014 album version and the 2014 demo version of "Suffering" make the renditions hard to differentiate. But you can tell that the bass and guitar levels are much more compressed and dampened for the 2014 demo version.

There really is only so much a critic can say about two songs with the title track clocking in at less than two minutes. PUTRID OFFAL have certainly come a long way since their formation in the early 1990s and this EP is a great example on how the band, its musical abilities and access to recording equipment has changed over a period of over two decades.

7 / 10

Good

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"Suffering (Reissue)" Track-listing:

1. Suffering (2014 version, taken from the full-length "Mature Necropsy")
2. Suffering (2014 demo Version)
3. Suffering (1991 demo Version)
4. Livor Mortis

Putrid Offal Lineup:

Philippe Reinhalter - Guitars
Franck Peiffer - Guitar. Vocals, Programming
Fred Houriez - Bass
Laye Louhenapessy - Drums

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