Band:	Suffering Hour
Album:	Dwell
Style:	Black metal, Death metal
Release date:	April 05, 2019
A review by:	nikarg

01. Dwell

In the metal world of today, it is common for bands to opt either for riffs or for atmosphere. If you want to have your cake and eat it too, invest in Suffering Hour because they excel at both.

Suffering Hour surfaced in the beginning of this decade and have so far released their proggy and thrashy death metal Foreseeing Exemptions To A Dismal Beyond EP and their blackened death metal full-length debut, In Passing Ascension. I strongly urge you to listen to both immediately, if you haven't yet. Now, their latest offering is entitled Dwell and it is a one-song EP that clocks in at just over 18 minutes.

It seems long to you? Well, I wish it went on forever.

The guitar chords in the beginning of the track foretell the ominous voyage that you are about to embark on. The melody is soon seamlessly reinforced with tremolo picking until the bass and the drums kick in, and the whole thing transitions into a doomy riff that drills through walls of cement. The wormhole that appears leads to a tunnel where total madness is expressed with the blending of dissonant harmonies and monstrous riffs that evoke Deathspell Omega, Inquisition, Incantation and Dead Congregation. There is a certain illusion of order in an otherwise anxiety-provoking chaotic extremity, where you feel like you are the protagonist in an extraterrestrial chase and the music leads you to either run for your life while trapped in a shifting maze, or stand still and catch your breath in a state of disorientation and paranoid preparedness.

The atmosphere is unhinged, compelling and claustrophobic, relying on the thick -as if immersed in tar- sound, as well as the inspired and unconventional songwriting, which maintains fluidity despite the numerous build-ups, explosions and unexpected releases. The band's complex and progressive brand of blackened death metal has you wondering what they are going to come up with next, so that throughout the song's duration there is never a dull moment or a part that could have been omitted. "Dwell" is a challenging song that takes different forms, all bizarrely captivating and dense, and its swirling, unpredictable and immersive nature is sure to blow any extreme metal fan's mind.

I've been sitting on this review for what seems like forever because when I first came across Dwell I was overly enthusiastic and wanted to see if and how my impression of it would change with the passing of time before writing about it. I have now had countless listens and the result is this fanboyish dithyrambic piece. You must have noticed that I have stopped rating albums in my reviews for a while now but even back when I did, I never gave any release full marks. Well, there is a first time for everything.

"Submit to the boundless"