Review: “Self Titled” by Suppressant

Suppressant. Noun. ‘A drug or other substance used to suppress or restrain something‘. Also an Australian three piece Grindcore band started sometime in 2016 who have regularly thrown out EPs and splits with the likes of John Howard, Blight Worms and Milat since. Some of those have been available on cassette but their latest burnt offering, a self titled record, originally released at the end of June has now surfaced on 7″ vinyl, courtesy of Grindhead Records in Australia and Psychocontrol Records in Czech Republic. Recorded by Jay Whalley and mixed by his partner in crime Clem Bennett at The Pet Food Factory (Chinese Burns Unit, The Neptune Power Federation, C.O.F.F.I.N) and mastered by Jake Randall at Sol Audio, it offers eleven cuts with none reaching the 80 second milestone…

That’s right folks, while it qualifies as an album for streaming statistics due to surpassing seven tracks, what Suppressant have given us is in point of fact eight minutes and twenty nine sections in duration. It’s a Grindcore record. What did you expect? It should be shorter than a poison dwarf armed for the apocalypse and ready to bash your skull in if you so much as even flinch. Opening cut “Torture” is has a slower Groove laden riff in the first few moments that might give you a false impression. The second half has all the blast beats and brutal screams of pure hated that you’d expect before “Extinction Level Paralysis” gives the knuckle duster punch full in the face. For the rest of the record, the nose is broken and bleeding while the ears ring, the listener once a prize fighter, collapsing in the corner, defeated by the trauma of the events they’ve just witnessed. Raw around the edges with a fuzzy HM-2 buzzsaw fuzz style Swedish Death Metal inspired guitar tone, there are actually a few Hardcore Punk riffs in the mix. The rest is a feral rampage through pure unadulterated abrasions, the bowel clenching lows on cuts like “Forgotten Side” balanced out by some shriller blood gargling vocals. To use another metaphor, it’s like someone screamed “hold on to your hats boys, we’re going down” as the band go hell for leather, playing as fast as they can while dancing on hold coals as the aircraft they’re flying on enters a nose dive. There are some influences in Napalm Death and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, blink and you’ll miss them. One of those fleeting moments in life, this is one of those records that arsonists get the same thrill as they do starting fires from. We imagine. [7/10]

Track Listing

1. Torture
2. Extinction Level Paralysis
3. Designed Obsolescence
4. Let Them Rot
5. Pending Eratication
6. Forgotten Side
7. Warpath To Self Destruction
8. Descending
9. Sheer Failure
10. Dressing Up The Abattoir
11. Narcotise

“Self Titled” by Suppressant is available in 7″ Vinyl from 3rd August 2023 via Grindhead Records and Psychocontrol Records over at bandcamp.