Awakening of the Rebel

Internal Suffering, one of the absolute KINGS of brutal death metal, returned in 2006 with their 4th full-length offering, "Awakening of the Rebel". Undeniably their best offering to date. This album alone seals the deal on why I fucking adore the hell out of this band. This record sucker punches you in the face with unrelenting brutality right from the get-go. Zero warning, face first into the violent storm.

This band is already known for their nonstop blasting brutality across every release, but with this album, it's brought to it's greatest potential thanks to producer Erik Rutan. This is most definitely my favorite work of his when it comes to his production. Internal Suffering was already rocking hard and killing it on their own, but with the appearence of Rutan to help with the production, it brought the band to much greater heights, and this album; their undethroneable PEAK. Sure, this record still would've killed it without Rutan producing it, but man, it's so great mainly because of Rutan. The thick snare and kick drum tones really fit well with the bands' style. Relentless gravity blasts, normal blasts, and double kicks are amplified in greatness due to how amazing, clean, thick, and heavy it all sounds. The production is the sole reason why I consider this album to be the epitome of absolute perfection, but even without Rutan's master craft, the drumming alone is also what I praise so much. How nonstop and in your face it is, every beat played is so clean and smooth. Seriously some of my favorite drumming of all time right here. And the fact that the master Rutan came to make it sound even better and enhance it to more perfection, makes this record so perfect and surpasses many others for me.

When you take the drumming, the overall production (mainly the drums I'm focusing on), the nasty and insane monstrous gutturals, the wizard ass riffs that sound like they're putting spells on you, you get an absolute fucking beast of a record. Awakening of the Rebel is a MONSTROUS masterpiece that stimulates and keeps the listener focused and interested the entire length through. There's not one single second on this album that isnt an absolute fucking storm, throwing many things in your face trying to kill you as you walk through it!!! A vision I picture while listening to this is a demon king (vocals) coming down from above, commanding evil spells to be put onto you, the evil spells being the wizard riffs, at a maximum intense unrelenting forceful speed (the drumming). Insane.

On Chaotic Matrix, they had a mucky and more rawer sounding production, similar to Wormed's first album for example; which is what Chaotic Matrix is known and highly regarded for. Then with Awakening they had a similar idea but in a different area; they went for a cleaner production but with amped up bass and thickness, which equals more BRUTALITY. It made EVERYTHING even more insane, and more in your face, more than before. With every release, it's quite evident that this band knows what they like and what they want when thinking about how they want their records to sound, ESPECIALLY on this album here. Boy, this perfect 27 mins of absolute fucking brutality never fails to entertain me and shock me with how brutal and insane of an album it is, every single time I listen. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!

Prior to finding out about Internal Suffering I thought quality brutal death metal comes only from coasts of the USA but when it comes to creating some of the craziest, fastest, heaviest and scunt bashingly brutal death metal no one can beat the Columbian dudes either. I came across this band back in 2005 when I picked up their album Choronzonic Force Domination. That album was nothing but face stomping attack of blasting brutality. So I decided to pick up their other albums too. Chaotic Matrix had slightly raw and unprofessional sound but Awakening of The Rebel is by far their finest work to date. This is some mind numbingly brutal death metal that will crush your mind and body into chucks and pieces and send your soul to the same world of demons these guys sing about.

Internal Suffering has released a nice, megaton atomic bomb of head-bashing death metal madness and I fucking love Awakening of The Rebel. It's one of those albums that takes all the best things you love about brutal technical death metal and just rams it down your throat. The song writing is top notch, the music is tight, and the arrangements are varied. All the instruments are perfectly balanced. Internal Suffering knows all the tricks of the trade and delivers them without any flaw. Despite the already tried Suffocation and Immolation elements that are populated throughout the record, this release rarely gets boring. The album may sound a bit too chaotic for some people’s liking but that’s the best thing they do. No one can blast faster and heavier than these guys. One minute you're nodding your head, getting really into a thick solid pit riff and the next you're sitting back in pure awe of a blazing section, shaking your head trying to comprehend the proficiency involved. They brought a new drummer in the lineup on this record and at first I was a bit skeptical this record may sound a bit off-pace and may not be at par with its predecessor but all my fears vanished the moment I popped in the CD and pressed the play button because honestly I’ve never had such rush of adrenaline since Devourment’s Molesting The Decapitated. Top it off with a clean, beefy production brought to the listener by Erik Rutan, awesome cover art with four panel foldout poster and you got a damn fine piece of death metal.

If you're a fan of ultra blasting brutal death metal, you need to get this album as it will cause your brain to melt into a puddle of pink goo leaving you attempting to growl along with the vocals. It's fast, brutal, and unrelenting. If this isn't doing it for you, you're either dead or deaf. Buy it, play it as loud as you can and get ready to be kicked in the nuts.

"I am Ouranos, the child of… CHAOS!"

Well, quite clearly you are. Colombian (though now New Yorker) brutal tech-death stalwarts Internal Suffering have been kicking ass with their pummeling style for a decade this year, and there are no signs of slowing down. With their fourth LP 'Awakening Of The Rebel', Internal Suffering have proven that their special brand of insanity has not grown stale, but the exact opposite: their assault has merely become more focused and refined, exhibiting some of the finest and most schizophrenic death metal this year. I'll pause to let any self-respecting death metal fan run out and pick this up. Go on, I'll wait.

For those of you that aren't clued in to what the kids are listening to these days, Internal Suffering play an extremely pummeling, chaotic, and technical brand of death metal that shows influences from many but devotion to none. The most apt description of the music would be a combination of old Kataklysm with new Origin, resulting in music that infuses ripping technicality into the sort of wide-eyed frenzy that is so rarely seen in death metal these days. The opening title track sets the tone for the rest of the CD: an incredible gravity blast from drummer Fabio Ramirez, buzzsaw riffs from Andres Usma and Andrés Garcia, and some vocals from Fabio Marin that would make Sylvain Houde shit himself in terror at their very intensity. Internal Suffering is a band that has never in their history been at want for a dedication to pointed extremity; except, of course, for always wanting more.

The cover art of this album sums up the content within very well: Swirling, gorgeous chaos with only a tenuous connection to reality. The operative word of this release is most certainly 'chaos'; not a moment goes by without some new, bizarre pattern emerging. Vocals are very frequently double-tracked with high and low pitches, only enhancing the entropy of the musical backing. The technical and physical skill of the musicians is upheld by incredible tracks like 'Masters Of Sorcery', which packs enough machinegun gravity blasting and fretboard gymnastics to suffice for the entire album of a lesser band. 'Awakening Of The Rebel' only gets more intense as it goes on, never letting down for even the briefest reprieve from its invulnerable assault on what we mortals know as 'music'.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as it begins, 'Awakening Of The Rebel' is over. Clocking in at under 28 minutes, the album leaves the listener wanting more. Granted, this is certainly a desirable quality to such music overstaying its welcome, but I can't help but shake the feeling that just a couple more tracks would make the listening experience flawless. Regardless of this complaint, little more needs to be said: 'Awakening Of The Rebel' is a great album from a great band, and most certainly a necessary purchase for any self-respecting fan of extreme music. Buy or die. Just remember that the former will very likely result in the latter.

(Originally written for www.vampire-magazine.com)

I got this disc yesterday, listened to it and realized that while this disc has got some quality moments, overall it is lacking something I hold very precious in brutal death, and that is a bottem end, you know- lots of low frequencies. There is so little bass here (the instrument and the audio spectrum.) While the band spends alot of time bashing out riffs at 100+ mph, the action is all in the low-mid to midrange section of the audio spectrum, so there is not alot holding these songs together, rhythmically or creatively. The opening track, "Thelemite Forces Attack" shows this problem immediately; while the guitar sound is powerful and well eq'ed, and the vocals are low and very guttural, there are no audible bass notes to give the song a complete sound or feeling, like I said, it seems like something is missing. This same situation occurs in the 2nd song "Awakening of The Rebel," which sucks especially here because the vocals are even more brutally belted out on this song, but I could say the same thing for practically every song on the disc - the song structures are extremely technical, and there is ample brutality on all the songs, but man if the bass player was a little more audible this would be one super heavy disc.

There are a couple of fairly strong songs I'd say - trk.3-"Magnificent Uranus Power" - which has killer dynamics between the vocals and the guitar rhythms, and then at :45 breaks down to a vicious skull pounding section that alternates with some great time changes for the rest of the song. #9-"Highest Key of The Illuminati" - this one starts out just fast and pounding, but then changes pace about 1:30 in, and takes the brutal riffing a few steps higher and faster, which has a great effect of making the song ultra brutal. These two songs seem to suffer less from a lack of bass, and these songs to my ear are the most viscious on the release, but even these suffer from 'blur' syndrome - the vocals are great and very brutal, but w/out a totally solid bottom end to tie all the speed to a solid foundation, all that energy ends up loosing its drive, because the rhythm section sounds like it's half gone, If these songs had a heavier production in the bass drum and bass guitar, then I think the album would kill, but as it is, it lacks focus, which sucks because these songs could be alot more powerful.

How this album hasn't been reviewed is beyond my human comprehension. I got this album likes a month ago. I must say, utterly impressed, having owned the 3 full lenghts before this baby called "Awakening Of The Rebel". Internal Suffering hailed from Colombia, but now live in New York, this album is the most brutal incarnation of a band ever. Think of Kataklysm's Sorcery, played at ridiculous speed, and you'll get an idea of what Internal Suffering are....

Let me start by saying, the drumming, oh, the drumming. Fabio completely decimates his drum kit, blasting faster than i have ever heard...im serious i've never heard something this fast, on some parts obviously, he doesn't blast the whole 27 minutes. The vocals are completely utterly, disgusting, but worth mentioning not as brutal as on Chaotic Matrix, mainly because that production reeked on brutality, and has to be heard to be understood, but carrying on. The guitar, it is in the vein of NYDM, the riffs are completely out of this world!!! I mean seriously, this is very different stuff that what im used to from NYDM worshipped Suffocation band's (There is nothing wrong with that anyways). Lirically, the album touches on abstract and epic topics, just look at the song titles: "Masters of Sorcery", "Thelemic Conqueror", occultism is the order of the day, and i welcome it. Production wise, this is the best produced album by the band up-to-date, sounds ugly, but not as ugly as lets say their debut Supreme Knowledge Domain. Notice, how i didn't mention the bass, its because it is completely absent on the album, except maybe on "Ascencion to Inmortality" which its hearable like at the first 2 seconds, then its gone, hehehe.

As previously mentioned, the album lasts a mere 27 and a half minutes, does it bother me? Not really, you will be on your knees by the time this monster has left. The only briefs moments of peace we will get are, the intro, which is skippable, altough i don't do it myself. And the intro to "Evocation Of The Secret Gate", which in case your wondering i will tell you what it says, since its on spanish: (Rough Translation) "It was affirmed that a warlock, whom God had buried in time, and that in some nights evoked, appeared with his blind face. The spectral circle, but in the necrophiliac act, made with the witchcraft a pact, nevertheless, i accuse myself in the depths, by defying stupidly, and made him come from another world." It might sound childish, but i liked it, so hey, it does sound 10 times better in spanish. Now to end this review by saying get this album now, its an understatement, i would say it this way, you like brutal death metal? What the fuck are you doing reading this?! Go! Now!!!!