''Effigy of the Forgotten'' is the debut full-length album by

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

band

Suffocation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

, released in 1991. The cover artwork was created by

Dan Seagrave Daniel Seagrave (born 1970) is a British artist, who created many record covers for death metal bands especially in the early 1990s. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in Ravenshead, near Nottingham. Seagrave's works are typically ...

. Several of the tracks had appeared on earlier releases: "Reincremation" and "Involuntary Slaughter" were re-recorded from the ''Reincremation'' demo, while "Infecting the Crypts", "Mass Obliteration", and "Jesus Wept" appeared originally on the ''

Human Waste Human waste (or human excreta) refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and faeces. As part of a sanitation system that is in place, human waste is collected, transported, treated a ...

'' EP. Both this album and ''

Pierced from Within ''Pierced from Within'' is the third album by the death metal band Suffocation, released in 1995. "Synthetically Revived" is a re-recording of the song of the same name from the '' Human Waste'' EP and "Breeding the Spawn" is a re-recording of ...

'' have been re-released by

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. History The label was launched in 1980 in t ...

as part of the Two from the Vault series. The album was dedicated to the memory of fellow metal band

Atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

's bassist Roger Patterson, who had been killed in a car crash earlier in 1991.

Musical style

''Effigy of the Forgotten'' is considered to be a death metal album with a highly sophisticated level of technical proficiency. The guitars, which are tuned to C Standard (four halfsteps down from

standard tuning In music, standard tuning refers to the typical Musical tuning, tuning of a string instrument. This notion is contrary to that of scordatura, i.e. an alternate tuning designated to modify either the timbre or technical capabilities of the desired i ...

) feature fast

palm muted The palm mute is a playing technique for guitar and bass guitar, executed by placing the side of the picking hand below the little finger across the strings to be plucked, very close to the bridge, and then plucking the strings while the damp ...

riffing,

tremolo picking Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs alternating downward and upward strokes in a continuous fashion. If the technique is performed at high speed on a single string or course voicing the same note, it may be referred to ...

as well as

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...

s. The drumming involves

blast beat A blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal,Adam MacGregor, ''PCP Torpedo'' by Agoraphobic Nosebleed rev ...

s and quick fills. The

breakdown Breakdown may refer to: Breaking down *Breakdown (vehicle), failure of a motor vehicle in such a way that it cannot be operated *Chemical decomposition, also called chemical breakdown, the breakdown of a substance into simpler components *Decompo ...

riff found in the hook of "Liege of Inveracity" has been credited as the first slam riff in death metal, later inspiring an offshoot of death metal known as slam death metal.

Track listing

Personnel

Suffocation *

Frank Mullen Francis P.Mull Eugene Mullen (born January 2, 1970) is an American vocalist, best known as the former frontman for the New York technical death metal band Suffocation. He is one of the first vocalists to introduce low-pitched growling vocals int ...

– vocals *

Terrance Hobbs Terrance Hobbs (born April 6, 1970) is an American musician and the lead guitarist in the American death metal band Suffocation. Hobbs has been a constant member in the band since their first released title ''Reincremated'' along with band mat ...

– lead guitar *

Doug Cerrito Doug Cerrito (born November 1970) is an American musician best known as the former guitarist for New York death metal band Suffocation from 1990 until their split in 1998. He also played on death metal band Hate Eternal Hate Eternal is a de ...

– rhythm guitar *Josh Barohn – bass * Mike Smith – drums Guest musician *

George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher George Fisher (born July 8, 1970), better known by his stage name Corpsegrinder, is an American death metal vocalist who is the lead singer of Cannibal Corpse, Paths of Possession and the supergroup Serpentine Dominion. He recorded two album ...

– guest vocals on "Reincremation" and "Mass Obliteration." Production * Scott Burns – production, engineering, mixing *Eddy Schreyer – mastering *

– artwork

References

{{Authority control Suffocation (band) albums Albums with cover art by Dan Seagrave Roadrunner Records albums Albums produced by Scott Burns (record producer) 1991 debut albums