Suffer/Wallow – Suffer/Wallow – Album Review

For their debut album, Suffer/Wallow have decided to base their songs around the effects of sleep paralysis on the human mind. Not your typical subject matter that’s for sure and it’s a good job they play sludge – with a little side helping of hardcore – because it suits the subject matter perfectly!

Starting off with the unsettling “Suffer/Wallow, Alexandra Faulds – Forebode”, this short instrumental brings to mind “The Doorway” by Neurosis with its simple, repetitive riff slapping you around the face while the tension builds to a crescendo of white noise and static.

And so it continues over the following ten tracks, with James Podmore screaming himself hoarse amidst an album built on bleak emotion and raw pain. The perfect example of which is first single “Deadweight”, while “Deprevation”, on the other hand, sounds almost joyous compared to what has come before…..that is until the lyrics bring you back down into Suffer/Wallow’s pit of despair.

Anyone who has suffered from sleep paralysis knows all too well the clawing claustrophobia and the feeling of dread and terror it inflicts on the poor unfortunate soul suffering. Rest assured (no pun particularly intended), from the filth encrusted, tsunami-inducing music to the aforementioned pained vocals, the lads in Suffer/Wallow have captured the horrors of this condition flawlessly! 8/10

Suffer/Wallow is available now via Bandcamp