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ZERO TOLERANCE(UK)
As evidenced on this, their Herculean debut, Suma are emphatic warlords of ominous, Melvinoid sprawl; these blacker-than sabbath nihilists have successfully unleashed a genuine colossus of truculent misanthropy; burgeoning with glacial hefts of mordant, confrontational dirge. Let The Churches Burn is an apocalyptic cumulus of pendulous dirt-metal, where bilious rants collide against megalithic bass and fearsome percussive shunt.(Yet another prime example of remorseless skull-buggery from master engine-ear, Billy Anderson.) Consider the subcutaneous malaise of repeated claw-hammering to the face and you remain painfully short of the cumulative impact of Let The Churches Burn. Suma make Isis sound like Klause Wunderlich.
TERRORIZER(UK)There..s a riff that kicks in around the three-minute mark of the opening track of the Let The Churches Burn, which they obviously repeat a few times over, that would describe this motherload of an album better than any review. It swings, sleazily, almost nonchalantly, while simultaneously crushing all in its path. Such is the strength of Suma..s music: simplicity and heaviness. Most of these eight long, Billy Anderson-produced songs are based around one riff, which mutates, grows and degenerates into a hell of a racket as the songs go by. Further enriched by really spooky sampling and a few harsh drone parts, it..s like Sunn0))) inviting High On Fire instead of Boris for a collaboration album. Despite the predominant sludgy mid-pace, the dynamics are exellent with the help of the drones, the structure is subtle enough for you to forget that they..re repeating the same riff for minutes at a time and the offen effect-laden vocals are spot on to amplify the bludgeoning effect of the music.
GROOVE(SVERIGE)
Det mullrar i marken och saker faller ner från hyllorna, nånstans ifrån kommer trummor, massor av trummor, himlen mörknar och ett regn börjar falla.
Suma från Sverige härjar nånstans i landskapet mellan Neurosis och Sunn0))) och gör det riktigt, riktigt bra. Det är tungt som fan, laddat, intensivt och aldrig tråkigt. När man spelar sådan här musik är det lätt att man försvinner ut i nån slags metalversion av hippieflum, men Suma har hela tiden ögonen på målet och manglar medvetet lyssnaren precis dit de vill. Det är mycket prat-samplingar på skivan, men de tar aldrig uppmärksamhet från helheten utan passar in perfekt. Hälften av låtarna är över tio minuter varav skivans sista ligger på 18.
COREandCO WEBZINE(FRANCE)Attention, détracteurs de musiques ....lourdes.... qui s'étirent sur pas mal de minutes, passez tout de suite votre chemin ! Ce "Let the churches burn" (tout un programme !) est le deuxième album des suédois de SUMA (aux côtés de plusieurs 7"), qui officient dans un registre très... Lent.
L'artwork psychédélique (signé Dr JOVAN) du digipack nous mets tout de suite dans l'ambiance, avec ses couleurs grises et noires, son dessin sombre sur 3 volets et la blatte au dos (qui semble être ....la marque.... de fabrique du combo). Et musicalement on démarre sur des larsens étouffés accompagnés de samples de voix bidouillés, et la batterie arrive. Elle s'accélère un peu, et la basse bien grasse vient s'ajouter à la guitare. La voix ne fait son apparition qu'au bout de 4 minutes, le temps que le sludge de SUMA se mette parfaitement en place. C'est lent, c'est lourd, et c'est bon !
Le rythme s'accélère parfois (enfin pas énormément non plus), sur "Hypno assassin" par exemple où le côté noise du groupe ressort énormément grâce à cela. Mais ça n'empêche pas le combo de partir dans des passages beaucoup plus doom, voire complètement drone à ..la SUNN O..))). Heureusement (pour moi en tout cas), ce n'est pas la majeure partie du disque. Non c'est vraiment le côté sludge qui ressort pour ma part, et ELECTRIC WIZARD a certainement été une bonne influence ici. De toutes façons, une fois au bout du premier titre éponyme (c'est à dire 11 minutes 15 après), on sait que l'on va prendre un plaisir malsain à écouter tout ça. Car SUMA réussit à varier les riffs, les rythmes, tout en restant dans un aspect radicalement sombre et heavy. La voix, toujours avec des effets, peut s'absenter durant pas mal de minutes et réaparaitre sans que ça ne choque.
Pour couronner le tout, si je vous dit que c'est Billy ANDERSON (déjà responsable de cds des MELVINS ou NEUROSIS entre autres) qui a produit tout ça, et donc que le son est énorme, je pense que ça devrait finir de vous tenter !
Rarement un disque n'aura été aussi sombre, lourd, lent et violent à la fois ; les SUMA dégagent une sacrée puissance de leurs morceaux et explosent tout jusqu'au dernier titre de 17 minutes, doom/drone au possible, avec sa guitare lancinante et sa batterie sous mixée qui donne un résultat éprouvant à écouter jusqu'à la fin, qui nous épuise pour nous mettre KO.
(English version – done by Yan a.k.a Grim Reefer.)
Beware you contemptors of slow and languid music stretching forth at a snail's pace: keep out of Suma's Let the Churches Burn (what an hell of a program!), their second album (along several ..7"..) cause those guys play slower than slow.
Dr Jovan's psychedelic artwork which adorns the digipack sets us directly in the mood thanks to black and greys, 3 folded painting and the bands cockroach pet. The music starts with muffled feedback and twisted voice sample then come the drums, slowly gathering speed at which point the greasy bass joins the guitar. Vocals appear only at 4 min once the sludge has taken its shape. It is Slow, Heavy and it feels Good.
Sometimes bursts of speed make the band's noisy side stand out (Hypno Assassin), other times they wallow in doom dirges bordering on drone. Fortunately enough (in my opinion) those moments are not prevalent on the album as it is the sludge that comes forward most of the time: the musicians have assimilated their Electric Wizard influence very well; and after the 11 minutes mark of the first song you know you will enjoy a morbid sense of pleasure cause Suma manages to alternate different riffs and rhythms while maintaining a dark and heavy vibe. Fxed vocals can disappear and suddenly pop up without an unsettling feeling. The icing on the cake is the fact that Billy Anderson (Melvins, Neurosis) took care of the production duties so the sound is HUGE!
Suma is dark, heavy, slow and violent throughout the record until the las cut, a 17+ min doom/drone affair which will get you KO with its hypnotic guitars and drums buried in the mix
NINEHERTZ(UK)
After being transfixed by the amazing Toner Low album, I found myself with an appetite for more devilish doom drone. No sooner had I reviewed that and 'Let the Churches Burn' arrived, as if summoned by my dark thoughts. By the end of the opening title track (eleven minutes later), my need for a fix had been satiated. Massive riffs collide with a bludgeoning percussion, the effect laden vocals scream out at you as the Mogadon-ic slow pace and perfect production (courtesy of the one and only Billy Anderson) create a menacing, grime-laden doom classic.
Similar moments can be found across the album's length, all interspersed with Sunn0))) style drone passages. The resulting dirge is hypnotic yet through headphones it's denseness can feel claustrophobic. The samples used suppliment the anti-religious mood eminating from the lyrics, and of course the album title, as well as providing a contrast to the Jus Oborn-style vocals. Electric Wizard seem to have a definite influence on the music as well, their darkest moments feasted upon by Suma for inspiration, and welded to the aforementioned drone sensibilities of restraint, noise and occasional minimalism.
This is an incredibly heavy and dark album. The fact it never really hits the heights (or, to put it more appropriately, plunges the depths) of the opening track is testament only to the quality of the beginning. 'Let the Churches Burn' is an immense record that fans of the sonic extremeties of doom should be aware of.
EARSHOT(AUSTRIA)Behold! For it is the end of mankind. The blood red horizon darkens as a behemoth as large as a continent covers the skies. It is a spaceship shaped like a manta ray, and its pressure wave devastates everything. It is the end. The behemoth has a name: It is SUMA. In its cockpit five guys from sweden, whose mission is to fuse SUNN O)))s apocalyptic apotheosis of string instruments with inhumanly heavy drumming. The doom-Weltmacht invoked hereby can only be described halfway decently by gibberish about space monsters and the end of mankind. Besides the paradigmatic references to O'Malleys holy order, SUMA give you lots of classic heavy doom-groove and EYE HATE GOD-style crust-feeling; in the calmer parts even EARTH-like clarity can be found. All that comes in an enthrallingly mad style the ELECTRIC WIZARD himself could not do better. So clothe yourself in rags, go on a pilgrimage into the desert and form sects to pay homage to the interstellar manta. For SUMAs day is near!
LOWCUT(DENMARK)
I've seen Suma 3 times, and at the moment, they're one of my favourite live bands. The test, then, is whether they can condense the energy of their live show and put it on record, and "Let the Churches Burn" – easily the best album title of the year – passes the exam. You're able to hear more of what they're doing here, some of the finer details that get lost live, like Rick's samples, while they've captured the improvisation of their live shows, most notably in the 17-minute lead-out "… Seems You've Developed an Acid Tongue". Most of the songs centre around a single, heavy riff that's explored for some 10 minutes, while the title track and "Beef" shows more structure, the latter sounding like something High On Fire could've done. The sound of carnivorous, dope smoking Vikings performing Hindu rituals in the woods at night. If they weren't such nice guys, I'd be scared of them. MONOLITH(GREECE) Suma made a big impact in the underground doom scene with their self titled debut in 2003. Back then, they mixed classic Sabbath type riffs with Ufomammut psychadelica. I often thought that the sound on their first album was somewhat misleading and not significant for the style they started adapting after releasing it. (Their debut album has the fattest artwork I've seen to date, any band, any genre). The band moved into really heavy, bombastic sounding psych. Huge monumental sound picture, glancing at aspects of drone as well as noisier sludge and keeping some of the razor riffage. They practically forged a sound completely of their own, becoming one of the most interesting bands of contemporary experimental music. Maybe the most legible difference apart from the style adjustment is singer Jovan's development. This guy can move mountains with his breath and fits the concept perfectly. The heavy effects laid over his voice make the sound trance like. Another fact contributing to this mammoth of an album, also a clearly important one, was that SUMA managed to get fresh ideas into the production by collaborating with engine ear/producer extra ordinaire Billy Anderson. His touch is noticeable throughout the album, but never takes over. A perfect match. The band come to their right when they improvise, jam it up in lengthy sound travels...through outer and inner space, hypnotizing you, making you forget everything else.
SPUTNIKMUSIC
There are bands that do what they do because they like music. There are
bands that do it for the money. There are others that do it as a way of
political and social protest.
And there are a select group that do it as a mean of kicking massive ***, melting brains and because THEY ***ING CAN!
Guess in which group is Suma included?
Seriously, Let the Churches Burn is one of the most honest and
destroying albums I've heard from the 21st century. This guys have a
talent to make anything they play sound like...like rivers of molten
lead descending from crimson clouds and covering the entire city.
Let the Churches Burn, the title track, is the best example of
this and probably the best song off the album. After 3 minutes of slow
build up, there is a precise moment, an atemporal second, when every
instrument stops and then a huge, MASSIVE, JUGGERNAUT riff kicks in and
destroys your body and soul. That single riff is probably the best way
to describe the whole album: a prescence entering the room,
oozing an opressive atmoshpere that will probably squash you to the
floor and leave only a dark spot were your body used to be. The song
shows variety, with a very nice (and unexpected) post-metalish build up
at around 7 minutes, in true Isis and Pelican fashion. However, at
minute 10, another, even more impressive riff breaks the dreamy section
and takes the song back into badassery territory.
Slow, crushing Stoner/Doom metal is what abounds here, but Suma don't
limit themselves to only one style. In fact, this guys make time for
the more atmoshperic, post-metal sounds which are all over the record (I am the Spiritual Shepherd, Al Quinnab al Hindi, No, you're the Monkey); trippy jamming, sampling n' droning (...Seems you've Developed an Acid Toungue); and even some thrash....wait what? Hypno Assassin sounds like a slowed down version of Exodus and Beef is pure Heavy/Stoner mayhem.
The most impressive thing about this record is the fact that this band...is from Sweden.
Frankly, I can't find any complain about the performance or the
production in this album. Every riff is played A LOT, so there's plenty
of time to enjoy each one of them and the tone of the guitar is just
perfect, drawing as much from Skullflower as from Sleep. The bass is
perfectly audible and a major prescence in every song, and the druming
is quite good too, with lots of crash work and typical Stoner style.
A chapter apart deserves Jovan, the vocalist. His style is usually a
scream in the vein of Electric Wizard, but his performance here is the
best suiting I've heard in a Stoner/Doom album, ever.
I'll try to close this one here. The reason why I gave this a 4.5 score
is that, in spite of not making anything (very) new, Suma has achieved
what could be called the pinnacle of a style. Merging all the popular
trends in extreme metal of this decade (Sludge, Drone, Doom,
Post-Metal, some Thrash) this people have created a masterpiece. I
can't explain how my neck hurt after I banged my head nonstop to the
first two songs; how my mind started wandering during the darkness of
Blood Pony; how I started solo-pogoing with Beef; how astonished I was
with ...Acid Toungue....
....and how excited I was when I started listening from the first song all over again.
METAL-ARCHIVES
Suma are a real unexpected surprise and surely a good argument for
piracy. A chance downloading on a blog has ultimately revealed a band
that is well worth dedicating time and money too; a real hidden gem of
a band that if there was any justice would be up there with Sleep and
what not.
Not that it real sounds like Sleep, or any band really; there's a big
melting pot of bands here that come together and form something rather
new and pretty exciting. The clean parts and more atmospheric moments
suggest some love for Isis and Neurosis, the slow waves of crunching
guitars remind you of Sleep, and there's also heaps of Electric Wizard
in the mix. It's not the most complex sound ever but it's still a
rather rewarding one.
I guess the thing that really brings this band into the upper echelons
of it's craft is that the long songs have been pulled off. Obviously
doom requires long-ish songs; pulling off a bunch of 10 minute + stuff
is not an easy feat. Suma make it look fairly easy; whether it's one of
those aforementioned ten minute doom dirges or some of the quicker,
riffier songs the tunes are pulled off with a real sort of aplomb. It's
an impressive feat, no doubt; few bands have the ability to make a song
as long as these guys do, and there's not an ounce of quality
sacrificed. I think one thing that helps is the often use of some sort
of theme- a home base for the guys to return to, a beat for the drums
to fall back on etc., so that it's all kept focused but also hypnotic
and trance inducing.
It's all strange, uneasy stuff. With the exception of "Spiritual
Shepherd" and a few parts scattered around elsewhere, there's not much
that's particularly melodic or easy to get into. It sounds like
dopesmoker era Sleep on a rather bad trip; fair less about trancing and
more about being nervous and edgy; more about wrestling the demons in
your head then following the smoke to a riff filled land. I works well
for these guys though; the vocalist doesn't seem like he could do a
Matt Pike, and certainly his angry, disembodied vocals (EW influence
coming again) that float in the mix wouldn't be best at delivering
ancient weed-wisdom.
It's just a real excellent album, and certainly more dynamic and
changing then the Sleep/EW axis of stoner/doom. Tempos vary, clean
parts come in and out, solos float around in the air for a while before
disappearing back into the ether. Combined with the huge riffing and
the solid songwriting, and there's some seriously hypnotic stuff on
offer here. You'd be a full to pass it up.
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