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Suma - Ashes (2010)

Posted By: robixn
Suma - Ashes (2010)

Suma - Ashes (2010)
EAC Rip | FLAC, CUE+LOG | 381 MB | Full Scans (300dpi) | Wupload/ Filesonic
Stoner/ Doom/ Noise Metal | Speakerphone Recordings, Dial 034 CD

Coming from the Sons Of Otis school of COSMIC DOOM, this is Suma's third LP, and with its five tracks adding up to over an hour, 'Ashes' is a seriously daunting proposition.

A massive slab of crushing doom

It’s easy to forget just how much of an influence Neurosis has actually had on heavy music until you encounter a band that evokes that instantly recognisable Neurosis sound like Sweden’s Suma do. Don’t see this observation as a casting of aspersions on Suma however but rather as a compliment because, even though they do channel the familiar sound pioneered by Neurosis, they are far from copycats and instead use the style as a building block from which to construct their brand of crushingly heavy doom.

The use of percussion as a primary instrument in the doom genre isn’t exactly something out of the ordinary these days but it is still just rare enough to make an impact when it is done (correctly that is). Suma appear to be acutely aware of this fact by making excellent use of drummer Erik to create the weighty underpinning of the material on Ashes, much in the same way the tribally inspired percussion drove the material on Neurosis’ Through Silver in Blood album for example. The sound of the drums themselves is utterly massive and features prominently in the mix with not only a spacious and open quality but also with just enough reverb to really allow those slow and plodding beats to ring out and forge the monstrous atmosphere that is such an important aspect of the album as a whole.

In true doom style the five songs on offer have an average running time of around 12 minutes each (though there are two tracks that run shy of 10 minutes) and are driven by powerful riffs of a breadth and scope befitting the length of the tracks they comprise, frequently channelling a drone-like quality though not at the expense of actual musicality and effective melodic progression. It is hardly unheard of to have tracks that run for 15 odd minutes within the genre but it is a much rarer skill to be able to compose material that can span that duration without resorting to needless repetition or padding and, thankfully, Suma are on the top of their game in this regard with the album never once feeling as though it has outstayed its welcome. There is a natural order to things on Ashes and Suma appears to be consciously aware of it at all times and it’s actually quite a testament to the band that they can take an album of such considerable length and leave the listener not wanting the experience to end once it has finished playing.

In spite of the expansive and massively slow and weighty atmosphere on Ashes there is, conversely, an underlying urgency that exists just below the surface that is, perhaps, one of the reasons the pacing and playability of the album are both so strong. Vocalist Jovan is the major stoker of this particular fire, not only through his performance and style which is of the not quite screaming but kind of yelling variety but also through the placement of his vocals in the mix, sitting at a level that gives the impression that he is straining to be heard above the aural onslaught that is threatening to swallow him up without warning.

While technically it’s true that what Suma are doing within the doom genre isn’t exactly revolutionary it’s somewhat of a moot point when you consider just how well they actually do it. Originality is a rare commodity these days and is ultimately irrelevant when staring into the face of a collection of songs as good as the ones Suma have compiled on Ashes.

-Michael O'Brien, themetalforge.com
Tracklist:

1. Headwound (6:43)
2. Ashes (13:25)
3. Orissa (17:09)
4. Justice (9:31)
5. War On Drugs (15:01)

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 2 from 29. April 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 6. August 2011, 18:40

Suma / Ashes

Used drive : _NEC DVD+-RW ND-3650A Adapter: 4 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:43.55 | 0 | 30279
2 | 6:43.55 | 13:25.64 | 30280 | 90718
3 | 20:09.44 | 17:09.51 | 90719 | 167944
4 | 37:19.20 | 9:31.26 | 167945 | 210795
5 | 46:50.46 | 15:01.13 | 210796 | 278383


Track 1

Filename C:\Users\Robin\Music\Lossless Robin\Suma - Ashes (2010) [FLAC + Scans]\01 Headwound.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 44DBD0CB
Copy CRC 44DBD0CB
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\Robin\Music\Lossless Robin\Suma - Ashes (2010) [FLAC + Scans]\02 Ashes.wav

Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 6.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C09E28E3
Copy CRC C09E28E3
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\Robin\Music\Lossless Robin\Suma - Ashes (2010) [FLAC + Scans]\03 Orissa.wav

Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 7.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D951800D
Copy CRC D951800D
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\Robin\Music\Lossless Robin\Suma - Ashes (2010) [FLAC + Scans]\04 Justice.wav

Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 7.4 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 6FDBE1F8
Copy CRC 6FDBE1F8
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\Users\Robin\Music\Lossless Robin\Suma - Ashes (2010) [FLAC + Scans]\05 War On Drugs.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 9.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A7E17355
Copy CRC A7E17355
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK


None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum 4C348EDFAA87FD0C82F1B582CDC59E534DC7944A712C5ED2B84AFF51AD3BEABB ====


Line-up:

CD version released by band's own label Speakerphone Recordings.

Recorded and mixed in five days at Mission Hall on a two inch tape end of september '09.
Engine-eared by Billy Anderson, produced by Billy Anderson & Suma.

Wupload Download
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Scans


Filesonic Download
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Scans