Suffer (2006) - Puke In A Bag EP

Scott, singer in Suffer (2006)

The presentation of this recording must be prefaced by a clarification – this act, Suffer, was a short-lived band from 2006 featuring Scott and David from Whalehammer. It is not the band called Suffer who are also from Perth, who exist currently and play awesome Infest-influenced power violence/hardcore. Now, all possible confusion averted, I will procede with the presentation, and all references to a band named Suffer will be related to the band from 2006 featuring Scott and David.

Suffer got together in the summer of 2006, intending to write some songs with the express aims of a.) using downtuned (B, for any guitar jerks reading) electric guitar and b.) sounding brutal. Their main influences were Iron Lung, Pig Destroyer and Eyehategod. Subject matter concerned various aspects of Perth existence, like solvent abuse (‘Puke in a Bag’), getting bashed and then dumped in a Multiskip bin and subsequently being crushed by a rubbish truck (‘Multiskip Coffin Pts 1 and 2’) and chronic weed smoking (‘Rotted Mind’). Having started without a drummer they programmed the beats to the songs using the computer sequencing program Fruity Loops and recorded these tracks. The combination of insanely shattering drum machine, heavy, chaotic riffing by David and hoarse, throaty, weed-ravaged vocalising from Scott displayed on the EP is quite original and cool in my opinion.

After recording the tracks they intended to use them as a demo to find a drummer in order to play live. The concept of playing live with a drum machine was brought up but David was then playing in Extended Summer Surgery who used a drum machine live and was keen to play with a human being. In hindsight that viewpoint was possibly somewhat short-sighted. Needless to say they never found a drummer, Perth being a total sh**hole and all. They did give James Vinciguerra of AIDS, The Collapse, Total Control et al a copy of the demo but he declared the music to be ‘power electronics’, a genre that Suffer were not high-brow enough to be aware of, and declared himself too burned out to take on the project. It was to be his, and the world’s loss. Eventually the impetus faded after a lengthy, fruitless search and the project was abandoned, leaving only the hammering, malignant juggernaught of the ‘Puke In A Bag’ EP behind. Scott and David would later play in Burning Sensation and Whalehammer. Anybody with a healthy appetite for power violence, in-the-red production, down-tuned guitars and epileptic drum machines will no doubt find their new soundtrack to self-mutilation, killing small dogs and smashing buckets upon downloading the Suffer set.

Download the EP from www.doddrell.com/mp3 in the Suffer folder.