Predominance

There are been a lot of rumors going around this band and Susperia has appeared mystical from the start. Susperia saw the light in September 99, when co-founder of Dimmu Borgir named Tjodalv met Athera at the Wacken Festival that same year and started planning. Tjodalv left Dummi Borgir in March 99 to fully concentrate on Susperia (?!?) as Cyrus and he had started to work together some months earlier. When Tjodalv met Athera, the whole thing was up and running as member Memnock and Elvorn joined in shortly after. After the recording of their demo Illusions Of Evil, they signed with Nuclear Blast. Predominance has been recorded in Abyss Studio with the helping hands of Lars Szöke (Hypocrisy) and the supervision of Peter Tägtgren. The production is really good and the sound is typical to the Abyss Studio. Susperia plays a mixture of black and thrash metal. However, when I close my eyes and listen carefully to this Predominance (this is what I do for each CD I review), Hypocrisy is a bit too present for my taste. Don't misunderstand me, I like Hypocrisy, but this is a Susperia record, isn't it? Well, I don't think it was really intentional from the beginning. Susperia has worked with Lars Szöke and have may be accepted too many ideas from the producer. Anyway, this record still kills and if you like Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child and Hypocrisy, this Predominance deserve to be in your black/thrash metal collection. Just keep in mind Susperia's music is much more "thrashy" compare to Dimmu Borgir or Old Man's Child. For a first shot, this is quite a good one. However, let's hope something more personal will see the light one next record.