Suffokate

With the release of their second full-length, and their first in five years, Oakland, CA's Suffokate must feel like they have something to prove. They are so hell-bent on showing the fruits of their labour from years of touring that No Mercy, No Forgiveness sounds like the result of a band with a lot of talent but a serious case of attention deficit disorder. There are great breakdowns, weighty riffs and solid vocals from Ricky Hoover, cool additional shrieks (à la Napalm Death's Mitch Harris) from bassist Bray Almini, but they are muddled in tracks where there's no discernable middle or end ― or point. There's a great deal of promise, as they have the deathcore structure down pat, thankfully more on the death side than the hardcore, but if the relatively new band had a bit more patience the album would be solid.