Suffocation - Up Close & Personal (Starring: Drummer Mike Smith)

Last Sunday (June 26) Technical Death Metal masters Suffocation took over center stage at the Crazy Donkey, in Farmingdale, New York, and delivered a ferocious set to their hometown audience. From the moment they stepped on stage they unleashed a sonic assault that resulted in a lot of face melting within the crowd. The band took the audience through a chaotic roller-coaster which encompassed material from each of their six studio albums. The band was also celebrating guitarists Derek Boyers' birthday, so the crowd sang Happy Birthday to him at full volume.

After 20+ years in the business, Suffocation is taking time to see if the music industry will help the band take their career to a whole new level so that they can release some new music and go on bigger scale tours. We talked with drummer Mike Smith (interview below) and he confirmed to us that they will finally be releasing a new DVD soon, but that the exact release date can't be confirmed yet, since it depends on the support that they get from the industry. After doing some soul searching, the band is realized that putting so much time and effort for such little results, is not fair to them.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Suffocation Interview
• Mike Smith
• death metal
• extreme metal
• Heavy Metal
• horns up rocks
• Long Island
• the crazy donkey
• suffocation

[asuma04]

Hell yeah! My inspiration, Suffocation is the band that kicked started my desire to pick up the guitar and now I couldn't thank them enough for it.

I also can't wait to finish my Suffocation tattoo! \m/ \m/

[jeffisto]

Technical Death Metal is just 1 band = SUFFOCATION.

the other ones are just tribute bands.

[Zullia]

Usually i have trouble with artists discussing money and whatnot, but Mike is very open and honest about what the economy thing is about, and you realize he's just a blue collar like everybody else. We either get music and we pay them for it, or they go back to regular jobs to support their families.

[ZachMetalAsFuck]

it's hard to explain to people, but he summed it up pretty well..there's a big difference between a musician who trys to write technical music, and a "technical musician" a big part of what he describes about the naturalness is pretty much that .. i can't even write any sort of music without trying to add a unique technical addition to it, because it comes to me naturally. people should find a personal naturalness w/influences from bands you like, rather than a copy w/ur personal influence.

[rricardo1987]

Really humble, down to earth guy, nice guy. One of the best drummers in death metal.

[joblo1978]

@vmdrums Someone has to manage the financial matters. Generally a manager pockets 20% of a bands earning. Money is a huge factor in everything with the economy and media being the way things currently are. Bands NEED money.

[Domination1017]

HIS HAIIIRRR!!!!!!!

[lalalax4321]

so true! the industry does need to give Death Metal recognition because its been around for such a long time and its not like people dont enjoy it, because there is ALOT of people who enjoy it, give the artists the money for their time and work.

[t6r6u6e]

hey, mike smith cut his dreadlocks(((

[MarcoSick86]

00:48 Also Guy cutted his hair!

[vmdrums]

Mike always talk about money... it's just weird.