Because
Susperia include ex-members of
Satyricon (guitarist Terje Andersen, aka Cyrus) and
Dimmu Borgir (drummer Kenneth Åkesson, aka Tjodalv), many people have assumed that their focus is black metal;
Satyricon and
Dimmu Borgir, after all, are among Norway's best-known black metal bands. But even if
Susperia's earlier releases had some relevance to black metal, there is nothing black metal about their fourth full-length album,
Cut from Stone. This 2006 recording/2007 release offers a blend of thrash metal and alternative metal, drawing on influences that include
Sepultura,
Anthrax,
Testament, and Exodus. The songs are melodic yet intense and forceful, and shredding guitars are the rule. Some black metal aficionados who associate Cyrus with
Satyricon and know Tjodalv from
Dimmu Borgir will be disappointed to hear that
Cut from Stone is devoid of black metal content, but then,
Susperia were never a straight-ahead black metal band -- not even in the late '90s -- and they never claimed to be a carbon copy of
Satyricon,
Dimmu Borgir, or anyone else in black metal. Therefore,
Cut from Stone should not be judged by black metal standards (or, for that matter, death metal standards). It needs to be judged by thrash metal/speed metal standards and alternative metal standards, and when those standards are applied, it is clear that
Cut from Stone is a decent thrash/alt-metal effort -- not mind-blowing, but decent. Some of the credit for
Cut from Stone's creative success goes to Daniel Bergstrand, the album's producer. Bergstrand, who has worked with metal bands ranging from
In Flames to
Dark Funeral to
Meshuggah, knows what he's doing -- and his guidance and direction works out fairly well for
Susperia on this 47-minute CD. ~ Alex Henderson