Metal Martyr recently conducted an interview with SUFFOCATION vocalist Frank Mullen. An excerpt is available below.

Metal Martyr: You guys just signed to Nuclear Blast Records a little less than a year ago. What kind of opportunities has that maybe afforded you that you may not have had in the past?

Frank Mullen: "You know, I don't think it really changes anything as far as opportunities go. Pretty much every label we've been on have been good labels with Roadrunner and Relapse. We signed a two-year deal with Relapse and we just wanted to see how things worked out. After we were done with Relapse, we figured we'd start looking around for a new label and Nuclear Blast has been around forever and they've wanted to talk to us in the past about coming aboard and we talked to them and they came up with a nice package and it's pretty much like a one-album deal and we'll take it from there and see how it goes."

Metal Martyr: Coming up in the New York City death metal scene, it didn't break out as much as let's say the Florida death metal scene with the exception of CANNIBAL CORPSE, who came out of Buffalo. I don't mean to compare you guys to them, but do you think if you guys came out of the Florida scene, do think you'd be bigger than what you are today?

Frank Mullen: "I don’t think so. I think what made it unique about coming out of the NY scene was that we had a different sound and approach to the music. I think that’s what made us unique. I think what hurt us at the beginning was, you know, I was newly married and had a child and I couldn’t tour the way that those bands could. Death metal at that point didn’t make any money. You went out on tour and you might only make like $2000 on tour for an entire month, so it’s like, and I had good job at home and you just can’t do that when you have a family to support. I think that more or less what hurt us as far as going to the next level like the bands coming out of Florida, because you know, they had the opportunity to tour like crazy and it really blew up in the scene."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Upcoming Suffocation live dates include:

April (with WHITECHAPEL, DECREPIT BIRTH, VEIL OF MAYA, PSYCROPTIC)

1 - Club Sound - Salt Lake City, UT
2 - The Black Sheep - Colorado Springs, CO
3 - Tequila Jungle - Lubbock, TX
4 - Red Seven - Austin, TX
5 - El Cine Rey Theatre - McAllen, TX
6 - Java Jazz - Houston, TX
7 - The Village - Little Rock, AR
8 - The Muse - Nashville, TN
9 - The Valarium - Knoxville, TN (with Chimaira)
10 - Emerson Theatre - Indianapolis, IN
11 - The Loft - Madison, WI
12 - The Pearl Room - Mokena, IL
14 - Crazy Donkey - Long Island, NY
15 - Maverick’s - Ottawa, ON
16 - Le Medley - Montreal, QC (with The Haunted, Nachtmystium, Intronaut)
17 - The Palladium - Worcester, MA (New England Metal Fest)
18 - Crocodile Rock Café - Allentown, PA