CONTEST CLOSED! Attention Horror-Loving Musicians! Win a New Guitar Courtesy of Beatdown Band Suffokate!

Steve Barton |

Sep 27, 2011

Post Thumb:

/sep11/suffokatethumb.jpg

Here at Dread Central we’re still trying to figure out how much music coverage, if any, you guys want. But when we get the opportunity to participate in a very cool contest that provides one of our readers the chance to win a new guitar, we figure we ought to jump on it. Read on for the details of how you could win a Fernandes electric guitar from the band Suffokate in honor of their new album, Return to Despair, dropping on Tuesday, September 27th.

You can see below a photo of the grand prize along with a video for the band’s latest single, “My Darkened Eyes.” In addition, five runners-up will receive Suffokate t-shirts. To enter for a chance to win, just send us an E-MAIL HERE including your FULL NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS. We’ll take care of the rest.

The new album represents what guitarist Taylor Jones boldly calls the band’s “finest moment.” For the past nine years Suffokate, which now includes members from across San Diego, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California, were proudly doing what they called “beatdown” music, using the technicality and speed of death metal with hardcore breakdowns to induce mosh mayhem. Of Return to Despair, Jones says, “This is more of a dark album lyrically and musically with more metal and less of just breakdown after breakdown.” Now armed with new second guitarist Chris Simmons (formerly of Sea of Treachery), songs like the first single, “The Hole Beneath” (see that below also), are lethally heavy and speedy without the traditional breakdowns of the band’s past.

Rounded out by Ricky Hoover (vocals) and Lars Diaz (drums), Suffokate began in 2002 while Jones was still in high school. “We originally formed as a hardcore band; there was a great hardcore scene in the Bay Area at that time. The metal influence crept in, and we didn’t have a name for it because there was no death-core scene so we called it beatdown music.”

The band can be found on the Mediaskare Records label. For more info, including upcoming tour dates, visit the official Suffokate Facebook page.