History Music / Suffocation

* BigApplesauce: Not from the city proper (they hail from Long Island), but it's where they got famous. Also, there's Frank Mullen's famous thick accent, which is frequently the butt of jokes. Subverted with Boyer and Morotti, who live out in California (Boyer) and up in [[CanadaEh Ottawa]] (Morotti).

* DeathMetal: Arguably the UrExample of the sub-sub genre of brutal death, as well as laying the groundwork for what would become slam.

* TokenMinority: Terrance the only African American in this band after Mike left the band.

* Dave Culross – drums (1996–1998, 2012–2014)

* {{Gorn}}: Downplayed. While some of the band's songs can be very graphic, they do not use this trope as much as other death metal bands.

* IAmTheBand: Terrance the only original member of the band and remains the most frequent songwriter.

* ButNotTooBlack: Averted with Mike Smith, who was exceptionally dark-skinned while playing in a mainly white and Hispanic genre. Hobbs is somewhat lighter, but he is also the main creative force.

* BaldOfAuthority: Partially the case with Terrance Hobbs; while he still has his trademark cornrows, they have turned into a quasi-skullet with age.

* BookEnds: ''Souls To Deny'' begins and ends with the same riff. Since the opening is a fade-in and closing a fade-out, this also creates a loop if one chooses to put the full album on repeat.

* RefusalOfTheCall: Kevin Muller. The job was his and he was apparently the guy who Frank truly wanted to take his spot, but after about six months on the road, he realized that he just didn't want a career in music and wanted to pursue his own endeavors, so he bid them farewell and stepped down.

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Partially the case with Terrance Hobbs; while he still has his trademark cornrows, they have turned into a quasi-skullet with age.

* AbsenteeActor: Frank in varying degrees since 2013. At the start, he still toured and only did certain stretches, and [[Music/DyingFetus John Gallagher]] only did part of his first tour after his reduction in activity. By 2015, he was only doing fests and extremely short runs, and by 2016, he was down to fests and hometown shows. This is due to a mix of his job growing less accommodating with time-off requests and general burnout; he still enjoys playing live, but he enjoys partying more than the daily grind of the road and the long drives, neverending connecting flights, and lengthy downtime in general, and he's more than happy to leave the road life to Hobbs and the rest of the band. As of November 2018, he is out for good.

* RapunzelHair: Derek Boyer and Ricky Myers. Ironically, Frank also qualified when he was younger; promo pics and live footage from the 1990s showed that he had long, stringy blond hair. Come the reunion, and it was obvious that he had chopped it off because he had started balding.

* FanNickname: "Frank the Tank" for Frank and "Man Bun" for Eric (which has been officially adopted by Terrance).
* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Terrance
** TheLancer: Charlie
** TheSmartGuy: Derek
** TheBigGuy: Eric
** [[SixthRanger Fifth Ranger]]: Ricky

* TokenMinority: Terrance Hobbs and Mike Smith were among the first black artists in extreme metal (Katon W. De Pena of Hirax, Wallace Milton of Internal Bleeding, Aantar Coates of Exmortis and later Diabolic, Beelzeebubth of Mystifier, and Caller of the Storms of Blasphemy also got their start around the same time and earlier, but none of them were quite as high-profile) and, along with [[Music/{{Sepultura}} Derrick Green]], [[Music/{{Oceano}} Adam Warren]], [[Music/{{Aborted}} Mendel bij de Leij]], [[Music/{{Inferi}} Malcolm Pugh]], Chason Westmoreland, and the aforementioned Caller of the Storms, are still among the most famous.

* {{Deathcore}}: Not themselves by any means, but their diistinct style of technical yet percussive riffing proved influential to the genre.

[[caption-width-right:320:The band in 1991, their most famous lineup.[[note]]Clockwise from bottom left: Terrance Hobbs (guitars), Doug Cerrito (guitars), Josh Barohn (bass), Mike Smith (drums), Frank Mullen (vocals).]]

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Terrance Hobbs is heading here; while he still has his trademark cornrows, they have turned into a quasi-skullet thanks to an ever-growing bald spot.
* BigApplesauce: Not from the city proper (they hail from Long Island), but it's where they got famous. Also, there's Frank Mullen's famous accent, which is frequently the butt of jokes. Subverted with Boyer and Morotti, who live out in California (Boyer) and up in [[CanadaEh Ottawa]] (Morotti).

* {{Deathcore}}: Not themselves by any means, but they proved VERY influential to the genre.
* DeathMetal: Arguably the UrExample of brutal death, as well as laying the groundwork for what would become slam.

* EpicRocking: "Immortality Condemned" (6:05) and "Suspended in Tribulation" (6:31). Surprisingly rare for a tech band.

* IAmTheBand: Terrance the only original member of the band.
* IconicItem: Terrance Hobbs' custom B.C. Rich Warlock (notable for its reverse-pointed headstock) and glasses are both instantly recognizable, though he has switched to a Legator Ninja circa 2017.

* MisogynySong: An interesting case as it is clear that these are horror stories rather than promotion of said ideal, but still qualify:
** "Marital Decimation" plays with this, with the protagonist being DrivenToSuicide out of horror from the alcohol-fueled brutal murder of his wife and subsequent desecration of her corpse. That said, it still describes said mutilation in detail.
** "Entrails of You" is a straighter example, though the protagonist there is quite obviously insane and possibly having a psychotic break.

* TokenMinority: Terrance Hobbs and Mike Smith were among the first (if not ''the'' first) black people in extreme metal (Katon W. De Pena of Hirax, Wallace Milton of Internal Bleeding, Aantar Coates of Exmortis and later Diabolic, Beelzeebubth of Mystifier, and Caller of the Storms of Blasphemy also got their start around the same time, but none of them were quite as high-profile) and, along with [[Music/{{Sepultura}} Derrick Green]], [[Music/{{Oceano}} Adam Warren]], [[Music/{{Aborted}} Mendel bij de Leij]], [[Music/{{Inferi}} Malcolm Pugh]], Chason Westmoreland, and the aforementioned Caller of the Storms, are still among the most famous.

[[caption-width-right:320:With album covers like this, you know you're signing up for...]]

* BaldOfAwesome: Frank Mullen post-reunion and Charlie Errigo.
** BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Terrance Hobbs is heading here; while he still has his trademark cornrows, they have turned into a quasi-skullet thanks to an ever-growing bald spot.

* Ricky Myers – vocals (2014-2016, 2018-present)
* Kevin Muller - vocals (2017)

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Hard 9 on the demos before ''Effigy'', 11 on ''Effigy'' itself, and a hard 10 afterwards.

* TeenGenius: Mike Smith was only eighteen when he joined and recorded ''Effigy'' when he was nineteen, while Dave Culross gained a reputation as one of the best drummers in the entire tri-state area while he was still a teenager.