Suffocation unleashed a clutch of recordings in the ’90s that, in addition to kick-starting the brutal and technical death-metal scenes, would seep into the DNA of grindcore and deathcore. On its 1991 debut, Effigy of the Forgotten, and 1995’s Pierced from Within, the Long Island-based group sounds as if it’s testing the limits of human endurance. The growls would shred the vocal cords of most mortals, the low-end chugging incessantly shifts gears, and the breakdown-riddled songwriting reaches levels of jolting sophistication. Like many death-metal pioneers, Suffocation called it quits just when fans started embracing other forms of extreme metal in the late ’90s. But guitarist Terrance Hobbs and howler Frank Mullen revived their band in 2003, eventually dropping slabs like 2009’s Blood Oath and 2013’s Pinnacle of Bedlam whose commercial success signaled a major resurgence for the genre.