With their debut album, "Effigy of the Forgotten", Suffocation rose to prominence of death metal and created a blueprint for the genre for the 1990s, retaining their style after the reunion in 2003. "Decibel Magazine" stated: ""Effigy of the Forgotten" was a benchmark for extreme music, as it sacrificed neither virtuosity or brutality, becoming a signpost for thousands who were still contemplating how to incorporate scalar runs, rapid-fire palm-muting and hummingbird-wing-quick picking into riffs, while opening up rhythmic dimensions and the scope of the blast beat."