(NCS writer BadWolf has a few thoughts about the new album from Suicide Silence.)
The Black Crown is absolutely Suicide Silence’s most enjoyable record, but it appeals in no way to the group’s traditionalist detractors, which is an asset. The band has absolutely no reason to kowtow: If they make a traditional DM record—which would amount to career suicide from a commercial standpoint—the same cadre of tunnel-vision morons would continue ripping them apart for their past, their taste in Justin Bieber haircuts, their love of neck tattoos.
Haters, acknowledge the progress Mick Lurch and co have made as songwriters in four years: Their debut, The Cleansing, was an overstuffed slop-bucket of random note runs pretending to be riffs; its saving grace is a series of youtube-approved sing-along breakdown-choruses.
Fast forward. Suicide Silence is now a full-blown pop metal band. This is an improvement—pop demands the cleanliness and simplicity they lacked. The redeeming quality SS had at the start was precisely what people hate them for; of course they capitalized on their strengths and reforged the aforementioned breakdowns into choruses and easy riffs.
In other words, Suicide Silence have come out of the closet as careerists. (more after the jump . . .)
Consider how hard that must be with how many warts remain on them. Lurch aside, SS are not pleasant to look at (this is crucial when marketing to teenage girls). Lurch defaults to his high-pitched shriek, which is even more nasal than before. The end product is–here’s a word I rarely use to describe metal–sassy.
This record is ideal for working out, ghost-riding my whip past senior citizens with oxygen tanks, and little else. The content is immediate but shallow. Its attempts at seriousness and depth fall flat, even the autobiographical “OCD.” It’s difficult to take a record seriously when it preoccupies itself with anti-drug messages, only to advocate “hard living” and saying “fuck everything” minutes later.
The best pop musicians, even careerist ones, exceed the tropes of their genres (Prince 75% of the time; Lady Gaga 25% of the time), where Suicide Silence embrace them. The best pop metal bands transcend themselves and their peers–this is how The Deftones have kept their career going strong when the remainder of their breed are on life support. Suicide Silence may join such ranks in the future, but to do so they will need to do more than successfully print pink versions of their logo on Hot Topic underwear.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Century Media Records will release The Black Crown on July 12. Stream a track from the album here (and check out Big Chocolate‘s remix of another one here):
25 Responses to “SUICIDE SILENCE: “THE BLACK CROWN””
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I have nothing intelligent to add to this…BadWolf has continued his excellent streak of excellence with excellent reviews.
But at the 2:40 mark (or there abouts), I totally swear the singer fellow is saying: “You only get one shot, go fuck your dad.”
????
He’s actually saying, “you only live once, so just go fucking nuts”, but this song would have been 10 times better if he’d said “go fuck your dad”. To see all of the eloquent, timeless lyrics for this song, here’s the “official lyric video”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlm5DJK3-zw
One of the many ideological inconsistencies present in this–and their last–record.
I believe on the last one they had, back to back, a song about how hallucinogens are bad, a song about how shooting up heroin is bad, and a song about how smoking too much weed is the best decision they ever made.
They never expand on the difference between them. It’s just declarative extreme, declarative extreme ad infinitum..
At least the fuckin’ Nacht were consistent with their stance “Drugs are bad, but we do them anyway, because we hate ourselves.”
I can kind of understand being against heroin. Scratch that–I can totally understand being against heroin, if only because Requiem for a Dream still makes me wanna curl up into a ball and scream. But how is HTC not a fucking hallucinogen??
THC. Clearly the Taiwanese cellphone company is not hallucinogenic.
I don’t think that’s so clear.
………
Does that say something about you or HTC’s phones…???
http://app.hd7apps.com/hallucinogen-for-htc-hd7-8499
Just sayin . . .
I’m not going to watch the lyrics video…
Unlessssssssss…..
I’ve attempted to rewrite the lyrics to be more father centric.
Too bad they didn’t release this before father’s day.
I may have messed up some of the rhythms and syllable counts, but I’m not perfectionist. And you shouldn’t be either.
Push your sis’, push your mother aside.
Erase your porn hard drive and leave just one pic’ of your dad.
You only live once so just go suck his nuts.
Live life hard.
Live life hard.
You’re gon’ get one facial.
So shed all o’ your clothes and make his dick hard.
With every stroke you make, his balls getting’ wetter.
You only get one chance.
You kneel.
Let’s take this chance right now, let’s suck.
You only live one life.
For the rest of time.
So make every second divine.
Go!
Live life hard.
Live life hard.
No cum bubbling?
With his dick up shov’d up inside
That throbs deep inside.
And for the very first time you’re feeling hard.
So surrender everything to his big hairy balls.
As everyone
Watches you suck dad’s dick.
Watches you suck dad’s dick.
Licking his dick outside.
Watches you suck dad’s dick.
Licking his dick outside.
Erase everything inside.
Erase everything inside.
Erase everything inside and just take this chance.
You’re gon’ get one facial.
You only live once so just go fuck your dad
You only live once so just go fuck your dad
You only live once, go fuck your dad
You only live once so just go fuck your dad
Live life hard
Live life hard
Live life hard
Live life hard
I’d like to note that there were a number of lines that did not require any change on my part.
Particularly: Live life hard.
REALLY????
This rivals the sonnets of Shakespeare. So moving. So ethereally beautiful. So vividly rendered. I haven’t read anything this eloquent since the last time I had to use the bathroom at a truck stop.
Well, I had to work within the confines of the source material!
I couldn’t very well go off writing about the rivulets of crimson love pouring down the double backed bastard brute of Aphrodites wanton urges and still keep true to the Suicide Silence ethos!
“ghost-riding my whip past senior citizens with oxygen tanks” – nice one, dude. LMAO!
I have nothing intellectual to add to this, either (have I ever had anything relevant to say??) But I’ve heard this album, front to back, and it is complete garbage. I don’t understand how so many people on the interwebs can make such declarations as, “Well, these guys may fall short in song writing, but they can definitely play their instruments.” REALLY? This is the WORST musicianship I have ever heard. Nothing about them or their sound is musical to me in any way, shape or form. The riffs just sound like bar-chord, muddled and sludgy garbage to me with no clarity and zero sense of cohesiveness.
I’ve had the misfortune to see these gentleman twice, once opening for the Mighty Carcass, and once as a headliner (I went to see Conducting From The Grave, who opened for them). Maybe my opinion of them is partly biased because I’m still irritated they tried so hard to fuck my girlfriend (but failed miserably). But this also happens to be the worst live act I’ve ever seen, and believe me, I’ve seen’em all. I digress, this band is complete rubbish and the members within are douche bags.
Mitch is the only one with a Bieber-esque haircut…
Dear god you want there to be more than one?
More of whom? Bieber? Or Mitch? Or are you referring to the possibility of more Mitchs in Suicide Silence?
Respectively: No, no stance, and no.
Well… to be honest, I guess I wouldn’t care about another Bieber because I don’t listen to his music in the first place, so yeah… I don’t really have a problem with Mitch, just that he looks emo to me. I prefer a Suicide Silence that has a metal to emo ratio of 4:1. I mean aesthetically, the beardo isn’t exactly emo-looking, neither are the other three. I kind of like Suicide Silence but don’t at the same time… there’s a constant ambivalence I feel for them, with dislike and like for them shifting throughout time.
Confession is good for the soul: So I confess that I like the music of Suicide Silence, including their debut album. However, I wish that Mitch looked like guitarist Mark Heylman.
YES! Mark is my favorite member of SS cuz o’ that beard. Am I the only one that noticed the coincidence that he and Mark Morton are both lead guitarists, have awesome beards and are both named Mark?
Separated at birth.
My inner metalhead wishes i looked like Mark, but my inner asshole who loves scene pussy wishes I looked like Mick,
Thank you for my first belly-laugh of the day.
Ok. I’m gonna’ admit it. I like this song.
Have you tried any “Bleed From Within”?
Still definitely deathcore, and follows a similar formula of 4 metal looking “bros” on instruments, scene-y looking dude on vocals. But doesn’t delve into the lowest common denominator crap like SS.
I admit, I have a soft spot for them. Not a great band, but worth checking out if you like the style!