Artist: Suicide Silence
Label: Century Media
Release: 2008
Rating: 2.5/5
Suicide Silence are a band from the US (California). Their album “The Cleansing”, the follow-up to the EP “Suicide Silence” (2002), came out last September in North America, where releases like this often beat the European market to the punch. In its first week it landed at number 94 on Billboard’s “Top 200” chart, the highest placement ever for a debut album by any band that has put out a record on Century Media. The debut sold a whopping 7,250 copies in its first week, no more, no less. Pretty impressive for the underground death/grind/hardcore genre Suicide Silence work in, no doubt about it.
Built on a foundation of death metal, with Mitch Lucker’s vocals cutting in through a mix of growls and high, ear-piercing screams, the album is executed at a technically demanding level. The base of down-tuned guitar riffs, which butcher their way through and fill most of the sonic picture, leans carefully on a solidly built rhythm section, where the sheer tonnage of the blast beats, in all its mercilessness, even takes over the spotlight a few times. The most interesting thing about all of it is Lucker’s voice, which can switch up its tone and approach in an instant and brings the most dynamics to the record. Mitch masterfully flips between godless growls and the more “melodic”, “easier on the ears” side, where he unloads his fury through higher-pitched, soaring screams.
The problem with this album isn’t that it’s not technically well played. It has an excellent raw, possessive and dirty live-sounding production, and the brutality the band tries to push at the listener to every extreme works exceptionally well. The problem is how relentlessly repetitive and predictable it is. It’s completely one-dimensional. The vocal approach and the riffing are fully laid bare already in the opener Unanswered, which is also one of the album’s highlights. From there on, “The Cleansing” slowly loses its credibility under the weight of its repetition. The next problem is that the band brings absolutely no innovation. Suicide Silence are more the type to follow in the footsteps of All Shall Parish, Ion Dissonance or Despised Icon, trying to cover that up by conjuring extremely brutal atmospheres through all-out chopping and singing at the top of their lungs, which is of course largely patched up by the rich technical toolkit that recording studios spoil you with these days.
The band also has a very good feel for writing convincingly mocking, rebellious verses that glitter in the glow of the final doom of humanity’s self-destructive nature. Agony, fear and helplessness are skillfully recoded on the album into an extreme of ear-splitting rage, bloodlust for revenge and destruction. “The Cleansing” doesn’t bring anything new, but as a debut it’s a really solid album, one with which Suicide Silence have finally taken their first steady steps. What the band needs going forward is more sonic and stylistic identity of their own, but for fans of the genre, they’re absolutely a band worth trying out.
Line-up
Mitch Lucker – vocals
Chris Garza – guitar
Mark Heylum – guitar
Mike Bodkins – bass guitar
Alex Lopez – drums
Production
John Travis
Tracklist
1. Revelations (intro)
2. Unanswered
3. Hands Of A Killer
4. The Price Of Beauty
5. The Fallen
6. No Pity For A Coward
7. The Disease
8. Bludgeoned To Death
9. Girl Of Glass
10. In A Photograph
11. Eyes Sewn Shut
12. Green Monster
Album length: 44.02
