The Pitch: California deathcore darlings Suicide Silence ruffle some feathers with their latest self titled release through Nuclear Blast.
Summary: Let me start by saying that I was one of the few who defended "Doris." I credited the band for trying something different instead of taking the easy route of rehashing a sound already in heavy rotation. Furthermore, I found it amusing that Eddie got so much crap for the same "teehees" and "ohs" that Chino of Deftones has been getting away with for years. Why is it ok for one and not the other? I'm not going to try to justify "Silence." That song is irredeemably bad, but let's move on to the deeper cuts.
As the album progresses, I'm hearing some pretty interesting fusions. Both "Listen" and "Dying in a Red Room" sound like a mixture of Korn with Mike Patton's work with Tomahawk. While I can understand the elitist deathcore fans crying foul for these songs straying a LONG way from the genre, I don't find that to be fair grounds to call these bad songs. Quite to the contrary, I actually enjoy them. Maybe it's my biased love for all things 90's, but I don't think that I'm alone in this. Even when the nu-metal influences pick up on the chaotic "Hold Me Up, Hold Me Down," I find the purposefully raw and unpolished delivery to be a welcome reprieve from the endless hordes of overly processed major label metal acts out there.
Think critically here. Would you have preferred Suicide Silence take the Whitechapel route by delivering a mediocre effort that is just more of the same (aside from the handful of clean vocals)? Would you as a band member enjoy writing the same song over and over again? No. Does this mean I think that Suicide Silence is a stellar album above criticism? No. As time wears on, the experimentation does go a bit off the rails. "Run" and "The Zero" are mediocre at best, and "Conformity" just sounds like a Stone Sour outtake; though it's not without its merits. Eddie doesn't have a horrible voice, and aping Patton and Taylor isn't a bad way to go in terms of influences. The odd approach to the guitar also has a certain otherworldly effect.
The Verdict: So what do I think of Suicide Silence as a whole? I have to give credit where it's due. While it may not pack the aggressive grooves and growls of the band's early work, I think it is the best move they could have made at this point in their career. You Can't Stop Me was, in my opinion, an all-time low point for the group. It was time to make some changes. And while these new directions may not always work out perfectly, I have more songs I actually want to come back to. More importantly, I think this release opens a lot of doors for these musicians to take more risks and tighten up their game as more than just a by-the-numbers deathcore act. Haters gon' hate, SS...don't be bullied into conformity.
Flight's Fav's: Listen, Dying in a Red Room, Hold Me Up, Hold Me Down