Suicidal Tendencies - 13
Back when I was in High School, some two and a half decades ago, all of the skater kids were into Crossover, particularly bands like D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies. The first Suicidal album was fucking classic. It was all rage and aggression. It wasn’t technical. It wasn’t even very original. It was, however, totally fucking awesome. Every skater kid I knew had a Suicidal Tendencies sticker on their board and had scrawled the word “Suicidal” on the underside of the brim of their baseball caps. Fast forward to 2013. It’s been decades since I’ve cared about Suicidal Tendencies, mostly because their sound gradually changed from straight-out Punk/Thrash Crossover to incorporating other influences, mostly Funk and some Hip-Hop stuff too. Their rage diminished with each successive LP and after a while, I didn’t even bother with them anymore. Mike Muir soldiered on, though. All of the other members of the band have gone, but he’s still at it. As a vocalist, he gives an admirable performance. It’s been decades since he was an angry teenager that raged against the world. He can still push a song along with the sheer force of his personality and his own personal anger. It’s too bad that the rest of the band lacks his enthusiasm. This doesn’t exactly sound phoned in, but the band chugs along at a steady pace that seems at odds with what Mike wants to do. He wants to play angry Punk Rock like the first Suicidal album. The rest of the guys just aren’t that pissed off. This needed to be faster and more aggressive. It doesn’t work if Suicidal Tendencies isn’t angry at everything and everybody - and from the sound of things, Mike Muir is the only guy that’s pissed off at anything. I’ll give Mike credit for trying. His performance alone makes up the bulk of this rating. The band didn’t help him much, though. If the rest of the group can get a fire lit under their asses, Suicidal will definitely be back.
(4) Comment(s)
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Steve said:
You obviously haven’t seen the live recently. They tear it up live. Watch a few recent videos of them and you will see your way off
admin said:
I’m glad to see that ST is still good live (or back to being good -whatever), but Ychoril’s review was for this album, not their live performance.
Ychoril said:
Maybe a rawer or more “live” production would’ve been better for this album. If this current incarnation of the band can tear it up on stage, they may have lost some of that fire by having a slicker, more polished sound.
OnlyInDeath said:
Having recently seen ST I can agree they’re able to tear it up live (Mike’s hilarious dancing being a highlight)...
But at least at the show I went to, they also played old songs nearly exclusively, which I think it’s an important distinction. The weakness in this album is a flaw of the songs themselves; the few they did play were the low points of the set.
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