Suicidal Tendencies “13” Album Review
After more than 30 years together, Suicidal Tendencies, the most prolific band to mix hardcore with thrash metal, have just released their first album of all new material in 13 years. The album is appropriately called 13 and is out now on their own label, Suicidal.
Track List
1. “Shake It Out”
2. “Smash It!”
3. “This Ain’t A Celebration”
4. “God Only Knows Who I Am”
5. “Make Your Stand!”
6. “Who’s Afraid?”
7. “Show Some Love…Tear It Down”
8. “Cyco Style”
9. “Slam City”
10. “Till My Last Breath”
11. “Living The Fight”
12. “Life…(Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It)
13. “This World”
Like almost everybody who has ever explored any facet of early American hardcore… I love the Suicidal Tendencies self- titled album. “Two Sided Politics” blew my 15 year old mind right through the roof of my over-crowded public school the first time I heard it. That album fucking rules and I still love it. Other than that album and the song “Cyco Vision” (which was in the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game), I haven’t really gave any Suicidal Tendencies material a solid listen, simply because I’m not a huge thrash metal fan.
So the challenge that I had for the entirety of 13 was ignoring the lyrics. With maybe one or two exceptions, I found the lyrics to be boring and a bit ridiculous, and I was hoping that Mike Muir would have a bit more to say after all of these years other than “Smash It” and “Psycho” (shit, my bad “Cyco”). The album kicks off with “Shake it Out”. The riff kind of sounded like, “Kick Out the Jams” by MC5, but the song does open with a pretty cool guitar solo. Muir encourages you to, “Shake your demons out” and tells you, the listener, that he is glad that you are back, which is nice. There is a funny part where Muir asks for a Diet Pepsi (it only makes sense that he’s trying to watch his sugar intake since the original release of “Institutionalized”). By the end of the song, I was fully certain that “Suicidal’s back” because it was repeated over and over again for the entire song. The second song sounds like old ‘80s thrash ala “Kill ‘Em All” and I think it’s one of the best tracks on the album if you ignore the lyrics about moshing. “Smash It” is really fast and the riff is really cool. One thing that I can always appreciate about this band is they always shred and they always have an awesome bass player. I don’t know if the dude plays slap bass or what but I really enjoy the funk influenced bass lines. Like I stated early, I guess I was kind of hoping for a little more substance lyrically from a band that has been around for as long as Suicidal Tendencies.
Suicidal’s initial punk and hardcore influence shows up a little bit in the third song, “This Ain’t A Celebration”. It’s little more repetitive with a simpler riff and some gang vocals. It’s cool, but it’s not the kind of song that I can see myself listening to more than once in a while. That song is followed by the longer, slower, jam “God Only Knows Who I Am”. We are talking multiple guitar solos, some really sick drum fills and minimal vocals, making it one of my favorite songs on the album. Then the almost stoner metal sounding “Make Your Stand!” comes along with a super heavy riff and more jamming coupled with what may very well be the best lyrics on the entire album. In the middle, the tempo increases drastically for maybe 30 seconds and then slows back down and the main riff starts again. The only time that I have the attention span for long songs is when there is some variations in tempo, multiple riffs, etc. and Suicidal definitely got me with this song.
I didn’t really like the song “Who’s Afraid?” until I listened to it while skateboarding, and realized how fucking rad the riff during the chorus is. “Show Some Love…Tear It Down” really didn’t do much for me. The mellow guitar solo in the middle was kind of cool but other than that, I don’t have much love to show (hehe) for this song.
I liked the rest of the album, more or less. The biggest problem that I have is that I am a lyrics guy. Suicidal Tendencies have chops, but to be honest, I think Mike Muir’s lyrics are pretty lame on this album. The music rocks for the most part, and I will definitely blast 13 while I’m in the car or whatever, but this album comes nowhere close to the self- titled record. However, I will say that this album is better than other latter day Suicidal releases like Free Your Soul and Save My Mind. Overall, not a bad release. The “Suicidals”(if they do indeed exist) will obviously go ape-shit over this album, but for the rest of us, listen to this record to hear some sick guitars, ridiculous bass parts, and gut-busting (yes, I did just rip off School of Rock) drum parts, but not for the lyrics.
Also, Denise interviewed Suicidal Tendencies and took some pictures of them a little while ago. CHECK IT OUT.
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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