Suicide Silence at Globe Iron

“SUICIDE SILENCE is back to being Suicide Silence,” declares founding guitarist, Chris Garza. “It took years of hell to get here, but we’re better for it.” Indeed, the California quintet that put deathcore on the map (and installed themselves as a mainstay in modern extreme metal) has come full circle. They’re here to kill. With Remember…You Must Die! SUICIDE SILENCE has made a record that eschews the direction-shifts and compromises of their past and recaptured the fire that fueled 2007’s landmark debut, The Cleansing. It’s the sound of a band taking a long, hard look at their own legacy and pushing themselves to surpass it. Cut to early 2021 and SUICIDE SILENCE was nothing short of hungry in the barely post-pandemic world. Regrouped, reinvigorated and reenergized, they were in a headspace of making a record, “as heavy as possible,” states guitarist Mark Heylum. “That was the acronym in the writing sessions – H.A.P. We would ask ourselves, ‘Is it H.A.P.? Is it as heavy as possible?’ If a song or riff wasn’t, it wasn’t going to make the record.” Recent years were more than a mere challenge; they were laden with the sort of obstacles that would have crushed most bands. However, SUICIDE SILENCEare far from “most bands,” enduring constant highs and lows over the past decade and pulling themselves out from the wreckage on multiple occasions. They overcame the death of iconic vocalist Mitch Lucker in 2012, triumphed over tragedy with the addition of All Shall Perish growler Hernan “Eddie” Hermida for 2014’s aptly-titled You Can’t Stop Me; and survived fan backlash over 2017’s divisive self-titled LP, produced by Ross Robinson. Then, just when things started looking up with 2020’s return-to-form Become the Hunter, COVID-19 and the worldwide shutdown nearly stopped the band dead in its tracks. The blunt force trauma of hitting that wall left SUICIDE SILENCE bloodied, backs up against a wall they were slowly sliding down, exhausted. However, feral instincts kicked in as bloodthirst invigorated. “It felt like we had the same sort of hunger and drive back when the band started in 2006,” says Hermida. “It took a pandemic, but we put our heads down and remembered what it was like to be a musician starving in your garage. It was good to realize that maybe we had become a little jaded as a band, but it was important to be real to ourselves and remember who we were.” Remember…You Must Die! Is the SUICIDE SILENCEalbum the most fully captures the spirit of the band’s origins while proving themselves just as lethal a proposition as ever. It’s raw, immediate and in your face from the belligerent breakdowns of the opening title track to the loping, one-eyed riff of closer, “Full Void”. With their return “home” to Century Media, the label that SUICIDE SILENCE also released Mitch Lucker era classics including No Time to Bleed (2009) and The Black Crown (2011), it’s clear: things have come full circle for the California quintet. Enter producer Taylor Young, known for his uncompromising studio work with countless hardcore and metal bands as well as being a multi-instrumentalist himself, playing with the likes of God’s Hate, Nails and Twitching Tongues. Recorded in the close confines of Young’s San Fernando Valley studio The Pit Recordings, the verve of tracks like “Capable of Violence”, “Fucked For Life” or “Kill Forever” is undeniable. “Taylor understood us in a way no producer has since we did The Cleansing with John Travis,” says Garza of the album famously recorded live off the floor. “There’s a deep connection with Taylor that we didn’t even know, playing shows together in bands locally when Mitch first joined the band. How he records is infused with honesty. That goes back to what SUICIDE SILENCE is. Taylor Young is as no-bullshit as it gets.” Part of SUICIDE SILENCE’s recharge is down to the addition of new drummer Ernie Iniguez, a longtime friend of the band who made his recording debut on Become the Hunter.