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Suicidal Tendencies: 13
17/05/13 || Ironpants
Ey hombre, do you think I’m cyco?
It’s their 13th studio recording, it was 13 years since their last real full length album, and there are 13 songs on it and it’s released in 2013. As a coincidence, my lucky number is 13, I had 13 on the back when I played soccer, and I was 13 years when I became a dad for the first time…and I drink 13 cans of beer…every day.
Is 13 gonna be my unlucky number after listening to this one? We’ll see in 13 minutes when you’ve read through my usually a little too long rant about something. I actually used to dig ST back in the days, and I have even seen them live once. It was when they had released “Lights… Camera…Revolution” and they opened up for Testament, Megadeth, Slayer in “Clash of the Titans” back in 1990 in Stockholm. That record had me in it’s grasp for quite some time, but after that I never really cared about them. That album appealed to a lot of thrashers and they can almost be held responsible for the crossover genre. At least you can count them as one of the most groundbreaking bands in crossover.
13 years is a fucking long time, so what have they been up to? Well “they” in this case should be read “he”, cause the only member left is “Cyco-Mike” Muir, and he recently turned 50, that alone could be a factor, but another factor is that Mr. Muir has extensive back problems, and have performed several surgical happenings…growing old is a bitch, right?
When I pressed play I didn’t have any high expectations, I mean, what are the odds? They haven’t released something useful for 20 years, there’s nobody left except one original member, and there’s not that much lucrative happening in this genre (the last time I said that I was served a reprimand by our forum members, but I hold on to that thought). And I thought I was right through the first song “Shake it out” as it is a kinda corny song with some party hard rock feeling over it, with cheesy lyrics.
“My name is Cyco-Mico and I’m a maniac
You know you missed me and I guess I missed you to,
It’s time for us to share that special magic that we do,
I’m sick and tired watching the whole world get it wrong.
So you better hope that I can shake the world with a song.”
That is some bad lyrics you would make up as a kid when you were 6 years old and taking a bath with your bath toys, a broken G.I. Joe doll would be you and your mom’s vibrator would be the villain. And then you began singing some wicked shit called the “March of the Vibro-punisher” or “Ironpants vs. The Malicious Pole” as a soundtrack to the epic scene that was about to follow…
It’s in the next song something happens, “Smash it!” delivers a thrashy tune that speeds up the party. Song no. 3, “This ain’t a celebration” brings in their original punk feeling. I thought at this point that it would be a super-album, as the thing that made ST kinda cool in the early years, was their energy and full on flirting with thrash/punk/hardcore but leaning on street attitude.
But the album slows down a bit, and brings in more and more of that
funky vibe that they brought in later in their career when
crab-stance-Trujillo joined the ranks. And from here they present their
real strength, the fact that they have a real solid rhythm section in
drummers and bass players, yes there are several of them. I’m
speculating a little bit here, cause I don’t know much about these
dudes, but it is apparent that they are originally schooled in the
funk/r’n‘b/fusion styles? The drummer use a lot of freebasing around the
kit with syncopations and fills that is used steadily in funk/fusion,
although presenting it more rough makes it cool and quite different. At
least when we are talking in terms of heavier music than hard rock.
Solid shit, if you are into drums. “God only knows who I am” is a
perfect example of this, listen to that excellent groovy drumming there,
a lot of shit going on that sounds real basic at first, but it’s
fucking whack when you listen closely.
Same goes with the bass, this is funky bass players indoctrinated to
play heavy music, and here and there they slide into a funk frenzy doing
their stuff with fingers raping that 4-string (or 5/6 strings, nothing
is as it used to be anymore).
In the songs that are cooled down, the guitar players steps back and also provides that playing style known from funk, with the bass/drum guys providing the song. You get small touches from “Rage Against the Machine” actually. But in the faster songs they reverse it and let the guitar do the talking.
Mike Muir himself is more vital than ever, and if you don’t have any problem with his singing style, this is right up your alley, and one can only guess what has happened for this 50-year old gangster to provide this energy once more? I guess that playing around with some younger dudes (no pun intended) has revitalized him and he’s enjoying some new found energy and inspiration.
But…enough of the unicorns, balloon animals and birthday cakes. Even
if it’s kinda fresh and actually quite good stuff presented, there is
some issues I’m bothered about. First of all, the production: It doesn’t
really fit to play thrashier/punkier stuff with funk/fusion settings on
the mixer board and guitar effects. Even if you play the chunkiest riff
in the universe, it doesn’t sound heavy enough. It sounds lame and
thin, and I got constantly annoyed with the lame presentation when the
band “rips it”. It almost sound like a caricature or sarcastic attempt
to make fun of the genre. That gives this record a BIG deduction on the final impression.
And: The crossover part, as ST blends punk, thrash, hardcore AND
funk, it gets a bit to much diverse, because instead of crossing the
styles IN the songs (which works), they make their crossover BETWEEN the songs, so you get one punk song, one thrash song, one funky song and so forth.
Well, to sum it up, a quite OK album and I’m really happy to hear at least some signs of vitality from this gang, but it doesn’t bang my drum as it used to. I guess they will release some more albums before Mr. Muir calls it a day, and they won’t be much better than this I’m afraid. It’s time to let they young guns take over, even if it really isn’t a band around that makes this kind of crossover with the funk parameter added.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Suicidal Records
- Website: www.suicidaltendencies.com
- Band
- Mike Muir: vocals
- Dean Pleasants: guitars
- Nico Santora: guitars
- Tim “Rawbiz” Williams: bass
- Eric Moore: drums
- Guests
- Ron Brunner JR: drums
- Josh Paul: bass
- Steve Brunner: bass
- Dave Hidalgo JR: drums
- Mike Clark: guitars
- A fucken busload of skaters and shit: backing vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Shake it out
- 02. Smash it!
- 03. This ain’t a celebration
- 04. God only knows who I am
- 05. Make your stand
- 06. Who’s afraid?
- 07. Show some love…tear it down
- 08. Cyco style
- 09. 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
