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Solid, tight, a bit robotic, but nothing to make the album that bad an effort.-
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| Suicide Silence: The Black Crown |
Deathcore
Century Media Records
July 12th, 2011
- Slaves to Substance - 3:27
- O.C.D. - 3:19
- Human Violence - 3:47
- You Only Live Once - 3:12
- Fuck Everything - 4:33
- March to the Black Crown - 1:30
- Witness the Addiction - 5:32
- Cross-Eyed Catastrophe - 3:25
- Smashed - 3:06
- The Only Thing That Sets Us Apart - 3:06
- Cancerous Skies - 3:06
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| Review Information |
Release length: 39:22
Review posted on July 23rd, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 7/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
The Cleansing (2007) • No Time to Bleed (2009) • The Black Crown (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Suicide Silence (2005) • Green Monster (2007) • Wake Up (2009)
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| Single(s): |
Unanswered (2007) • Bludgeoned to Death (2007) • The Price of Beauty (2007) • Genocide (2009) • Disengage (2009)
No Time to Bleed (2009) • You Only Live Once (2011) • Slaves to Substance (2011)
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| Demo(s): |
2003 Demo (2003) • 2004 Demo (2004)
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| Review |
Suicide Silence dropped the ball big time with their previous album No Time to Bleed. Of course, among the Deathcore kiddies and die hards out there, it became a huge success. This comes as to no real shock considering the album's heavily fan serviced sound of less unique and original compositions paving the way to more generic and stereotypical sounds that other bands have already beat into the heads of those who enjoy this style of music. It was a very depressing move considering the band really does have some great talent, and with the less then favorable production quality taking away the crushing atmosphere, it almost became enough to leave any seasoned fan feeling betrayed. The Black Crown, however, marks the third full-length recording from Suicide Silence, as well as a step in the right direction for the group, but is it enough progress to really show that the group is ready to take on any newcomers with a more unique approach, or will it even be any good?
The production quality to The Black Crown sadly isn't the greatest, which seems to be more of a trend for the group then anything. The guitars do sound pretty strong on the effort, but their sound feels heavily generic. The bass exists, but it doesn't really do much for the recording considering it feels more buried in the muddier sound of the release and simply does not make much of an impact. The drums sound good, but again the less then high quality production just leaves them, as well as the rest of the release, sounding a little lighter then they should be, though the bass kicks do have a nice click to them. The snares sound full as well, though do come off a bit lost in the mix at times, but the cymbols do cme through well enough to be one of the more important parts of the drumming performance on this release.
Because of that production, the heavier brutality of Suicide Silence doesn't really shine through, but the atmosphere that the more raw production quality gives off manages to work in the band's favor to create a dark and muddy vibe to the recording. The riffs seem to depart from a heavier Brutal Death Metal sound, and instead seem to find a home with the concept of tight traditional Death Metal that sometimes has a catchy groove to them, and some well placed breakdowns that are executed well. "Slaves to Substance" makes for a good start to the recording, though not the band's best foot forward. It does set up the atmosphere of the recording though through it's most straight forward intimidating and haunting music and energetic vocal performance. However, it's "O.C.D." that really sets the tone for the rest of the album, as well as quickly establishes how much studio editing can be found on this release, which is perhaps one of the most infuriating and hard-to-look-past elements of The Black Crown.
"O.C.D." features some solid gang chants that clearly have some distortion to them to make them come off a little more intimidating then they would be normally. However, if you pay close enough attention, you hear those chants just cut off for no reason each time, and of course each time it's at the same spot, and they sound exactly the same, leading you to wonder how much copying and pasting was done through the studio's ProTools program. Of course you won't be able to go through the track again without noticing that once you do hear it too. At times you also can't help but ponder if there was a bit of an Alternative Metal or "Mallcore" influence to this release. "You Only Live Once" really feels toned down with a catchier groove to some of the bridges that are lighter, plus a general attitude and even a vocal influence that feels more mainstream influenced then a stronger Death Metal sound. With that, the closing breakdown to this track sounds very weak, which also is not helped any by the hollow nature of the music and the rawer production before it kicks into a heavier, richer sound for a few short moments to reach the end of the song. There's also that guest vocal performance by Jonathan Davis of KoRn during the chorus of this track, and while his brand of clean singing makes an interesting addition to the track, it quickly becomes a little redundant as it feels horribly off key and a little whiny thanks to that band's more recent musical direction change and it's influence on his performance. There's also the fact that it simply doesn't sound like he's enjoying the guest spot or even wants to be doing it in the first place.
While the album isn't really that heavy or deep, some of the material does come off as rich as it could be given the audio quality to the release, and bhecause of that the slower chugging or Death Metal style material can still be enjoyable. Tracks like "Fuck Everything" do makes for a pleasant experience, but more of an open and accessible one. There's really nothing wrong with the track at all, incorporating more authority to the song then anything, though there's not really a good amount of energy to the mix. "Witness the Addiction", however, does provide a boost of energy to the music, though it still has more in the vocal performance as the music sounds much tighter, but at the same time a bit robotic in the sense of it being so well rehearsed and rather simple, taking off from the somewhat more enthusiastic "March to the Black Crown" instrumental that came before it. Of course, the slower nature and tighter sound does help the band draw the song out to just over give minutes and thirty seconds, and manage to keep the listener's attention from start to finish. The track really is not a bad song outside that less enthusiastic music and even guest vocal performance. Of course, that can be said for basically every track on here aside "Human Violence" and "Cross-eyed Catastrophe" which both feel more energetic, especially "Cross-eyed Catastrophe" which goes at a faster pace and even has some haunting background effects, like a girl humming in harmony to the music, to really make the track sound richer in the long run.
The Black Crown is one of those albums that is a little harder to sit down and describe. Suicide Silence did a good job at creating a tight, solid album full of a good Death Metal and Deathcore influences. And that's the problem, it's a good album. It's nothing amazing, it's nothing too noteworthy, it has it's ups and it has it's downs. It's just a good solid album that is entertaining, often engaging, and has a tight performance that can sometimes feel a little robotic, but there's nothing wrong with what that robotic approach is putting out. There's a great deal of diversity in each song, the atmosphere here is more haunting then anything, and while there's some heavier and more intense tracks that close the release out, there's also a decent number of songs that are lighter and play off that rawer production quality more then being a truly brutalizing album. If you didn't like the previous Suicide Silence releases, this one is definitely worth checking out, or at least sampling, specifically for the different sound and even the overall approach that the band brings with them for The Black Crown.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Century Media Records.
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