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Much of the same but loaded with energy and brutality.-
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| Suicide Silence: The Cleansing (Hot Topic Edition) |
Deathcore
Century Media Records
2007
- Revelations (Intro) - 0:33
- Unanswered - 2:16
- Hands of a Killer - 4:14
- The Price of Beauty - 4:14
- The Fallen - 4:07
- No Pity for a Coward - 3:12
- The Disease - 4:23
- Bludgeoned to Death - 2:34
- Girl of Glass - 2:52
- In a Photograph - 4:32
- Eyes Sewn Shut - 2:59
- Green Monster - 5:49
- untitled - 3:44
Hot Topic Edition:
- A Dead Current - 3:40
- No Pity for a Coward (Music Video)
- Ending is the Beginning (Live Video in Corona, California)
- Bludgeoned to Death (Live Video in Robot Mosh Fest, Wisconsin)
- The Price of Beauty (Live Video in London, England)
- Destruction of a Statue (Live Vodep in Cardiff, Waled)
- Swarm (Live Video in Leeds, England)
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| Review Information |
Release length: 44:00
Review posted on July 21st, 2011
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| | Initial Pressing: 7/10 |
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| Hot Topic Edition: 7.5/10 |
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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 |
Two years after their self-titled EP release, Suicide Silence found themselves signed to Century Media Records, and issuing their debut recording The Cleansing. Of course, this really came as no shock that the group found a home with a bigger label in the Metal scene considering how big the Deathcore style was, but many felt betrayed by the label for signing for this group. Either way, The Cleansing found it's home among Deathcore fans and "scene" kids everywhere, as well as gained a strong support system through Hot Topic, which is one of the key ingredients to the band's success, both at that point and today. The Cleansing, the group's first full-length release, played off the sound they established on that aforementioned release, and really drove the point home for fans, showing that Deathcore was no longer just a trend, but a staple sound that was here to stay. Luckily, the band managed to create a heavy album in The Cleansing to justify most of the support it received.
The Cleansing spawned plenty of singles off the release as well, which isn't too shocking for the fans who waited for the band to put out this effort, as well as to show the amount of growth the band had done with this material. Sadly, much of that growth had been towards using chugging guitars more often. However, thanks to the better production quality, the recording itself manages to capture a sleeker, yet much more brutal sounding atmosphere. The guitars are low and still audible with a heavy bass presence that also comes through the mix as audible, and helping the already rich guitars sound deeper. The drums sound sharp and clear as well, all being at the proper levels with a nice click to the bass kicks, as well as some clear snares and crashes fromt he cymbols. The vocals here are still the varied rhaspy screams and guttural vocals that sound like the microphone may have been cupped a bit during the recording process, but still sound good enough to work with the music and atmosphere of the release. There's also some layering used to make them richer, and even some variety in the pitch and/or tone of what's being performed at the time, showing a little more talent and dexterity to the recording, and adding energy to the already intense and energetic effort.
The intro track to the album, "Revelations" does not really do much to set up the release, but it does bleed into "Unanswered" well enough that you wouldn't even really realize it was just a thirty three second introduction. "Unanswered" does set up the release nicely though thanks to it's intense sound and energetic performance. The sheer brutality behind the music really makes one stand up and notice, though the song is dominated a lot by chugging guitars that break up some of the more interesting Brutal Death Metal-esque riffs throughout the song. The breakdown that closes it is suiting as well, gradually slowing down then closing the release the same way it kicked in, but this does not really brace the listener for some of the more open-ended breakdowns that will occur later on in the release, or even the sheer number of them that can appear specifically in one song. Sometimes it works out great, such as the much slower pace of "Hands of a Killer" that literally slams right in like a punch to the listener's face, though technically not in the form of a true breakdown. Of course the song goes right into similar Brutal Death Metal style riffs and chugging passages that "Unanswered" featured, being unique enough to acknowledge it's a different song, but leaves you unable to walk away without noticing how close each track winds up being with each other overall.
The general sound of The Cleansing is not too different from what was established on "Unanswered". This proves to be a bit disapointing in the long run, but again, many of the tracks contain enough unique material to the music outside the vocal performance and lyrics to really make it sound different enough at the end of the song. But, one of the biggest saving graces to the release is the energy. While there was a strong presence of that at the start, the song "The Price of Beauty" really shows off a strong, energetic performance that hammers the intensity into the listener's skull despite it's comparitive qualities to "Unanswered" and "Hands of a Killer". The same goes for "The Fallen", though it's not as energetic a song, and you can really feel it. The drumming on this track can often stand out due to it's different timing signatures in certain parts of the song, but eventually the track just becomes another song that has the same kind of build up and progression with enough to make it sound different.
But, aside the energy that does help some tracks stand out more then others, there's also the factor of what songs are just catchier then others, and the overall crushing sound the songs have. "The Disease" and "The Price of Beauty", for example, are all catchier tracks that will have you banging your head along to the music, among a couple others on the release. Not all the tracks will leave you feeling like headbanging along is a must, but you also have some soul crushing tracks on here that will leave you feeling like homicide is the better option. "Bludgeoned to Death" is one of those songs, as well as "Hands of a Killer", and even the "untitled" bonus track that is hidden past the ambient noise used after the music of "Green Monster" actually comes to an end, that really just captures a powerful intensity and commanding brutality that other songs simply do not share. "Girl of Glass" is also another one that kind of falls into this category, leaving it questionable in the sense that the song is not as crushing as the others, but it's heavy and intimidating in the same aspects, allowing the track's slower pace to really stand out in a much different manner then the other songs on The Cleansing can. "Eyes Sewn Shut" also stands out, but not for any of the reasons already mentioned. The track itself just really sounds dynamically different compared to the others through many variations and changes to the tempo and just the music in general that really makes it unique in it's own right and staying within the general ideas of the sound that Suicide Silence lays out throughout the album.
| Hot Topic Edition |
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When it came to Deathcore, Hot Topic was all over it. One of the albums they really wound up pushing was The Cleansing. Not only was the price dirt cheap (between eight to ten US dollars), but it also came with an exclusive bonus disc with additional content. First off you get a bonus audio track entitled "A Dead Current". The song is not the most amazing, and again has enough to it that it sounds different, as well as a decent amount of slower passages and bridges to it that are not specifically breakdowns. There's also a good amount of live videos on this CD, but the first video that loads is "No Pity for a Coward" which will trick you since it's live footage from that show put together to be an official music video, and not actually a live clip. Each video pops up in an internet browser window, but thankfully does still stream from the disc and not the internet. These clips definitely have a more raw quality to the audio, though the video is pretty good for a standard quality recording. Of course the audio is recorded on the camera and not the sound board, but that's fine since it still sounds pretty good and intense.
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With the songs sounding pretty similar to one another, it's hard to look at this album and call it a very original or unique offering. However, there's enough offered in the song to make them stand apart from one another, and in the long run it's that additional amount of energy or brutality to each song that really makes The Cleansing worth checking out for any reason. It's worth checking out despite whether you like the Deathcore style or not, mostly because of some of the solid Brutal Death Metal riffs that are found on here, though the chugging can get a little bland after a while regardless of how much intensity there is. The Cleansing by Suicide Silence is simply an energetic Deathcore assault from start to finish, and the bonus material of the Hot Topic Edition is worth checking out if you happen on this two disc edition. It's simpler approach will lead to some more spins past the first, but eventually it will find itself being used more for background noise aside some of the stronger tracks like "The Price of Beauty" and "Girl of Glass".
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Physical review copy of this release provided by:
Personal funds.
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