SUICIDE SILENCE - "SUICIDE SILENCE" (2017)

SUICIDE SILENCE  "SUICIDE SILENCE"
(Running time: 44:17 minutes; 10 songs)
("Nuclear Blast Records"; 2017; CD):

Hey guys, yes, next load is in-coming for you and this time it is a or better my record-review on a now slightly already a bit older release namely the so far still current self-titled SUICIDE SILENCE full-length-album released via "NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS" some time last year in 2017. I was never the biggest SUICIDE SILENCE fan even their damn strong "THE BLACK CROWN" from 2011 really ruled and still rules but other than that particular album all in all SUICIDE SILENCE never really were that far up high on my personal-faves-list, so to say, and this combined with the very mixed reactions this very one here, SUICIDE SILENCE's "SUICIDE SILENCE" received more or less everywhere last year I never felt that much of the need to get my hands on it. This changed just recently this year when I saw it for less than 5,00 Euros and then so finally took it with me because, to be honest, what could go wrong for a that low price. And now I have it here and am listening to it for… far too often… to get this record-review here finally done and... where to start and this all with keeping it short… Okay, SUICIDE SILENCE as one of the by any means biggest Deathcore acts outta there really wanted to change their game quite a bit, so to say, and this they anyhow anyway did. But... and I'll really try to keep it truly short this time… if this 'changing of the game' and this 'reinventing of your own identity' means nothing else and even less but that you deliver nothing but miserable and pitifull lukewarm together boiled infusions of what bands like (the fantastic) DEFTONES and (the in their glory days absolutely overwhelming) KORN did when they were sixteen and smoked up high and tight on weed in their daddy's garage and this all then rewarmed sort of over two decades later in 2017 in a lousy and dirty cooking pot that was used before to sizzle some garbage crystal meth together then, yes, then you surely missed the point of anything and everything what 'changing the game' and 'reinventing your own identity' could and should mean. Throw some late 1990's and early 2000's Nu Metal of the more (wanna-be) psychotic and dark, (also wanna-be) depressiv and sinister kind like imagine a mixture out of the DEFTONES, KORN, and SLIPKNOT (minus all identity, quality, and/or rousing ideas) together with some 201X's Deathcore and also Metalcore and pull off any focus or any related ideas or any real grapping or exciting songwriting and you have, yes, SUICIDE SILENCE's "SUICIDE SILENCE", an album marked by an unbelievable huge artificially inflated nothingness of all and everything and delivered via pseudo-proggy gadgetry wrapped in a terrible sterile and dull cardboard production-sound and with not much to, in all honesty, nothing else. Deathcore breakdowns and Nu Metal grooves in combination with a lot of pseudo-desperate and in self-pity bathing downpaced and pseudo-atmospheric parts, a truckload of dull struming guitars, terrible vocals that are by all the effects packed on them only even made far worse, and a lachrymatory uninspired scrubing rhythm-section then are the tools via which the… hm... ''songwriting-ideas'' are carried out. And self-pity is a good keyword beside some others that I have already used to describe the lyrics in a proper way, too. Anything positive to end this review on? Not really and not that much but "DYING IN A RED ROOM", "CONFORMITY", and "DON'T BE CAREFUL YOU MIGHT HURT YOURSELF" (minus the crappy outro) are pretty decent, okay to maybe good songs even maybe only or at least especially in the context of this total ass birth of an album and minus the lame bandphoto cover I like the whole artwok of the album quite a bit, yes, and then that's it. Incredible less that this album delivers despise the high-skilled musicians that gave birth to it. And so, yes, we finally got reminded one more time and this also in a pretty impressive way that sometimes even less than 5,00 Euros can be by far too much for an album…

(3 of 10 points)

http://www.suicidesilence.net/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

SUICIDE SILENCE - "DORIS" (2017, "SUICIDE SILENCE")

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER - "NIGHTBRINGERS" (2017)

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER - "NIGHTBRINGERS"
(Running time: 49:18 minutes; 14 songs)
("Metal Blade Records"; 2017; CD):

Hey guys, okay, time to give you some new stuff to read up here again and so here now comes the next dose for you which means the next record-review by me for you and this time it will be all about the (brand)new THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER full-length-album "NIGHTBRINGERS" released at the 6th of october of this very year of 2017 via the mighty "METAL BLADE RECORDS" label. THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER were always pretty to very much under my radar-screen because somehow they never really (sort of...) 'spoke to me' so far and so their newest release "NIGHTBRINGERS", which is their 'all-in-all' already 8th studio-full-length-album, is my real first 'meeting' with them. I have the limited edition that comes in an absoultely amazing artwork and that features five bonus tracks of which two are live recordings of (I would guess...) older songs of/by/from them ("ABYSMAL" and "WHEN THE LAST GRAVE HAS EMPTIED") and two cover versions, one of AT THE GATES' "THE SWARM" and one of CARCASS' "THIS MORTAL COIL" and these two cover-tunes point pretty much in the right direction of what THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER give us music-wise: Melodic Death Metal, hyper-aggressive and 'technically' truly high-skilled, and with a modern touch to it all that will surely make them more than only a little bit like-able for all you Metalcore and Deathcore fans outta there. (Btw, the 'normal' version crosses the finishing line in about 33 minutes or so.) This never was and still isn't that much 'my thing' and so... hm... so where or how to start... maybe here and so: Like already said this is truly and through and through hyper-aggressive and filled on and on with a forceful guitar work that delivers so damn sharp cutting, precise slaying, and mercylessly slashing, damn heavy guitar riffing and such headcracking rhythm work that you mostly instantly start to bang your head, yes, and where the guitars really shine is when it comes to the delivered highly melodic leads and the absoultely amazing solos, oh hell yeahr, and there's no need of any further mentioning of how strong and also of how heavily marking the guitars are for the songs and the music of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. Pretty much the same (when it comes to being heavily marking for the songs of the music of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER) is to say when we talk about the high pitched, hysterical, diabolical, and just also hyper-aggressive screamed lead vocals that sometimes change to deep and dark guttural grunts but mostly settle in the mentioned territory of the very harsh delivered screams and that are by any means also pure aggression set to music and that deliver an nearly if not sheer incredible amount of lyrics in/with/through the all-in-all anyhow anyway not that long songs; and that also mark the songs heavily. All is then backed up by a very tight and precise and stunningly heavy rhythm section. The songwriting is also pretty to very strong and definitely far above average and delivers truckloads of energetic rhythm work, dynamic pace changings, and a pretty intense atmosphere pretty much all the time; and that the guys in/of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER are really high skilled musicians should need no further explanation here and now anyhow anyway. All in all THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER's "NIGHTBRINGERS" I would locate on a pretty self-contained position somewhere between AT THE GATES (think of their larger than life masterpiece "SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL"), CARCASS (think of their groundbreaking "HEARTWORK" masterpiece), some modern Metalcore and Deathcore somewhere between acts like HEAVEN SHALL BURN and ABHORRENT DECIMATION, as well as some up-to-date pseudo Death Metal like ARCH ENEMY, yes, I think somewhere between this bands and styles and influences you should find THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and their "NIGHTBRINGERS" and you should find them pretty quick (and also surely pretty strong). The only problem that I have with this album or maybe sort of with this band and album and that certain style of music, hm, I miss a special flavour and really exciting moments because at the end it is all pretty equal to one another (song- and also band-wise in general) and that's also here the case; but maybe that's just me and it's anyhow surely a matter of personal preferences but just that you know mine and don't wonder why my final rating on it is or will be how it is/will be. But this a more general problem I have with this Modern Melodic Death Metal'n'Metalcore'n'Deathcore stuff and this out of the way a particular problem with "NIGHTBRINGERS" is definitely that the songs are too short and offer in that short space'n'time simply (but definitely) far too much lyrics so that the songs are far too damn often simply too 'overloaded' and the music itself is put too often in the background and sort of 'sinks down under/beneath the words' and also so-this-way it turns out to be that the songs simply  again'n'again are a overly hectic and stressful affair (and not the good way of being 'hectic'n'stressy' which means demanding and challenging... but instead of this from time to time quite annoying)... damn it, I mean: longer songs or less words - one of it would have been the golden way, definitely. Also I would wish, like already mentioned a few passages above, that the songs as single songs would have a stronger own identity because (also, at least if you ask me, due to being 'overflooded by the lyrics') for my personal taste the songs sound too often too equal... but maybe that's just and nothing but a matter of my personal taste, who knows. But anyhow, more or less, despite all this THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER's "NIGHTBRINGERS" definitely is still a good to damn good album and if you are into the named style(s) of music and/or the named bands then you should definitely risk an ear and give it a fair try. A big bunch of sick, sinister, and pretty 'evil' lyrics, a (like already mentioned) absoultely beautiful artwork, and a heavy bombing (but maybe a little bit too 'trigger-happy') production sound finally round it all up. So, yes, I think now you know all what there's from my point of view to know about the "NIGHTBRINGERS" of/by THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, yes, and so why not give it a good round and a fair try and this best right now.

(7,5 of 10 points)

http://www.tbdmofficial.com/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER - "NIGHTBRINGERS" (2017, "NIGHTBRINGERS")