Suicide Silence - The Black Crown
Rating
RIYL
EmmureWinds of Plague
Chelsea Grin
Coal Chamber
Release Date
07/12/2011
Label
Century MediaTracklist
1. Slaves To Substance2. O.C.D.
3. Human Violence
4. You Only Live Once
5. Fuck Everything
6. March To The Black Crown
7. Witness The Addiction
8. Cross-Eyed Catastrophe
9. Smashed
10. The Only Thing That Sets Us Apart
11. Cancerous Skies
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I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason it seems as if the bulk of the deathcore genre’s been drinking the same Kool-Aid lately. I mean, Emmure’s always been fixated on rap-rock, but their nu-metal inklings have become increasingly pronounced, culminating with Gold Cobra, er Speaker of the Dead earlier this year. Couple that with Monsters’ precipitous collapse and now this album, and we may be approaching a full-fledged nu-metal epidemic; certainly Suicide Silence have done themselves no favors amongst those who already consider deathcore to be a repository of the rejected detritus from myriad other playbooks.
The Black Crown opens jarringly with “Slaves to Substance,” sounding as if someone fucked up in the studio and forgot to start recording until about fifteen seconds in to the song; the blasts found here will all but dissipate for the duration of the album after maybe ten seconds, and the pull centered around the black hole that is “Witness the Addiction” on either side of the album has begun. Vocalist Phil Bozeman, er Mitch Lucker misfires all over the place and introduces the audience to a new “treat” as well—an impersonation of that guy from Coal Chamber. The next three songs fly by in an innocuous haze before we arrive at “Fuck Everything,” the kind of juvenile, middle-finger-in-the-air (which the lyrics actually urge the listener to do at one point) pap that people who favor trench-coats love. Beyond its blatant nu-metal tendencies and hop-around-and-maybe-slam-dance bent, the lyrics are ridiculously bad, a trend that appears all over The Black Crown but is especially egregious here.
“March to the Black Crown” is actually okay, and its dark atmosphere is piggy-backed on by “Witness the Addiction,” which starts out as a dense, punchy hardcore song before the bottom drops out around Jonathon Davis of Korn (I don’t know how to make a backwards-“R” in Microsoft Word) notoriety’s guest spot. The rest of the song completely tanks, and though “Cross-Eyed Catastrophe” attempts to redeem the sins of The Black Crown to date with standard deathcore fare, the Coal Chamber passages continue to sap momentum, and even a halfway-decent track like “Smashed” with its obvious Red Chord aping feels like too little, too late. “The Only Thing That Sets Us Apart” suffers from songwriting I can only characterize as catastrophic, “Cancerous Skies” is more recycled deathcore meets nu-metal, and it’s worth mentioning that the iTunes version of this record concludes with a Rob Zombie cover. Yeah.
While people have levied significant criticism against deathcore essentially since its inception, the counter-argument has always been that the genre is too young to evaluate and that it needs time to mature before we can fully pass judgment. Well I would say the time has come, and if indeed those very people were waiting for something resembling artistic growth, I’m sure they’re by now sorely disappointed. If albums like The Black Crown are any indication, many of the bands at the head of the deathcore movement are actually regressing. I wonder if Suicide Silence is looking forward to going back to middle school in a couple of weeks…
--Jacob Oliver
Comments
Lehigh Valley, PA
this band has always sucked.
Agreed. I never understood all the hoopla surrounding this band.
West Haven, CT
Amen.
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
Los Angeles
I saw this band in a corn field in Perris California in the middle of nowhere, 6 years ago, and when their drummer still wore a mask. No full length out or anything so all that existed was the demo. It was incredible. 50 kids there who I thought were going to burn the field down around them. As each full length has come out, their fan base has gotten worse and worse (and with that, their sound more watered down) and now it's a steaming pile of shit that shouldn't be approached by anything. Fuck this band. Fuck that piece of shit Mitch. Fuck em all.
Fishers, Indiana
Reading this review was like watching a police brutality video on Youtube, except I was totally rooting for the cop this time.
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Reno, NV
This band should just go ahead and commit the first word of their name.
Current Listenings:
Psychollywood - Psychollywood
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Kill Devil Hill - Kill Devil Hill
San Diego, CA
Hahaha
Too old to bother, too young to give a shit.
Illinois
i'll be honest, i dug their last two records because my friends jammed them constantly. this, however, is complete shit.
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San Diego, CA
Gude.
Too old to bother, too young to give a shit.