Suicide Silence - You Can't Stop Me - Album review

For you Suicide Silence fans, the band is back together, but it is not Mitch behind the mic this time. Mitch's death has affected a lot of us, especially his fans that followed him before his death. I had to get the album to hear how it would sound with Eddie as the new front man, and I was not disappointed with the album, But it did not feel like Suicide Silence. It felt like an All Shall Perish album, the band Eddie belonged too, before filling in Mitch's footsteps.

Eddie and Mitch were close friends, but had different screams. Mitch had a better stage presence than Eddie did/does, but Eddie sounded better live. Both Eddie and Mitch could scream, but the higher screams were better with Mitch, and I would prefer Mitch's higher screams over Eddie any day. When it came to the low growls, both men were fairly comparable and could execute them without an issue. These were just some of the common differences in each singer I wanted to point out before I moved on to Suicide Silences's latest album You Can't Stop Me featuring Eddie as the lead singer.

Eddie is a beast behind the mic. His screams are never weak, and he can hold out screaming than many artists could. When i pressed play on the first song, I expected a song like "Wake Up" or "Slaves to Substance," but the song "M.A.L." came on and was a softer intro than I expected. But given Suicide Silence had an into in their first album The Cleansing. Both of these intros have a different feel on them. The Cleansing's intro had more of a panic feel to it, that opened up into what, has to be one of their better albums. "M.A.L." had that dark, Gothic feel that lingered across your ears as it played. The feeling from this intro to the other intro was a complete swap into what seemed a darker era in the band's timeline. Then it goes on.

The first thrashing song we hear on this album is called "Inherit The Crown," which flowed perfectly with "M.A.L." Not only did it play in the queue nicely, "M.A.L. " is the abbreviation for Mitch Adam Lucker. I look at these two songs as Mitch A. Lucker Inherit The Crown. It something I found amusing when I went through the album.  Now, we move on.

Before this album came out, there was a song called "Cease To Exist" that came out featuring Eddie. This is what started the whole "It's not Mitch, it sucks" bull that I see across multiple pages, and even the Suicide Silence site. I do not want to say this, but Mitch is dead. This is the band's way of moving on, and keeping their friend with them. I respect that. But I did not like how they tried playing the song. Eddie can not scream high pitch as well as Mitch could, so I thought the song was bad. Yet, when his low growls came in, there was promise, and hope the album would rock.

Songs like "Warrior," "Sacred Words," and "Don't Die" were the songs I found to be the best in the album. Do not get me wrong, "You Can't Stop Me" was phenomenal, but after playing it multiple times, it lost its touch. I chose these songs over the whole album for a few reasons. Eddie's voice in these songs hit the peak of his performance, and have a perfect blend of the guitar, bass, and drums. Another song in this album I can not look over is "Ouroboros." It has a few chorus' of clean vocals, and gives off that older deathcore/grindcore feel that the bands Zao and Trenches did. It reminds me of the song "Free the Three" by Zao and its beautiful.

Overall, this album was a step, that fans and myself, including the band, thought was needed. I will be blunt, for the longest time I thought Suicide Silence would end, but I am glad they are back at doing what they loved to do. The band has gone above and beyond with supporting Mitch's daughter, Kenadee since his death. Its a tragedy to loose a band member, a friend, and most of all, a father.

Overall rate 7/10. The album was not what I hoped it to be, but it was not a complete bust.
Below I will post some links to preview songs on the album.

You Can't Stop Me music Video

Don't Die Lyric video

Betraying The Martyrs - Phantom - Album review

 Its been three years now since an album by these guys released. Betraying The Martyrs (BTM) released earlier this summer an album that many fans anticipated. If you follow the band, the YouTube updates left us with many questions, and answers followed with the release of their latest studio album Phantom. The album showed a lot of promise, but when I asked some fans about it, I got a lot of mixed reviews.

 From the bands prior work with their first debut album Breathe in Life with a few singles and E.P., many fans thought this album was going to be heavier than their last one. Do not assume this album is light, but it is a step back from their first album in that stance. In majority of the songs, you hear a softer breakdown, more clear/clean lyrics, then it starts back up to what most fans of their prior work enjoyed. One fan of this band told me it didn't give them that "energy" like their older album did, which could be justifiable with the way this album plays.

 I found the album to me more theatrical. By that I mean it had more symphonic sounds with the piano, and chimes that played through some of the songs, but that was nothing new with Betraying The Martyr's work. The first album itself had the same concept, with less of a overcoming appearance of these sounds. If you listened through the first album, you get glimpse of the theatrical sound in "Man Made Disaster" and "Tapestry of Me." Hell, the opening song to the album "Ad Astra," had no lyrics, no heavy beats, but a full on orchestra sound that opened up for the song "Martyrs." Phantom, on the other hand, skipped over the orchestra opening into one of the better songs on the album, "Jigsaw." This was one of the few things many of the fans I talked too liked. It had a heavy opening that then broke down into a clean chorus, which multiple of Betraying the Martyrs songs have in common. But it still sounds like it was meant for a theater or open surround system to get the best effect. This album still had another key up it's sleeve, and it took me a while to figure it out.

 If you all have even heard someone say "Let it go, Let it go!," to mentioning the movie frozen, you have found the link. Betraying the Martyrs did a full cover over the song "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen. I never imagined a metal band to do such a thing, let alone make the best cover of that song, till I heard the cover. This is were the theatrical sound of the album comes out in a full blast of perfect mixes, guitar rifts, and screams. I have to say, it is one of the better songs on the album with how it came out to be. I found parts of it comical, especially when unclean vocalist Aaron Matts stopped screaming and clean vocalists Victor Guillet came in to fill in the chorus that followed. The jump from heavy, screaming, energetic to the calm, soothing pace of the song abruptly, just made me laugh lightly and continue singing along. I found this to be one of the highlights of the album. 

Other songs like "Lighthouse" and "Legends Never Die" had more of the bands old roots of sound and less of the theatrical sound the album has as a whole. These two songs have better rifts than the other ones in my opinion, and flowed perfectly with each second. 

The album in a whole was a fairly good album, including the album's title song, "Phantom," which had special guest Gus Farias from the band Volumes. While many fans had a mixed feeling towards the album, I found it to be great. It had many ups over the downs, and while watching a music video is different than seeing them live, I feel like there was more energy and time put into this album, lyrically, and into the overall sound. 

If you have not had time to listen to this album, check it out on YouTube. I will post the links below for you to listen to them as well.

Overall, I would give this album a 7.5/10 and recommend it to anyone wanting to sit their and have a theatrical experience listening to this album.

Let it Go cover Music Video

Jigsaw Music Video