Review Summary: "The Cleansing" is Suicide Silence's major label debut that will appeal to some. Not so much to others.
Myspace has given birth to many new and upcoming bands, especially in the metal genre. Through sputnik I have realized that many people do not like this new movement of deathcore/metalcore bands that seem to be coming out in the dozens, every week. Part of me agrees with a lot people on here. A lot of bands nowadays are doing NOTHING new, nothing to set themselves apart from other bands in the same or similar genre. I do really wish things could go back to the way they were back when death metal bands all sounded different and every one had something different to offer. But another part of me realizes that this is the way that the death metal genre is moving nowadays. And cut and dry death metal bands (i.e.
Deicide,
Cannibal Corpse) are becoming harder to find, I don’t think things are going to change, anytime soon anyway. Suicide Silence has been branded with the much reviled "Deathcore" genre. There are some great songs on this record and it’s a definite step up from their demos, but it does suffer some small but obvious flaws.
The album starts out with the Intro. "Revelations" not much to say about this track, its just some random sounds. One thing every -core record is plagued with, a "foreboding" intro to signal the battery to begin. From the intro the cd rips into the first actual song called "Unanswered" This is possibly the best song on the record featuring lyrics about disliking religion. Solid riffs and Mitch Lurker's trademark vocals make this song a very well constructed opening track to say the least. One thing you will find about this album is it is very inconsistent, a lot of the songs sound the same to one another, and yet some of them stand out all on thier own, with no help from any other one song. The album itself gives off the reek of overproduction in areas, yet in others it just stands there, straight forward. Consistency would have made this a more exciting album for the most part but I dont think anything can get around the sometimes childish songwriting.
Each of the songs have a set of lyrics that really do stand on thier own, some of the songs are about religeon, some are about money and greed. Some are about how we as a human race just basically rape everything we come across and have no regard for just about anything that was the way we found it. In this aspect the album is a win, it provides quite a fun listening experience from track to track to hear about a lot of different subjects crammed into one album. Instead of hearing about one subject, or one particular situation in which all the lyrics in the album then apply, these all have different meanings and some of them are open to interpretation more than others.
This band does NOTHING new. Yup, i'll say it, they do absolutely
nothing new. There will be those bands you will hear about here and there, far and few between that people will say, "Hey, this band sounds like nothing else you've heard." You will never hear that about this band for the most part, (there are always exceptions, obviously. Ugh). There isn't one thing on here that hasn't been done by some band, at some point in time, straight up death metal riffs that could have easily been stolen from
Deicide or some other traditional death metal band. They play a lot of breakdowns, almost every song has one, some are very well placed, others just drag on for what seems like an eternity. Songs like "Unanswered", "Destruction of a Statue" and "The Disease" show you how they can incorporate them very well. Songs like "Hands of a Killer" and "No Pity For A Coward" just force the hell out of them. While still keeping the listen fun, it can get very monotonous at times throughout the record, which is never good.
But this album does have some pros. Very good writing, some great riffage make some of these songs very good. Unique vocals and solid drumming also bring some glitter to the album itself. In conclusion, this band is doing nothing new, plain and simple. But when they do get the formula right with a song, they do what they do VERY well. But overall, it’s not a horrible album, its fun from time to time. I would recommend previewing it before buying it to see if it’s your cup of tea. If its not, you're not missing anything huge.
