Suicide Silence Profile

Suicide Silence

is an American extreme metal band from Riverside, California. The group consists of vocalist Mitch Lucker, guitarists Chris Garza and Mark Heylmun, drummer Alex Lopez and bassist Dan Kenny. Formed in 2002, the band has released three full-length studio albums, one EP and seven music videos. The group has been met with a great amount of praise and favorable reviews while even during 2009, Suicide Silence was awarded with the Revolver Golden God award for "Best New Talent".

Suicide Silence

History

Formation, debut EP and The Cleansing (2002–2008)

Suicide Silence were founded in 2002 in Riverside, California and were at that time, a side-project of many of the members of other groups. The band performed their first show at a local area within Riverside and at that time, the line-up consisted of the members Chris Garza and Rick Ash as guitarists, Mike Bodkins as bassist, Josh Goddard as drummer and two vocalists, Mitch Lucker and Tanner Womack. Shortly after their first performance, Womack was fired from the band and they released their first demo the following year.[1] They released their second demo in 2004. By the proceeding year, the members took the band more seriously and were no-longer deemed as a side project, they would then advance to record their third and final demo in 2006 after the band recorded and released their first public studio quality material entitled, Suicide Silence EP which was released through Third Degree Records and later re-released in the UK through the English label In at the Deep End Records.[2] Drummer, Josh Goddard departed from the band in 2006 and was replaced by Alex Lopez who was the former guitarist for the bands Blacheart Eulogy and The Funeral Pyre before his joining.

Two years later, the band signed to Century Media and released their debut full-length album The Cleansing.[3] The album was mixed by Tue Madsen, produced by John Travis and features artwork by Dave McKean.[4][5] It debuted at number 94 on the Billboard 200,[6] selling 7,250 copies in its first week of release.[7] The sales of that week ending combined with its later sales made The Cleansing one of the best-selling debut albums in Century Media history.[8] With the success of their debut album, Suicide Silence were included to take part in Mayhem Festival that took place during the summer of 2008. Afterward, they toured Europe with Parkway Drive and Bury Your Dead, following a successful US tour with the same bands. Suicide Silence then followed along with a tour in Australia with Parkway Drive, A Day to Remember and The Acacia Strain in mid-2008 during the time when they were included to perform at Sweat Fest. At this point Suicide Silence were beginning to gain a wide range of fans throughout the world. While returning back home from the continuous tours, the band covered the song "Engine No. 9" by Deftones and released the cover on their limited edition "Green Monster" single as well as iTunes all during the same year.[9]

No Time to Bleed (2008–2010)
Revolver described the band's live performances as "explosive and relentless".[1]

No Time To Bleed

Shortly before embarking on Mayhem Festival in summer 2008, Suicide Silence's MySpace profile title read "Suicide Silence (Is writing a new album)", which was the first indication of ensuring the upcoming of their second album. On June 26, 2008, Mitch Lucker appeared on the Headbangers Ball blog podcast. In the interview, Lucker stated that the album would be recorded through tracks as opposed of being recorded live, such as The Cleansing. He also said the new album would "blow The Cleansing away." Machine was chosen by the band to be the producer of the album. The title for it was revealed as being No Time to Bleed.[10]

Suicide Silence began recording No Time to Bleed in February with production by acclaimed producer Machine and engineering by Will Putney.[11] During Music as a Weapon as well as the band's Cleansing the Nation tour, they began to perform the songs "No Time to Bleed", "Your Creations", "Lifted" and "Wake Up" months before the release of the album. In April they received the Revolver Golden God award for "Most Innovative Band" and performed at the awards show.[12] Suicide Silence were included on 2009's Pedal to the Metal tour, along with the bands Mudvayne, Static-X, Bury Your Dead, Dope and Black Label Society.[13] During the same year, the group was awarded the Golden God award for "Best New Talent".[14]

Suicide Silence released No Time to Bleed on June 30, 2009 through Century Media. The album peaked at #32 on the Billboard 200,[15] selling 14,000 copies in the first week in the United States alone.[16] The opening track from the album, "Wake Up" was released as a digital download-only EP which includes the original song, a live performance of it and a remix handled by Shawn Crahan of Slipknot. A music video was produced for the song as well and made its debut premiere on Fearnet.[17][18] "Genocide" was released as the album's second single. Its music video was created in collaboration with Bloody Disgusting and a remix for the song was featured in the Saw VI soundtrack.[19][20] Suicide Silence announced production for a music video for the song, "Disengage", of which was released as a single on April 20, 2010.[21] The video for it was released during June 2010.[22] The band played throughout the entire Warped Tour 2010[23] on the Altec Lansing Stage.[24] In October, the group began their first headlining tour in two years[25] with support from MyChildren MyBride, Molotov Solution, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza and Conducting from the Grave.[26]

The Black Crown (2011—present)

By 2011, Suicide Silence began preparing their third full-length album in Big Bear, California with Steve Evetts as the selected producer.

The Black Crown

During March, the group performed at California's Metalfest, and a week later, Nevada's Extreme Thing festivals,[29] at both of these performances, the band confirmed that the new album would be titled The Black Crown.[30] Working titles for the album were "Cancerous Skies", "Human Violence" and "Fuck Everything".[31] When asked by Kerrang!, Lucker revealed that the album's lyrical themes would feature more of the personal topics that No Time to Bleed had in-concept rather than the anti-religious theme that The Cleansing held. Lucker explained "I still have the same beliefs and same views, but I'm more open to everything. At this point in my life, I don't see the good in making people hate you for something you say. This record [The Black Crown] is for everybody."[30] The song "Human Violence" premiered on radio station Liquid Metal on May 13, 2011.[32] The Black Crown was released on July 12, 2011 and sold over 14,400 copies in the United States alone during its first week of release, which had it debuting at position number 28 on the Billboard 200 chart.[7][33]

The group was included on the line-up for the fourth annual Mayhem Festival, again playing on the Extreme Stage with other metal acts including Machine Head, Trivium and All Shall Perish during July and August 2011.[34]

Styles and influences

Suicide Silence perform an extreme metal musical style known as deathcore,[35][36][37] which is a fusion between death metal and metalcore.[38][39] The band perform this style as well as gain influences from several other extreme musical genres such as black metal, grindcore, and mathcore.[40] The mathcore elements can be seen in the varied speed changes and complex time signatures in the band's music. The vocals of Mitch Lucker are frequently fluctuating between death growls and high-pitched screamed vocals used in black metal.[40] The drumming is very fast-paced, grindcore influenced, and employs a liberal use of double bass drumming and blast beats.[41]

The band members

The band members themselves have stated that they are influenced from groups such as Meshuggah, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Necrophagist, Nile, Slipknot, Deftones and Korn.[42][43][44]

Band membersCurrent

Christopher Garza – rhythm guitar (since 2002)
Mitch Lucker – lead vocals (since 2002)
Mark Heylmun – lead guitar (since 2006)
Alex Lopez – drums (since 2006)
Daniel Kenny – bass guitar (since 2008) Former
Mike Bodkins – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2008)
Rick Ash – lead guitar (2002–2006)
Josh Goddard – drums (2002–2006)
Tanner Womack – co-lead vocals (2002)

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