Suicide SilenceMeltdown / Love Me to Death (Singles)

When Suicide Silence release the track Doris in 2017, some fans were confused.

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When the self-titled album was released showcasing a distinct shift in the band’s sound that had their apparent Deftones influences writ large, many fans were confounded with some vocal diehards demanding to know where their favourite band had gone. People fought, people complained, one guy started a crowdfunding campaign to prevent the album’s release. Really, it started to get out of hand. The internet is a weird place.

However, with that excursion into more melodic and atmospheric territory, the band sought to remind audiences that they got where they are by being a forward-thinking force in heavy music, and experimentation is the heart of that beast.

Suicide Silence have now released two teaser tracks from their upcoming album Become The Hunter, and the band have returned to their savage roots, but they’ve clearly taken a piece of that experience with them and a band not known for their subtlety have produced music that shows signs of real depth.

First track Meltdown, released on November 13, plays like an overture. Its instrumental build teases a band who have learned to use the extremity of their sound to build atmosphere the way their forebears in the death metal oeuvre` did before them. The brief intro track riffs with urgency and grim groove, and the sheer size of Suicide Silence is on full display.

Casual listeners might hear Suicide Silence returning to their roots. All the bits are here; the inhuman blast-beats and the caustic vocals, the dextrous finger-work and the coffin-nails slamming bottom-end.

Second teaser release titled Love Me To Death slams the band back into its rightful place at the top of the deathcore mountain, beginning with a beautifully ignorant blast riff and vocalist Eddie Hermida (who replaced original vocalist Mitch Lucker after his tragic death in 2012)’s guttural roars. The track subtly signals the nu-metal bounce of the previous album, and the overall effect is one that bellows ‘pit-destroyer’. Chugging riffs beat on atonal melody and grinding drums keep it as ugly as ever. The vocals drip with cynicism and resignation, the repeated screamed refrains of “Love me to death” ringing with the bitter irony that characterises the band’s lyrics.

Casual listeners might hear Suicide Silence returning to their roots. All the bits are here; the inhuman blast-beats and the caustic vocals, the dextrous finger-work and the coffin-nails slamming bottom-end. But these releases show signs of a band with real pedigree, and when they revisit the sounds they pioneered on 2007’s The Cleansing it doesn’t sound like a throwback; it sounds like a weapon the band wield better than most. It’s the simple cleverness and build of the opening teaser Meltdown that lets the brutal blast of Love Me to Death mean something.

Both tracks were released with appropriately harrowing videos (probs NSFW unless your boss is, like, super cool) and the band are baiting a very heavy audience with this release, beyond the scene and genre they helped create. This also looks to be something of a chance at redemption for Suicide Silence in the eyes of some fans, but for the band themselves this appears the natural result of well-over a decade of hard graft and dedication to bringing something new.

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Pre-order Become The Hunter Here.