HARDWARES

Away from the chattering of the underground, Suicide Silence are doing very well, thank you very much. Lauded by the MySpace generation and swiftly propelled to the front of the new death queue, they have irked purists and cynics but delighted a much larger number of metal fans, chiefly by displaying a genuine devotion to working their collective nuts off by playing to anyone and everyone, anywhere in the world. The result of all that hard work, combined with the inevitable pressure that comes with being frontrunners, is a simply magnificent second record that blows their debut, The Cleansing, out of the water and instantly separates the band from the innumerable chancers that cling feebly to their coattails. Eschewing the clichés they innocently helped to establish, Suicide Silence have refined their sound and defined themselves in the process. Whether it’s the sledgehammer greeting of ‘Wake Up’, the creepy Korn-via-Suffocation attack of ‘Lifted’ or the flagrant Slipknot-worship of ‘Smoke’, this is a heroically nasty and hypnotic collection of deftly-crafted anthems that brim with hooks and breath-snatching dynamics while never taking their foot from the brutality pedal. From Mitch Lucker’s brilliantly diverse vocal assault through to drummer Alex Lopez’s Joey Jordison-like fluidity, everyone is on blazing form and every last second throbs with boiling point adrenalin. And regardless of what the band’s detractors might say, this is not a ‘deathcore’ record or anything like it. Instead, this smart and sincere band have outgrown their involuntary association with the chasing pack and developed into something sturdy, credible and straightforwardly thrilling in their own right, conviction dripping from every last riff. If any band from the current crop of nascent extremists is ripe for a leap up to the upper echelons, then this is it and this is the record to make it happen. Time to face facts: Suicide Silence are a world class extreme metal band and No Time To Bleed fucking kills. 2009 is theirs for the taking.