LIGHTS… CAMERA… SUICIDAL!

Blaster of Reality returns with another review...

Suicidal Tendencies are a lot of things to a to a lot of different people and have held many distinctions throughout their storied career. They are one of the first prominent predominantly Latino Hardcore/Punk bands, Flipside magazine’s "Worst Band/ Biggest Assholes" in 1982, the first Hardcore band to have a video on MTV via "Institutionalized" in 1983, one of the earliest West Coast Hardcore bands and contemporaries of Black Flag, tour mates (in many combinations) of Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica and Pantera, one of the first bands to fuse Hardcore/Punk riffs with Thrash Metal technique and sociopolitical lyrics and conscience with heavy metal to create the sub-genre known as Crossover, and one of the most enduring acts of its type to this day, still active recording and performing. Suicidal Tendencies maintain a rabid fan base and their shows are one of the few where it's ok for both fans and the band to wear the bands t-shirts and other clothing.

Lights…Camera…Revolution!  (Epic, 1990), is possibly Suicidal Tendencies only truly great album, and an all-time masterpiece. It is true that Long Island’s Crumbsuckers had already combined Hardcore, Thrash, heavy metal, and guitar pyrotechnics seamlessly on Life of Dreams four years earlier, but Suicidal perfect that admixture on Lights… and expands upon it even further, incorporating chorus-laden, almost tinkling clean guitar plucking, Funk influences, riffs that could out-Sabbath Sabbath, and consistent quality throughout in every way. In short: they put more thought, planning and raw skill into the process—they do it better, and more memorably. It is an album borne of learning from mistakes and improving, with better line-up, songwriting, and musicianship, the sound of a band at its artistic and sonic peak, both lyrically and production-wise. It eschews the tunelessness of its predecessor How Will I Laugh Tomorrow If I Can't Even Smile Today? The addition of future Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and his interplay with the members who welcomed him in has more than a little to do with that. Lyrically, it is pitch-perfect and epitomizes Punk in that the lyrics are equal part menacing and humorous. Lights… is Suicidal Tendencies’ Coma of Souls or Seasons in the Abyss.

Each track on Lights… contains tons of good elements. Opener "You Can't Bring Me Down" is a classic Suicidal Tendencies anthem, replete with defiant, confrontational lyrics, opening guitar harmonics, and a cool breakdown with clean guitar plucking, gang vocals, speed metal tempo and the obligatory Cyco Miko rant coming out of the breakdown ("Just because you don't understand…") 10/10. Next up is "Lost Again", which explores another popular Suicidal theme of unhappiness, emotional stress, and inner feelings. It isn't a fast number but does have tons of cool connecting tangents in between the main verses and a truly superb arrangement. Even though "Lost Again" is mid-tempo it is definitely not boring. The "What's gone wrong with me…" speed-up near the end and ensuing solo create the perfect ending. "Lost Again" has subject matter similar to track number eight, "Emotion No. 13", as well as a similar feel. They are almost like versions of each other but the strength of the overall songs save them from being mere filler, as does the cool, creative drumbeats used in both jams. Upon further examination, their placement on the release also lends to a strange symmetry for the track listing of this release. The fast part of "Emotion No. 13" also seems to be the inspiration of the verse of "Welcome to New Jersey" by the X-Cops, and possibly the fast breakdown of "Quite Pissed of This Shit" by Failure Trace. Third up is their MTV jam "Alone". True, it is a power ballad of sorts but it shares more DNA with say, "Dream On" by Aerosmith or Metallica's "Fade to Black" than contemporary wankers like Winger or White Lion. It's one of my top five Suicidal jams and its inclusion serves to strengthen the overall release though the diversity of including it in addition to the song itself being killer. Lyrically it remains in "emotional" territory but goddamn if these guys can't come up with some excellent chord progressions and arrangements. It starts out kind of "ballad-y" with chorus-heavy clean guitar picking but doesn't stretch it out too long and fortunately kicks into distorted guitar and up-tempo verses in no time. Fourth jam is "Lovely", which has a heavy Funk influence. It is a different kind of song for Suicidal Tendencies (courtesy of new bassist Trujillo) but needless to say they blow posers like the Electric Boys, Bang Tango, and Extreme out of the water without any wholesale copying of other Funk Metal bands around at the time such as Jane's Addiction or Faith No More. It has humorous lyrics without being silly, more sarcastic than anything else. It is still firmly a heavy metal song, and still recognizably a Suicidal Tendencies song. It totally destroys Nuclear Assault’s bad misstep "Funky Noise" off of Handle With Care from a year earlier…and even has cowbell (insert jokes here). The last song on the A side is semi-title track of sorts, "Give It Revolution." On "Give It Revolution" Suicidal are unabashedly political ("Throughout all time and history/The world's been mauled by tyranny"), with a fervor and lyrical content that border on liberation theology ("We'll bow down to no other one/'Cept the father and His Son.") "Give It Revolution" is another mid-tempo heavy metal song with tons of great solos that absolutely soar courtesy of Rocky George. It is the perfect marriage of heavy metal and sociopolitical lyrics, one which bands on major labels do not usually do, but you know future members of Rage Against the Machine were furiously taking notes (guess what label RATM's major label debut was on?)

Side B is heralded by trumpets and "Get Whacked", with Suicidal delving into another one of their favorite subjects: losing one's shit. It's one of the punkier songs on the album (if you want to call a song with a guitar hook Iron Maiden would be proud of "punky") with the classic combination of hilarity and over the top violence. It has a similar speed metal tempo to "You Can't Bring Me Down" and will leave you disembedding the numerous hooks it leaves in you. Next up "Send Me Your Money", another minor hit for the band. It is true that earlier bands had tackled televangelists (Mucky Pup among them on "P.T.L.") but Suicidal Tendencies do it with more humor, superior songwriting and more intelligent lyrics. The song showcases the bass skills of new guy Robert Trujillo and utilizes a huge bass-driven groove that would be consciously or subconsciously copied by future bands (Fishbone on "Swim", Marilyn Manson on "The Beautiful People"). The theme of violence/rampage continues in the last two songs, "Disco's Out, Murder's In", and "Go N' Breakdown." "Disco…" starts with some nasty whammy bar work before going into a harmonized mid-tempo lead and then go full-on breakneck speed. It is one of the few thrashy tunes on Lights… and easily beats Slayer (and especially the then-nascent Pantera) at their own Thrash game. "Disco…" also has quasi-humorous lyrics, some of which would be unthinkable in the post-PC era of 2014, and seems to be a commentary on the symbiotic relationship between violence and it's media coverage. Which takes us to the final song, "Go N' Breakdown", a mid-tempo jam, which  unknowingly was the capstone on a great era in the existence of Suicidal Tendencies, and a strong one to boot. There is no "My World" or "We're Red Hot" to desecrate the release and ruin it, to keep it from retaining it's overall structural integrity. Lights…Camera…Revolution!  is the sound of a focused band at the pinnacle of their creativity and quality with major label financial support.

Lights…  is the kind of record that existed in the perfect place at the perfect time, and this was a huge factor in the coalescence of all the elements that make it the production that it is. It is near the end of the Thrash era as we know it, pre-Machine Head's Burn My Eyes, Sepultura's Chaos A.D., and Entombed's Wolverine Blues, but before the Punk-inspired grunge explosion that occurred the following year. So it could be whatever it wanted to be without any commercial pressure: Hardcore, Punk, Thrash, heavy metal, Funk Metal, a gateway to Alternative music, spoken word. The material off this would have been just as comfortable on an episode of "Miami Vice" (which the band actually appeared on in 1986) as it would have been in the mosh pit.

Suicidal Tendencies follow-up to Lights… , The Art of Rebellion, came out in 1993, when the music scene was already littered with RATMs, Monster Magnets, Tools, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and God knows what else. Though not a bad release per se in my opinion, you can almost feel the label pressure to keep up with the more commercially successful acts of the time, and can hear it in the end result. It seemed as if Suicidal were playing the same Alt-Metal as the kids instead of being the leaders they were. That might have been what influenced Suicidal Tendencies to re-record their then-notoriously hard to find self-titled debut (first pressings are collectors items), as well as the infamously defiant commercial suicide (no pun intended) that was Suicidal for Life (which seemed more like a plea for their then-label to drop them than it was a serious release). But that, as they say is a whole 'nother review.