Artist: SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
Album: LIGHTS CAMERA REVOLUTION + STILL CYCO RE-RELEASE (2CD DIGI)

Year: 1990/ 1993
Media type: CD

Suicidal Tendencies didn’t invent thrash – others have a stronger claim – and they probably didn’t create metalcore – they were too early for such a term. But in the history of underground music, their role is crucial. In fact, while the likes of DRI, Crumbsuckers and the Circle Jerks might be almost as revered as the Suicidal ones, nonetheless it has to be said that in their absence the whole metal crossover scene would have been radically different. In fact, you can make a case for suggesting that it might have been delayed a few years – and certainly not been as potent or original.

“We’ll always be misunderstood, and that’s the way it should be,” says frontman Mike Muir. “The people who need to get our message are the ones who should be getting it. A lot of people oversimplify things, and when you mention Suicidal Tendencies, they’ve already categorized and judged us, and won’t listen to us.”

It all started for Suicidal in Venice, California. The year was 1981, when Muir, guitarist Mike Ball, bassist Mike Dunnigan and drummer Carlos Egert first got together. Not that this line-up proved to have any longevity; after recording just one demo, Egert left, to be replaced by Sean Dunnigan, the guitarist’s brother.

At the time, Suicidal were no more than a fun band, the aim being to play at parties and provide a diversion for all concerned. Things, though, soon became a lot more serious. However, the band weren’t exactly finding life easy. Early on in their burgeoning career, there were rumours of strong gang affiliations, and a fan was alleged to have been killed at one of their first shows. Talking about these stories, Muir has said:
“We played one party and these guys I knew came just to party, and they ended up getting drunk and offended some people. So they were chased down an alley, and I guess one guy got beat up pretty bad, and the rumours started about how he had died. Then it was in the papers. You know how it starts off: ‘someone got killed’, then it’s, ‘The gang fight where seven people got killed’.”

Moreoever, ‘Flipside’ magazine, a punk publication based in Los Angeles, voted the band the worst of the year in 1982. And there were constant suggestions that the band’s very name indicated they advocated kids attempting suicide – something that Muir himself constantly rejected.

“I came up with the name for the band,” he said in their formative days. “A couple of people used to say to me, ‘You’re crazy. You’re gonna get killed, or else kill yourself’. That’s where the idea came from.”

By 1983, all the attention focused on Suicidal Tendencies helped to land a deal with Frontier Records, who released their self-titled, debut album the same year. By this point, the line-up was Muir, Grant Estes (guitar), Louiche Mayirga (bass) and Amery Smith (drums). From that record, ‘Institutionalized’ became an almost instant classic. However, troubles continued to dog the band, with their reported gang connections leading to a ban on playing in the Los Angeles; this wasn’t lifted until 1991!

It was to be another four years before Suicidal released another album, this being 1987’s ‘Join The Army’, by which time Muir and Mayorga had been joined by guitarist Rocky George and drummer R. J. Herrera. This marked a turn to a more metal-oriented approach, something said to be directly due to George, who was particularly partial to a Motorhead riff or three. A section of diehard fans were disappointed with this turn away from their punk roots, but Suicidal were clearly making major progress, with ‘War Inside My Head’ and ‘Possessed To Skate’ becoming major favourites.

More big changes were about to happen on all fronts. By 1988, Mayorga had been fired – apparently his strong punk ethic was out of step with Muir – with Bob Heathcote taking over on bass. The line-up was further expanded when Mike Clarke, from speed metal band No Mercy, came in on rhythm guitar. Moreover, the newly smelted five-piece signed their first major label deal, with Epic, a move that shocked and horrified many, who believed Suicidal had ‘sold out’ for the big dollars.

But 1988’s album ‘How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today’ proved they had more than enough ability to pick up a new audience, while proving to those who preferred their more punk sensibilities that, actually, they still retained unshakeable connections to those roots. By the time ‘Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit…Dйjа Vu’ arrived the next year, Robert Trujillo had arrived on bass, and this was the first album from the band to top half-a-million sales in America. But it was 1990’s ‘Lights…Camera…Revolution!’ that really proved this was a world-class band who were creating genuinely exciting music. Now, they were more related to thrash than punk, and becoming increasingly sophisticated. The line-up had bedded down firmly, with George and Clarke displaying both complementary brutality and subtlety when required, and Trujillo starting to prove he was among the elite metal bassists on the planet – listening to what he achieved here, it was no wonder that Metallica would come knocking at his door a little over a decade later.

Muir himself had become an adept lyricist, a man who refused to compromise on any level – and was beginning to win the war. Yet, he also felt that, at last Suicidal Tendencies had found stability. After several years of sifting through, and shifting on, musicians, they had found their mark.

The album, produced by Mark Dodson (a man closely associated to the metal community, thanks to his work with Ozzy Osbourne, Anthrax and Metal Church), combined not only punk and thrash, but also funk, thanks to the aforementioned Trujillo. If Suicidal have effectively invented the metalcore genre with previous releases, now they were altogether more complex. Yet songs like ‘You Can’t Bring me Down’, ‘Alone’, ‘Send Me Your Money’ and Disco’s Out, Murder’s In’ showed that Muir had lost none of his bite, humour and bile.

The band also discovered that pre-eminent metal bands of the era were more than willing to accept them as equals. In 1990, on the back of the release of ‘Lights…Cameras…Revolution!’, the five-piece headed to Europe as part of the celebrated Clash Of The Titans tour, alongside Megadeth, Slayer and Testament. But they were still fighting a battle with the media over exactly what they were all about, as Muir explained:
“The European press in particular don’t like us, we’ve always been bad people over there. Because our first record didn’t come out in Europe until 1987, all people would ask us is why we were trying to be a metal band, why I was trying to look like Axl Rose, with the bandanas, shorts and hats. And I'm like, ‘We’ve been dressing like this since before we were a band, since I was 12 or 13. This is Suicidal. Maybe if we grew up in a different area we would look different’. I’'s happened all the time. People say 'you’re not supposed to look like that in a band’. And I'm like, ‘What are you supposed to look like when you’re in a band?’ What’s wrong with people just being themselves? Being ourselves we just happen to be different from others.”

And that’s the whole point and purpose of this record – it refuses to accept any boundaries, or restrictions. And why it still sounds remarkable. Suicidal Tendencies believed their music could incorporate any style or sound that worked – and those who truly understood and appreciated their talents, approach and convictions would respect them for this philosophy.

How many bands at the time were prepared to be this bold, to break out of the box and be individual? Which is why the record retains such a fascination for modern fans? This was a pioneering release that has had a massive influence on so much which has happened since. In fact, dare one be so bold as to suggest that here is one of the most important metal-oriented albums of the past two decades. Its implications and ramifications have been widespread. On the one hand it was unique, yet also created a resonance for so many. On the other, Suicidal received mainstream acknowledgement through a Grammy nomination in 1991 for ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ – they lost out in the Best Metal Performance category to Metallica – and this was a record that reached number 101 in the US ‘Billboard’ charts. And the blatant refusal to embrace superficial commercial enterprise is paramount. As Muir himself says:
“For us, the idea is that if you want to do something, you go ahead and do it. The label back then were like, ‘You can't do that’, and we were like, ‘Well, let’s just let the music do the talking’. We’re not here to repeat history. We’re here to make new history.”

But wait, that’s not all. Because the second CD here features a unique event. During the recording sessions for the ‘Lights…’ album, Muir decided that the band should completely revamp their debut album, which by then was unavailable. But, with a more proficient technical level in the line-up at the time, Suicidal didn’t so much re-create the atmosphere and style of that first album as update it for a new era.

The result was released in 1993 as ‘Still Cyco After All These Years;, which not only featured all the tracks from the ‘Suicidal Tendencies’ record, but also new versions of ‘War Inside My Head’ and ‘A Little Each Day’ (from ‘Join The Army’), plus new song ‘Don’t Give Me Your Nothin’’.

At the time, the concept of bands re-recording early albums with the experience and expertise of the passing years was completely new. In more recent times, a number of other major names have attempted this, but have failed because of efforts to duplicate the serendipity of the original, but at a much higher technical level. Suicidal avoided the trap by developing the hardcore impressions of the debut album, yet never re-creating these. Rather they moved the songs into a fresh dimension.

The album charted at number 117 on the US charts, but provided the band’s growing fan base with a better perspective of Suicidal’s history, while also taking them forward. It was a brave, bold move. But that typified Muir and his cohorts at the time: a unique band, with an individual passion and a self-belief that meant nobody understood their worth better than the musicians themselves.

TRACKLIST CD 1:

"You Can't Bring Me Down" (Mike Muir, Rocky George) – 5:50
"Lost Again" (Muir, George) – 5:16
"Alone" (Muir, Mike Clark) – 4:24
"Lovely" (Muir, Clark, Robert Trujillo) – 3:45
"Give It Revolution" (Muir, Clark, R.J. Herrera) – 4:22
"Get Whacked" (Muir, Clark) – 4:23
"Send Me Your Money" (Muir) – 3:24
"Emotion No. 13" (Muir, George) – 3:43
"Disco's Out, Murder's In" (Muir, Clark, Herrera) – 3:07
"Go 'N Breakdown" (Muir, Clark) – 4:39

LINE-UP:

Mike Muir – vocals
Rocky George – Guitar
R.J. Herrera – Drums
Mike Clark – Guitar
Robert Trujillo – Bass


TRACKLIST CD 2:

"Suicide's an Alternative/You'll be Sorry" – 2:26
"Two-Sided Politics" (Muir, Louiche Mayorga) – 1:03
"Subliminal" – 2:48
"I Shot the Devil" – 1:50
"Won't Fall in Love Today" – 0:51
"Institutionalized" (Muir, Mayorga) – 3:30
"War Inside My Head" (Muir, Mayorga) – 3:29
"Don't Give Me Your Nothin'" (Suicidal Tendencies) – 4:04
"Memories of Tomorrow" – 0:55
"Possessed" – 2:02
"I Saw Your Mommy" – 4:51
"Fascist Pig" – 1:13
"A Little Each Day" – 3:52
"I Want More" (Muir, Mayorga) – 2:09
"Suicidal Failure" – 2:40

Song origins:
Original versions of tracks 1 – 6, 9 – 12, and 14 – 15 were on the album, Suicidal Tendencies (1983)
Original versions of tracks 7 and 13 were on the album, Join the Army (1987)
Track 8 was previously unreleased

LINE-UP:

Mike Muir – Lead vocals
Rocky George – Lead guitar
Mike Clark – Rhythm guitar
Robert Trujillo – Bass
R.J. Herrera – Drums [*]