Review Summary: Failing to recapture
Nowadays, deathcore has become a bit of an exciting genre. Groups like Lorna Shore, though not necessarily creating classics just yet, are trying new ways to revitalize the genre and attempt to expand on the sound by integrating different influences. However, the same cannot be said for Suicide Silence today. Instead of picking up the torch and paving new ways for deathcore, the band remains stuck in the glory days, relishing on the past instead of moving toward the future. After many misfires, Suicide Silence attempts yet again to recapture the magic of their early days as genre legends. Instead of building upon the foundation of the past, this retread of ideas leaves
Remember… You Must Die riddled with redundancy and lifeless performances, ultimately falling short.
On the surface, Suicide Silence’s newest effort is a serviceable deathcore album as it contains everything you’d expect from a classic of the genre. Yet that’s where the problem lies. It tries so hard to be what deathcore used to be that it falls into the trap of repeating “what worked before” without being able to capitalize on how the band could progress. “You Must Die”’s intro feels reminiscent to the intro of “Unanswered” with its abrasive drumming and chromatic style, tremolo riffs of “God Be Damned” bring back the memory of
The Cleansing, and the vocals attempt to recapture what Mitch Lucker’s intense range from high screams to growls, yet all of this fails to reinvigorate what they used to do. Instead of evolving with the rest of the crowd and attempting to break new ground in the genre,
Remember… You Must Die dates itself and puts itself in a box that keeps the band rooted in nostalgia rather than progression.
Looking beyond this desire to recapture what was lost,
Remember… You Must Die also lacks depth in its songwriting. As the songs roll by, the compositions blend together. It becomes hard to distinguish one chromatic riff sequence from the other, or this specific blast beat from that other section in that other song. Even when a song hits the mark on an intriguing idea, as in “Endless Dark,” it quickly loses its value as the song returns to that riff time and time again without any progression or addition. It’s never that the sections themselves are offensive or atrocious, but it’s almost like there’s no emotion. This formulaic approach of repeating and never expanding brings a sense of redundancy, making the performance lifeless and void.
However, not all is entirely lost. At times, flashes of brilliant light do shine through Suicide Silence’s mechanical songwriting. The bridge section of “***ed For Life,” with its sleek integration of a clean guitar passage contrasting the deep, distorted bass, gives a great build in tension that erupts into a simple yet effective breakdown. “The Third Death” opens with an immense, wall-of-sound drum fill that gives way to a fun chugging riff, providing a feeling of rare enjoyment as you can feel the band hitting their stride with what they are capable of. Where the record shines the most is in the closer, “Full Void,” with its captivating, reverb-laden intro riff and rather expansive and progressive songwriting contrary to most of the record. Nevertheless, what
Remember… You Must Die does well just can’t carry the weight of what burdens it.
What Suicide Silence did early on was iconic and legendary for the deathcore scene. The impact that
The Cleansing had on the genre was immense and important as an influence for the future generation of bands. However,15 years later,
Remember… You Must Die still reaches back into the past, and stays there, stuck in “what was done” instead of “what could be done.” Despite the attempt to revitalize the past, Suicide Silence fails to recapture what was lost, leaving themselves lost in the process.
