CD Review: Suicide Commando - When Evil Speaks (Limited Edition)

Artist: Suicide Commando
Title: When Evil Speaks (Limited Edition)
Genre: Electro/ Industrial/ Aggrotech
Release Date: 3rd May 2013
Label: Out Of Line Records / Metropolis Records

Album Review

In the beginning the good news; the 9th studio album of SUICIDE COMMANDO managed to enter for the first time the mainstream German charts. As such it poses an interesting question. Why this one and not the previous ones? One has to be sure; for years now van Roy has managed to stabilise his sound - his songs have the same, at times, misanthropic themes and at others are venomously humorous. ‘When Evil Speaks’ stays within these concepts with the hard beats, compelling synths, catchy music, and vocal distortions as any other SUICIDE COMMANDO album. That in itself makes the previous question begging to be answered. The ability of van Roy to remain a force majeure within the Hellectro scene is unquestioned, it needs a real talent to hold this influence for years and van Roy surely has it.

Is it then that he managed to find the right promotion for his work? Or has it to do with a possible radicalisation within the German music scene if not society? Certainly it is not just a question of catchiness; as far as I remember almost each and every release of SUICIDE COMMANDO had had tremendous club hits in it and this one isn’t an exemption to the rule. From the sardonic facade of ‘Attention Whore’ (where he unleashes a tremendous attack of the underground scene’s poserism), to the ‘In Guns We Trust’ or ‘When Evil Speaks’, ‘Unterwelt’, and ‘Cut_Bleed_Eviscerate’ it is certain that you’ll find plenty of songs that will push you to the dance-floor. And of course there’s always present a feeling of Dark Electro as for example in ‘Monster’ or the ‘Repent or Perish’ and the ‘Song of No Tomorrow’ which has a more futuristic aspect.

And as far it concerns the second CD, ‘When Evil Prevails’, the oomph and the definitive aspect of it is the pushing of the songs mainly to the harsher and dirtier spectrum of Electro. Some of its most outstanding moments to be found here are Shiv-r’s remix of ‘When Evil Speaks’, Betamorphose’s doomish ‘Evacuate’, Alien Vampire’s ‘Attention Whore’, and Controlled Collapse’s ‘Song of No Tomorrow’. It is striking that the second CD doesn’t feel like filler, a forced add-on in order to boost the sales, but has its own raison d’être. In other words it is an album that the existing fans of SUICIDE COMMANDO will enjoy. There’s nothing in it that suggests van Roy took the easy path and made any sort of attempts of pleasing the mainstream crowd. The album is appealing to both mainstream and alternative audiences. To return to the question I posed in the beginning I hope its success to be due to the promotional skills of the label...


Tracklist

Line-up

Johan Van Roy


Websites

http://www.suicidecommando.be/ / https://www.facebook.com/IIXIII


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 9
Extras: 9 - various versions incl. Limited Steel Box
Total: 8.7 / 10