Suicide Silence - Cleansing (CD)

All Music Guide

Despite its reputation for skullcrushing brutality, extreme metal can be melodic and musical in some cases. Melodic death metal and symphonic black metal are two examples of extreme metal striving for musicality, songcraft and nuance. But there is nothing even remotely melodic or nuanced about Suicide Silence's first fulllength album, The Cleansing, which strives for vicious, headkicking sensory assault and does so without an iota of mercy. This extreme metal CD offers a toxic mixture of math metal, death metal (including grindcore), black metal and metalcore. Suicide Silence thrives on the angularity of math metal; tempo changes are frequent, and lead singer Mitch Lucker constantly fluctuates between death metal's deep, guttural "cookie monster" growl and black metal's sinister, demonicsounding rasp. Lucker makes it sound like a vocal duet, but in fact, he is the only lead singer on this 2007 release. Put all of those things together, and you have a caustic brew that is as chaotic as ...it is vicious. Whether this Southern California band is playing at breakneck speed or going for a breakdown, The Cleansing is downright exhaustingwhich, of course, is exactly what Suicide Silence is going for. A perfect example of sensory assault for the sake of sensory assault, The Cleansing is certainly not for everyone; music this abrasive is definitely an acquired taste. But moshers who do appreciate the noisyforthesakeofnoisy approach will find it to be a competent example of metal carried to a ridiculously harsh extreme. - Alex Henderson, All Music Guide Read more Less