RSS Feed


SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
Still Cyco Punk After All These Years

Suicidal (2018)
Rating: 6/10

I’m baffled by this record. After hitting some sort of form with the energetic 2016 opus World Gone Mad, Mike Muir and crazy company have decided to pretty much rework Muir’s 1996 Cyco Miko solo outing Lost My Brain! (Once Again). A decision that leaves me scratching my head in confusion as the clouds of disappointment loom and eventually swallow up my soul.

I guess if you never experienced Muir’s debut solo platter then Still Cyco Punk After All These Years may bring a few blustery surprises; the usual stamp of crossover insanity is very much emblazoned across everything Muir does, even in those more subtle and at times funkier moments we’ve had the pleasure to hear.

But for me, this record is just a wasted opportunity as the likes of ‘I Love Destruction’, ‘Nothin’ To Lose’, ‘Gonna Be Alright’ and ‘Ain’t Gonna Get Me’ are wheeled out in the rather predictable manic and sadly rehashed fashion. However much I try, I just don’t want to revisit the songs from what was essentially a rather dire era for music in general.

Muir’s debut was a patchy and forgettable outburst of emotion, only given extra snarl by ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones appearing on a good number of cuts. This time around the only real difference is that we hear extra clod in the percussive department thanks to ex-Slayer skin basher Dave Lombardo, while the lead guitar sound of Dean Pleasants does remain rather old school in its dynamics.

There’s also a bonus with the previously unreleased heap ‘Sippin’ From The Insanitea’, but Still Cyco Punk… – through all of its current dynamics – feels like an unwelcome kick to the ribs; a lazy attempt to reimagine something I never wanted to imagine in the first place. Yep, the punk streak is strong, the hyper, violent skids are frequent and Mike Muir’s chops are, as expected, on point. And so we get a mash-up of modernized flips, skits and fits, all given extra meat by Lombardo’s inimitable style.

‘All Kinda Crazy’ remains feverish, while ‘Lost My Brain…Once Again’ provides a beefy chug, ‘Save A Peace For Me’ is joyously metallic with its speedball riffage that emerges from mid-paced drudgery, and ‘All I Ever Get’ is a punked-up frenzy steeled again by Lombardo’s monstrous knocking. However, while the album is still riddled with merry melodies, infectious grooves (!) and punky whips and rips, only ‘Sippin’ From The Insanitea’ really digs in simply because I’d not heard it before.

And that’s the problem when artists revisit and rework material. Unless we’re getting stripped down acoustic versions or jazzed up drum ‘n’ bass reggae versions, it’s still, when all is said and done, going to be the same except with a few more tweaks and bits of polish slapped on.

I’d have understood this more if Muir had put it out as another solo record, and while this does have that Suicidal Tendencies feel one senses as if they’ve been cheated, or manipulated into thinking that this was a good idea when surely Mike knew that fans would want a full-length album of new material.

Having said that, for some of the die-hards or the newer fans this opus will provide plenty of fun and frashin’ frolics, especially if they’ve never heard the likes of the maniacal bass quivers of ‘F.U.B.A.R.’ and that doomy-cum-chopped up snappiness of ‘It’s Always Something’. But even then, the album is not Suicidal Tendencies at their most explosive – another reason then for not reworking such an outing in the first place.

To me, Suicidal Tendencies will always be cyco punks, but in this instance the bandana has slipped.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share