Deathcore heavyweights SUICIDE SILENCE have officially announced their next studio album, Graceless, while simultaneously kicking the doors off the new era with the release of its devastating title track.
Right then.
SUICIDE SILENCE are back.
And judging by the first taste of Graceless, they havenโt returned to gently enquire whether everybodyโs having a pleasant afternoon.
The Californian deathcore veterans have unveiled their forthcoming album alongside the brand-new title track โGracelessโ, offering fans their first proper glimpse at where the band are heading next.
Spoiler:
Itโs heavy.
Very bloody heavy.
๐ Welcome To The Graceless Era
A new SUICIDE SILENCE record is always going to attract attention.
The band have spent more than two decades helping shape, expand and occasionally completely flatten the boundaries of deathcore.
Now Graceless becomes the next chapter.
The title alone sounds suitably bleak, but itโs the accompanying track that really matters.
Because โGracelessโ doesnโt feel like a band cautiously dipping its toes into a new album cycle.
It feels like somebody has kicked the studio door open and thrown a breakdown through it.
๐ฅ โGracelessโ Comes Out Swinging
The newly released title track gives SUICIDE SILENCE an immediate opportunity to establish the mood surrounding the album.
And subtlety isnโt exactly high on the agenda.
This is the sort of crushing extreme metal the band have built their reputation around โ abrasive riffs, punishing rhythms, guttural vocals and that ever-present feeling that the entire song could collapse into a pit-triggering breakdown at any moment.
Which, letโs face it, is exactly what most SUICIDE SILENCE fans came here for.
Thereโs aggression everywhere.
But beneath the sheer weight is the tight, controlled attack that separates genuinely good heavy music from somebody simply making a tremendous amount of noise in a shed.
๐ค SUICIDE SILENCE Have Been Through Almost Every Kind Of Evolution
Few major deathcore bands have experienced a career quite like SUICIDE SILENCE.
They emerged from Californiaโs heavy underground in the early 2000s and quickly became one of the names most closely associated with the explosion of deathcore.
Then came The Cleansing in 2007.
And things got enormous.
Tracks such as Unanswered, No Pity For A Coward and Bludgeoned To Death helped introduce an entire generation to an especially violent combination of death metal and hardcore.
The band suddenly found themselves at the centre of a scene that was spreading internationally at ridiculous speed.
Skinny jeans.
Massive fringes.
Band shirts printed in fonts only an archaeologist could decipher.
And breakdowns capable of causing structural damage.
A beautiful era.
๐ค Mitch Luckerโs Legacy Remains Part Of The Story
Any discussion of SUICIDE SILENCEโs history inevitably includes Mitch Lucker.
The bandโs original frontman became one of deathcoreโs most recognisable figures before his tragic death in 2012.
His loss could easily have ended SUICIDE SILENCE completely.
Instead, the remaining members eventually decided to continue, with Eddie Hermida taking over vocal duties.
That wasnโt an easy position to enter.
Lucker meant an enormous amount to the bandโs fanbase, and nobody could โ or should โ simply attempt to become him.
Over time, Hermida established his own presence within SUICIDE SILENCE while the band continued pushing ahead.
Mitchโs legacy remains permanent.
But so does the music that came afterwards.
๐ค Eddie Hermida Has Now Fronted The Band For More Than A Decade
Itโs easy to forget just how long Eddie Hermida has now occupied the SUICIDE SILENCE microphone.
The former All Shall Perish vocalist joined in 2013 and has subsequently appeared across multiple eras of the band.
That journey hasnโt always been straightforward.
SUICIDE SILENCE famously divided listeners with their experimental self-titled album in 2017, incorporating clean vocals and nu-metal influences into a sound fans had traditionally associated with outright brutality.
People had opinions.
Lots of them.
Some of them possibly typed entirely in capital letters.
But rather than permanently disappearing down that road, the band later swung back towards much heavier territory.
๐จ Rememberโฆ You Must Die Brought The Brutality Back
Their 2023 record Rememberโฆ You Must Die delivered a particularly vicious reminder of what SUICIDE SILENCE can do when they lean hard into their extreme-metal foundations.
The album sounded nasty.
Fast.
Direct.
And considerably less interested in asking permission.
That makes Graceless particularly intriguing.
Does it continue that renewed brutality?
Push into something different?
Mix several eras together?
The title track gives us our first clue, but one song rarely tells the complete story.
Especially with a band that has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to upset expectations.
๐ธ Deathcore Isnโt The Same World It Was In 2007
SUICIDE SILENCE also find themselves releasing new music into a deathcore scene vastly different from the one they helped establish.
The genre has exploded again.
Bands are selling larger venues.
Extreme vocals are going viral.
Symphonic deathcore has become enormous.
Nu-metal influences have returned.
Bands are experimenting with electronics, progressive music and increasingly ridiculous levels of production.
The modern deathcore landscape contains everything from old-school brutality to music that sounds like the final boss of a video game destroying an orchestra.
SUICIDE SILENCE helped create the foundation.
Now theyโre operating alongside generations of bands who grew up listening to them.
That makes every new record an interesting test.
How does one of the genreโs original giants remain dangerous inside a scene it helped inspire?
๐ฅ The Answer Appears To Be: Hit Harder
Based on โGracelessโ, SUICIDE SILENCE donโt appear particularly interested in mellowing with age.
Good.
There is something wonderfully reassuring about veteran extreme-metal bands continuing to sound like they genuinely want to hurt the speakers.
This isnโt music designed to gently accompany a Sunday roast.
This is music designed for venues where somebody inevitably loses a trainer during the first breakdown.
And then spends forty minutes searching for it.
๐ The Live Potential Is Ridiculous
Of course, the other major question whenever SUICIDE SILENCE release new material is:
What will it do live?
Because this bandโs music really comes alive inside a packed room.
Circle pits.
Walls of death.
Crowd surfers.
Breakdowns.
That one enormous bloke politely helping everybody back onto their feet before immediately disappearing into another pit.
Deathcore community spirit.
Beautiful stuff.
โGracelessโ already sounds like the kind of track that could become considerably more dangerous once festival season gets hold of it.
๐ฅ More Than Twenty Years And Still Swinging
Longevity in extreme music deserves recognition.
Scenes change quickly.
Bands disappear.
Members leave.
Trends move elsewhere.
Listeners grow older.
Yet SUICIDE SILENCE have remained part of the conversation for more than twenty years.
Not simply through nostalgia either.
Theyโre still releasing records.
Still touring.
Still experimenting.
Still occasionally annoying sections of their own fanbase.
And still producing music capable of making an innocent venue floor look like it has suddenly declared war on itself.
Thatโs a pretty decent legacy.
๐ค THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
Graceless represents another important chapter for a band that has already lived through several lifetimesโ worth of change.
SUICIDE SILENCE helped put deathcore on the global map.
They survived tragedy.
They survived controversy.
They survived musical experimentation that practically caused the internet to catch fire.
And they kept moving.
Now the title track suggests theyโre stepping into their latest era with fists very firmly raised.
Whether Graceless ultimately becomes another outright deathcore assault or contains a few surprises remains to be heard.
But the opening statement?
Violent.
Exactly as advertised.
Get the neck stretches started.
Tie your trainers properly.
And maybe move the furniture somewhere safe.
SUICIDE SILENCE have returned, and Graceless sounds ready to cause damage. ๐๐ฅ๐ค
