Suicide Squad are one of those bands that are great because they can’t be pegged. Yeah, the name might suggest something in the metalcore/scream department, but don’t be fooled. Instead you, a band that manages the unthinkable feat of combining the sound of groups such as the Snakes, Les Savy Fav, Pissed Jeans, and even the Stooges. From start to finish The Empty Room is a sweaty, twisting, shrill piece of rock that manages to tap into the wilderness of Hardcore, sex-appeal rock, and post-punk art. On paper it might sound like a hand full of questionable members, or a rock sound, but despite the suicidal nature of their dark music, the band manage to keep everything from perfectly boiling through solid music and front-man Casey Donley’s lead-through twisted-fun-house vocals.
The album seems to open the middle of the song with three “truly historic”. Here the band beats the drum from the brass, and to the full suffocation of the dirty rock cries for help. The guitars are dirty, the bass is loud enough to shake the floors and the drums are simply banging. This is the kind of mayhem-fueled rock that can’t be faked.
“Merci, Misericordia” opens with the promise of some quieter grace with a simple bass line and snarling bits of guitar. Here Donley manages to go back and forth. between foaming mouth noises and silence, the pleasing melodies build up a bit from the pysch-rock splendor and return instead to the quieter stabs of the guitar. vn/tag/point-break”> Point-break all the more fulfilling. The end of this song is where Suicide Note is remembered with listen-worthy screamo like Wow, Nightclub and Hot Cross!
If other songs hint at mental illness and desire is born in rock moves “Math simple” The rest of the way he goes The verse is full of guitar riffs from Donley and guitarist Jason Golday’s vocals are averted and dropped as if the war cries are coming from inside someone’s head. Finally, this song explodes, showing that he has declared victory on the more brutal side of the debate. Suicide Note is surprising with a twisted song again following the harsh explosions of sound with some post-punk panache making for a dramatic and operatic environment.
The comparison to Les Savy Fav’s previous releases may not seem clear yet, but look no further than “New Eyes” with its simple keyboard line, pounding drums, melodic screams, and hipster guitar breaks. It’s a fantastic song, and a fantastic change of pace that shows just what we wanted from Suicide Note not to be easily pegged, but not simply to be an all-over-the-place mess.
Okay, so maybe the instrumental “Ride Out West” wasn’t really needed – yeah, it has some decent riffs, but also some duds – but the band follows it up with the more daring “Black Snow”. A song that booms and rattles with the lumpy branches. The instruments slide, crackle, squeal, and scream on this track as Donley raps violently. The slinky bass line and the crashing noise of the guitar also make a nice touch to the song’s more sinister climax.
I’m glad I didn’t simply judge a book by its cover of empty rooms, which would have been easy. Thanks to the Suicide Note moniker and the artistic faces of the cover girls, because what comes inside the package is completely different from what I expected. Suicide Note are a fun and excited band who know how to take all of their influences and wrap them around others, swelling with bundles of sharp corners and laces of joy, and yes, that’s a good thing. Yeah, it’s “heavy” and loud and jarring in the mouth of what most people think of as “rock”, but that’s what makes it so refreshing and cathartic. Suicide Notes embody a sense of rebellion that rock has lost in its early days, taking risks musically and often leading the crowd to feelings of ingenuity.
