Suffer On Acid – “Spiral Of Silence”
Mr. Bang bangs open the door of my office and barges in.
He’s wearing a face mask, of course, but he’s done this long before the pandemic started. I remember him mentioning once, something about fearing needing a rabies shot.
“Listen, Slimey,” he tells me taking a long drag off his cigar under his mask. “Our readership is off, our sponsors are dropping like flies, like lice leaping from your head. We need something with some pizzazz. Something really special. Something that will get the teeny boppers and hep cats to jibe with the boss sounds of our bands.”
“I just got the thing, Chief,” I reply, discreetly placing the white out dispenser I’ve been sniffing from for the last half hour back into my top desk drawer. “All the young people are experimenting with LSD, wearing their hair long and growing mustaches and goatees, and wearing, unseemly, unfashionable garb. We need a psychedelic rock band that they can dig and dance to while taking their psychedelic trips and I have just the band!”
“I think you’re onto something, Slimey,” he says. “Or on something or maybe both. But let’s run with it.”
“You bet,” I say. “I picture this summer- large gatherings of young people, congregating at outdoor music festivals, to celebrate peace, love and most importantly…”
“Drugs?” Mr. Bang inquires with a raised eyebrow.
“No, not that,” I say. “Social distancing- they will all be six feet apart.”
“Ha, Slimey. You really are a riot,” Mr. Bang chortles uncontrollably, gagging and then spewing germs onto my brand new typewriter.
But all seriousness aside, Suffer On Acid has been one of our favorite heavy, hardcore, power violence bands from Boston for quite a while now.
And somehow I missed this album from nearly two years ago!
Blame it on the whiteout, blame it on the booze, but as Father Bang likes to say- it’s never too late to atone for your sins.
“Social Decline” has a crushing, metal groove that is only, momentarily, pulled into a faster hardcore speed. This song is short, poignant and great. “Check your screens now or you’ll miss it… the signs of social decline. And now I say, fuck you and your safe place.”
With a fuzzed out repeating bass line, “Null” spurts out with a rhythm that soon accelerates into a madhouse, hardcore beat that is past the speed limit in tempo. “Revulsion, I feel the same. Abhorrence- what I’ll never be…Can’t get away or hide in view and let the bastards reign.” There’s a great dissonant guitar solo that floats, nonchalantly over this great refrain. This song rages and rocks- righteously, raw and raucous and should be rightfully, revered.
“The Vile Maxim” begins with some chuggin’, eighth note power chords, much like you’d expect from some pop/rock song from the eighties. But then the vocals, venomously arise along with the evil/devil/dissonant chord changes. “You live in silence, not knowing the powers that be. You suppress the violence, not knowing the true enemy.” This song is relentless in its musical and lyrical onslaught and expresses fully, the world and life we live in. This song is true and doesn’t flinch in reflecting reality. Somewhere towards the end the guitar goes haywire with feedback and that’s when, I believe, this great song truly explodes with excitement.
“Mortal Man”, charges out with an industrial rhythm that resembles, more so, a great industrial band from the eighties, like Big Black. “Never end,” goes the lyrics and the response is, “Never turn around,” by two different voices. This song is so great, so perfect that words are bound to fail to describe the awesomeness of this tune.
This album contains brutally, hard music matched with brutally, hard lyrics that reflect how hard life truly is.
The music may seem unpleasant to many ears and sensibilities- but it is ultimately, freeing and rewarding. And, I’ve found, that if you can move forward with the knowledge and acceptance of what you’re dealing with in life, it can lead you to a more aware and finally, a more positive way of living.
As foolish and frivolous and Bang and I can be- we’ve always been aware of the music that was currently the most powerful and potent, hard hitting, raw and real.
When it hits you like an eight-wheeler plowing straight through your mind and soul. Than this is the music we’ve enjoyed muchly.
And here’s some more of it right here.
(Slimedog)
