Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal For Life

So what is everyone's opinion of this CD? I received an angry letter from a Suicidal fan telling me that I am not giving this album a fair chance. Soooo, I dug it out again and spun it this morning one more time.

I've long been a fan of Suicidal Tendencies. I like their early punk stuff, I loved their metal stuff, but this album just sort of left me cold. I've read that the band was pissed at the record company (Sony) for trying to dictate the direction they take on their next CD. OK, I can understand that, but why release and album like this? This is just mindless drivel, chock full of mindless profanity. I'm not against profanity. I mean, some of my favorite artists use it quite often. (Ted Nugent is the king of this.) Sometimes a carefully placed expletive can help make a point. However, this album just seems unintelligent. Just take a look at the song titles. There is no point to the profanity other than to create some controversy or something. Hey, 2-Live-Crew was making bucks off stringing endless profanities together around this time, why not Suicidal?

Am I missing something here? What's your opinion?

I didn't care for this album much either, so you're not alone. I loved their "mid period" stuff like HOW WILL I LAUGH TOMORROW..., FEEL LIKE SH*T/DEJA VU and especially LIGHTS, CAMERA, REVOLUTION, but ST went into a skid after that triple decker IMO. The STILL CYCO AFTER ALL THESE YEARS disc (a re-recorded version of the first album) was unnecessary at best, THE ART OF REBELLION had one good song ("Nobody Hears"), and then SUICIDAL FOR LIFE... ehhh, I dunno, it just sounded like bad gangsta metal to me. The profanity wasn't a big deal for me, it just sounded uninspired all around. I think between the constant S.T. recording/touring schedule and Mike's simultaneous work on Infectious Grooves, he just spread himself too thin.

I just checked Amazon and it seems about half the people agree with my point. The other half are praising it as one of the band's best. One reviewer took the middle ground and said it wasn't their best, but still gave it 5 stars.

Quote :

The Suicidal Tendencies, creaters of crossover classics "Institutionalized" and "Join the Army", not to mention thrash albums like "How will I Laugh" and "Controlled by Hatred" were regarded as a great band until around '94 when this came out. Like Metallica, Megadeath, Exodus, Forbidden, and Testament, here is a prime example of a band that just plain ran out of steam, but instead of hanging up the towel, decided to try and rip off their loyal fans by releasing this pathetic album called "Suicidal 4 Life". As I stated in my review of "Art of Rebellion", things went downhill in the worst way for this band in the 90's.
Just look at the song titles on this album and you will have an idea of how much creativity was involved in this release. These are not the social-political commentary, and suicidal teenage ainxte contained on the first album nor the energetic, dramatic expression found on How Will I Laugh, this is just mindless drivel chalk full of needless profanity.
Don't get me wrong, I listen to GG Allin for Christsake's! It's not like I am against profanity. But what is the point of throwing them into a song as much as possible when there isn't even a context to have them there? My theory is that the band, completely tapped out of creative inspiration decided that, in order to make a little quick cash, they would make a album with alot of swearing in it which would cause young kids to want to buy it. The problem is, they were about 5 years too late. Rock acts like GG Allin had been doing that since the early 80's and rappers like 2-Live Crew and Eazy-E had exploited the demographic to its max between '88 and '91. So the S.T.'s attempt at creating some kind of attention/attraction to the album was ill-fated.
Trust me, I'm a huge fan of this band's work, PRIOR TO THIS ALBUM, that is. But this album is a slap in the face to those who shell out the money for it. It's pure, chaotic, no tune, dry, lame gargage. If it were possible to give this album 0 stars, I would.

Its a terrible album. I got rid of fast.

i'd be in the group that thinks it's not their best, but still a good album. potty mouths don't really bother me none.

Believe it or not, Ult, the profanity is really what turns me off with this album. And I cuss up a storm! I have no issues with profanity at all, but like you said, it comes off as unintelligent here because it's just so over the top.

That said, I don't dislike the album, but it could have been a lot better. It's probably my least favorite.

It's a decent record. Not their best. But it does have a pissed off edge that ST seemed to lose with the Art Of Rebellion.

Is the profanity worse than Biohazard? Now that was some grade A cussing right there (which is why I don't listen to them anymore).

DallasBlack wrote:

Is the profanity worse than Biohazard? Now that was some grade A cussing right there (which is why I don't listen to them anymore).

yeah it's a pretty extreme amount of expletives. not for delicate ears like yours.

mc666 wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

Is the profanity worse than Biohazard? Now that was some grade A cussing right there (which is why I don't listen to them anymore).

yeah it's a pretty extreme amount of expletives. not for delicate ears like yours.

Are you kidding! You should hear the filth that comes out of my mouth when I'm pissed. I just get annoyed at too much cussing. For me it can make me like a song or movie less because I feel it is totally unncessary. A good song or movie can still be good without all the foul language.

Quote :

foul language

Buck, Buck!

ultmetal wrote:

So what is everyone's opinion of this CD? I received an angry letter from a Suicidal fan telling me that I am not giving this album a fair chance. Soooo, I dug it out again and spun it this morning one more time.

I've long been a fan of Suicidal Tendencies. I like their early punk stuff, I loved their metal stuff, but this album just sort of left me cold. I've read that the band was pissed at the record company (Sony) for trying to dictate the direction they take on their next CD. OK, I can understand that, but why release and album like this? This is just mindless drivel, chock full of mindless profanity. I'm not against profanity. I mean, some of my favorite artists use it quite often. (Ted Nugent is the king of this.) Sometimes a carefully placed expletive can help make a point. However, this album just seems unintelligent. Just take a look at the song titles. There is no point to the profanity other than to create some controversy or something. Hey, 2-Live-Crew was making bucks off stringing endless profanities together around this time, why not Suicidal?

Am I missing something here? What's your opinion?

I read that the band admitted the reason there was so much language was because they had a feeling it was going to be their last record, so they'd rather have an album that gets little to no airplay as their swan song, and having songs with lots of f-bombs would keep them from getting airplay.

They did break up not long after the album was made, too. Though they have since reformed.

They hated their label at the time (epic) and wanted to make the album hard to make money from.

This is one disc that I'm missing from their discography, but I've heard songs off of it on the Prime Cuts cd and the cussing doesn't bother me. Don't know if I'd have the same opinion if I heard the entire album though.

I can't believe this horrible cover of Suicidal's How Will I Laugh... by a crap band called "Black Art".

http://www.tower.com/suicide-in-venice-tribute-suicidal-tendencies-various-artists-cd/wapi/106008316

I didn't hate the album, but I remember being very disappointed on this album and 'Art of Rebellion' but it has been several years since I have heard them.

DallasBlack wrote:

Is the profanity worse than Biohazard? Now that was some grade A cussing right there (which is why I don't listen to them anymore).

Four of the songs have the "F" word in the title. So you can just imagine.

I was just perusing Suicidal Tendencies on Wikipedia, and when I got to the page for "Suicidal For Life", the last thing stated regarding this album was:

"As of 2008, the album has been demoted to a budget release".

I just thought it funny that someone took the time out to let us know where this album most likely will be found; which is that of the proverbial sh!t bin.

Doesn't mean much to me as many of the CDs I love go for very cheap:

Flame-s/t (great melodic hard rock I got in a discount bin over 10 years ago)
Extreme-III Sides To Every Story (to recapture it several years ago only cost me a couple of pennies and shipping)
The Showdown-Temptation Come My Way (looked on amazon and you can get it for less than $2)

There are several other examples of CDs you can find in the "proverbial sh!t bin".

DallasBlack wrote:

Doesn't mean much to me as many of the CDs I love go for very cheap:

Flame-s/t (great melodic hard rock I got in a discount bin over 10 years ago)
Extreme-III Sides To Every Story (to recapture it several years ago only cost me a couple of pennies and shipping)
The Showdown-Temptation Come My Way (looked on amazon and you can get it for less than $2)

There are several other examples of CDs you can find in the "proverbial sh!t bin".

Hell, I don't care either, I just find it amusing that someone posted this to protect the metal buying community from potentially getting hornswaggled at various retail outlets. Then again, good luck in finding this C.D. I don't think I've come upon this relic in years.

this cd can easily be found...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=suicidal+for+life&sprefix=suicidal+for+

mc666 wrote:

this cd can easily be found...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=suicidal+for+life&sprefix=suicidal+for+

I was referring to the retail store level. Funny enough, when I walk into Best Buy, they always seem to have "How Will I laugh", "Lights, Camera, Revolution", (the same can also be said of the local FYE). When I go into two of the used C.D stores in my town that I frequent, I see everything from "Join the Army" through "Art of Rebellion".

I've yet to hear this C.D, but due to all the negative responses, it's not high on the priority list. What a shame, since I loved that Suicidal lineup!

Yeah, this album is everywhere. Maybe not retail copies, but plenty of used copies in retail shops.

Eyesore wrote:

Yeah, this album is everywhere. Maybe not retail copies, but plenty of used copies in retail shops.

Really? It's funny how some people will see certain albums in their used C.D stores like they're going out of style, because I don't think I've ever seen this particular album lying around. Hell, I would pick it up for $4.99 (which is the going rate these days at the two stores I visit). I've been getting pretty lucky as of late these days with pickups. Yesterday I picked up 6 used C.D's for right around $21.00 (the old buy 2 get one free deal). So, I got Dokken's "Live From the Sun" (which I don't believe I've ever seen), Europe "Final Countdown" (remastered), Slaughter's "Stick it To Ya" (remastered), Sepultura (Chaos A.D '96 release w/bonus tracks), Suicidal Tendencies "Lights, Camera, Revolution", & Shooting Star S/t (or so I thought). The Shooting Star ended up being a release of not just their 1st album, but was packaged along with their 2nd album "Hang on For Your Life"! I was pretty pumped to find this out, because nothing on the outside of the C.D indicated this. You would probably like this band Eyesore, since you like Journey. They're an AOR band out of Kansas City.

Yeah, I dig Shooting Star. I have three or four of their albums. Good band.