Suicide Silence - Graceless [Translucent Tan]

Suicide Silence cut straight to the bone on Graceless, a lean, vicious return pressed here on translucent tan vinyl.

Two decades into a career marked by grief, reinvention and backlash, the Riverside, California deathcore pioneers sound hungry again. This time the band wrote together in a room, arranging ideas as a unit, and guitarist Chris Garza has framed the album as a return to the basics: getting out of the way, serving the band's identity and playing heavy music from the heart.

Vocalist Eddie Hermida leads a lineup with Garza and Mark Heylmun on guitars, Dan Kenny on bass and Ernie Iniguez behind the kit. Across eleven tracks, the record mixes death-metal violence, hardcore confrontation and bouncing grooves built for the pit. The title track is over in under two minutes and wastes none of them, "Make Your Exit" followed with its own video, and "Reminders of Hell" lends its name to the band's tour.

Most songs land around the three-minute mark, which keeps the whole thing tight and punishing from start to finish. It is ugly in the best possible way, physical and immediate, and a reminder of why this band helped shape a genre in the first place. The tan pressing makes a striking home for something this brutal.