Suicidal Tendencies
Freedumb

THE REVIEW

For hardcore enthusiasts, Suicidal Tendencies had sold out long before 1999, the year 'Freedumb' was released. Those with a more open mindset will not hesitate to notice their evolution, the sound skillfully refined in the sixteen years separating the self-titled 'Suicidal Tendencies', without ever losing the grit that had characterized them since 1983.

The album is fluid, there is substantial consistency in the tracks (with the exception of the last track, Heaven, which still fits the theme if not with the rest of the songs, at least with the group's name), which does not mean that 'Freedumb' is a single song reproduced by copy-pasting 14 times in a row, only changing the titles. Firstly, the drums are never the same; they are not two drumsticks flailing on the snare while the drummer's frantic foot wears out the bass drum. Nothing like that. The bass emerges and distinguishes itself from the guitar; in many songs, we have two overlapping voices: Suicidal Tendencies ensured that the sound was not flat, perfectly succeeding in doing so.

'Freedumb' is power and will together; it results from not just a musical growth of Suicidal Tendencies. At this point, the group's name no longer does them justice: there's no longer the desire to die, the suicidal tendency of the early career. The music is no longer a gloomy letting go, a slow, painful requiem.

"When I don't know what to think
Then I don't know what to say
When I don't know what to do
I still do it anyway

So if I sound confused
You're listening all wrong
I take it piece by piece
And I cut what gets too long"
(from the track "Half Way Up My Head")

Suicidal Tendencies have decided to be present; they make themselves known in a scene they still feel part of. A musical scene, the HC ("We Are Family"), with all the themes related to it (the discomfort expressed in the lyrics of "Naked"). But not only that. The ST address all of America, the entire Western world in the title track, aware of the lack of freedom in their country: "Peace through politics - is a fallacy that does not exist […] Where's your freedom?"

Scream out: this is how Suicidal Tendencies decided to fight. Does it sound like a stupid way to you? Listen to this album when you wake up or when you're stuck in morning traffic on your way to the office. It will make you feel better right away.