Suicide HolidayThis L.A. band started in 2005 by German Ralf Dietal whose claim to fame was a “30 day career as a Nine Inch Nails guitar player” according to the band’s press kit. I don’t know if that’s really an exclusive club, seeing as NIN mastermind, Trent Reznor has used approximately 2,716 guitar players throughout NIN’s existence. This is Suicide Holiday’s debut full-length after self-releasing two EP’s and winning a “Rock City News Award” for “Best Independent Touring Band” in 2007. I don’t know how high SicZine’s readers may hold a RCNA in their realm of prestige, however, I think I can safely say “it doesn’t mean shit to them”. So, let’s get down to business and judge the tunes.
This CD actually has a lot of potential if it wasn’t weighed down with enough ‘cheese’ to make Mickey sick as shit. Let’s start with the positive. The dual guitars are excellent and the steady and flawless rhythm guitar complements the proficient and catchy lead perfectly. The drumming suit’s the songs well, never trying too much or holding the songs back with worthless, unnecessary fills. At times they seem to drive some of the tracks when the other instruments and vocals are a little flat or redundant. The vocals aren’t entirely bad and fit the musical style pretty well, but become tiresome and are strictly unemotional with little-to-no variances. The background vocals are brutally horrible and conflicting when they do appear such as in ‘Shot The World’ for example.
The background vocals have led us into the negative attributes of this album. The biggest issue I have with this band is the unoriginality and most of all…the aforementioned ‘cheese’ factor. Every dynamic, every chorus and every time change feels like I have heard it before. This band is very good at their respective instruments and no doubt will find continued success with any hard rock audiences, but it has all been done countless times before throughout the mid-late 90’s. In fact if this band began a decade earlier, they may have sold a boatload of CD’s already. I understand it’s a little contradictory for a hardcore zine and writer to criticize anyone for not being original when 95% of hardcore bands bring nothing new to the table. Hardcore punk though is an emotional and inclusive genre of music. Band’s don’t have to be innovative, they just have to write good songs and be passionate about them. I don’t feel any passion from Suicide Holiday regardless of what style of music they produce.
The fact that this band is from L.A. and have a good local following in Hollywood doesn’t surprise me though. This is a band that you’d expect all the trendy young actresses to be wearing their band shirt in the gossip rags. You know, those hard rock bands that get popular because some actress is dating a member of the band, yet they offer nothing to set them apart from other bands of their genre. And this band fits right into their Hollywood surroundings thanks to that ‘cheese’ factor. The ‘cheese’ originates from the lyrics and choruses in these tracks. I can close my eyes and randomly point to any song on this CD and find poorly written lyrics that sound like a 13 year old wrote in the back of 8th grade Science class. The worst examples of these poorly written lyrics/choruses usually come at the end of each song such as “c’mon and dig it, c’mon and dig it, digging a graaave! (repeat 3x)” on the track ‘Digging A Grave’ or “I shot it!, I shot it!, I shot the world today! (repeat several times)” on track, ‘I shot The World Today’.
Rating: 1.75/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: 'Poison’ & ‘Nothing’
Synopsis: Typical Hollywood hard rock band…they can play their instruments well, have a finely produced recording, can probably (though I’m just speculating), name-check a few celebrities amongst their fans and are weighed down with enough unoriginality and pompous ‘cheese’ to make this a forgettable release.