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Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow... When I Can't Even Smile Today review




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Reviewer:
10

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8.48
Band: Suicidal Tendencies
Album: How Will I Laugh Tomorrow... When I Can't Even Smile Today
Release date: September 1988


01. Trip At The Brain
02. Hearing Voices
03. Pledge Your Allegience
04. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
05. The Miracle
06. Suicyco Mania [CD bonus]
07. Surf And Slam
08. If I Don't Wake Up
09. Sorry!?
10. One Too Many Times
11. Feeling's Back

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today is Suicidal Tendencies' third studio album and their departure from their previous hardcore punk era which was heavily featured on their self titled debut and their second album Join The Army. Here, the band is starting to transform, and Suicidal Tendencies is one of if not the most important and influential band in the genre of crossover thrash.

Suicidal Tendencies only had one guitarist prior to How Will I Laugh Tomorrow who was Rocky George but this album had the addition of rhythm guitarist Mike Clark who was in another band, which vocalist Mike Muir also fronted. Clark helped write almost every song on the record and thrashed his way through each of them giving George plenty of room to solo; and solo he did. George does fretboard gymnastics all over the record. We also saw the addition of bassist Bob Heathcote (who previous bassist Louiche Mayorga had recommended) and Heathcote does his part as bassist well. The opening song "Trip At The Brain" spawned a music video and was a single along with the title track which were both extremely popular. Though many hardcore fans of the band were upset that their musical direction had changed they gained another fan base within the thrash metal community. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow even debuted at #111 on the Billboard 200 and stayed up there for eleven weeks.

Almost every song is a ripping thrasher with the exception of "Pledge Your Allegiance" which some may say is a weaker track but is easy to sing along with and is a very catchy tune which contains the chant at the end of the song: "Suicidal, Suicidal, Suicidal" which is often chanted live. For this, the band was attacked by the PMRC, which was run by Tipper Gore. The tracks "Surf And Slam" and "Suicyco Mania" are near instrumentals with the exception of the shouting of the title of the songs. The album almost never has any swearing and deals with a different type of content, not the violence and death that most thrash bands were singing about but a more emotional side about feelings of being alone and sadness. The production of the album was a huge increase from Join The Army as well.

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today is a thrash masterpiece. In my opinion one the greatest albums from one of the greatest bands. Definitely Suicidal Tendencies' best album. Very few albums deserve a perfect 10 but in my opinion this is one of the very few.

Every track on the album is righteous but my personal favorites are: "Sorry?!" "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow" and "The Feelings Back"


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 9
Production: 10

Written by SuicidalCyco | 13.06.2013




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Staff review by
BitterCOld
Rating:
8.2
Suicidal Tendencies was one of the more influential and important bands of the hard core/thrash cross over. Their first two release - the absolutely ripping self titled debut and the decent "Join the Army" were punk records with decidedly metallic influences.

Their third release, 1988's "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today?" saw them cross over to the thrash metal side of the fence.

Read more ››
published 04.05.2009 | Comments (7)



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