Suicide Bombers: ‘Suicide Idols’

SUICIDE BOMBERS
SUICIDE IDOLS
Released on April 21, 2017 (Suicide Records)

Review:
You got to hand it to the Suicide Bombers and particularly their mastermind frontman Chris Damien Doll. They do a lot of things right! In fact, they do a lot of things great! Let’s start off with the eye catching album cover for Suicide Bombers‘ latest album Suicide Idols. Yes, the colours are similar to the ones used for the Sleaze Roxx website but that’s beside the point. The cover for the Suicide Idols album immediately caught my attention when I saw it. Back in the old days when kids often bought heavy metal albums simply based on the album cover by itself, this one would have been snatched up many times. The CD booklet for Suicide Idols is also impressive and especially taking into account that the Suicide Bombers presumably don’t have a label behind them. I assume that “Suicide Records” is something created by Doll and the Suicide Bombers.

And what about the album intro? It’s probably the best one since Mötley Crüe‘s “In The Beginning” for their epic Shout At The Devil album or Iron Maiden‘s “Intro: Churchill’s Speech” for their classic Live After Death live record. Suicide Bombers‘ opening intro track “Intro: A Divine Transmission” may well have you chuckling as the narrator proclaims the virtues of the band and its members without holding anything back. Despite the narrator advising that Suicide Bombers are “beyond criticism”, I will nevertheless give a bit of a critique although most of it is going to quite positive because Suicide Bombers‘ latest album Suicide Idols really rocks!

If every song was as strong as “Suicide Idol”, this would be a contender for album of the year. Truth is, I really enjoy every song on Suicide Idols except for “Sex Star Icon” which simply does not have the melodies and hooks that all the other tracks on the album seem to have. One impressive thing about Doll is that even though he is far from being the best vocalist, the songs are written in a way that his raspy voice really shines throughout. Throw in some timely background vocals and sing along type choruses for many of the songs and you have some very enjoyable vocals to listen to. Even though Doll also known as The Sleaze Fuhrer has a rough and tumble delivery, unlike for instance fellow raspy vocalist Blackie Lawless (as of the last 15 years), you can actually understand quite clearly exactly what Doll is saying.

I really like that the Suicide Bombers kept things simple with their songs by really building and capitalizing on simple guitar riffs, giving the listener the time to hear Doll‘s vocals and simply not overplaying on any of the songs with over the top guitar solos or anything like that. It’s like if there was a conscious effort to really put the songs first ahead of anyone else. My one beef with Suicide Idols is that I find that the best tracks are the slightly upbeat ones like “Suicide Idol,” “We Got Tonight” and “Keep An Eye On You.” For the rest of the songs, Suicide Bombers deliver catchy songs that will likely have you singing along at some point but it seems the brakes on those tracks were applied a little bit too much. I am pretty sure that if I was to see the Suicide Bombers play live, tracks like “Ready For Tonight,” “Generation Kill” and “Next World War” would all be sped up for the occasion. It’s kind of like KISS‘ slowed down versions of their now many classic tracks on their first three studio albums that simply come alive (pun intended) on Alive!, which was their breakthrough record. The contrast is likely not as sharp for Suicide Bombers but had most of the songs been sped up even a smidgen, it would have made them even better.

That being said, it’s worth emphasizing that all of the songs (except for “Sex Star Icon”) on Suicide Idols are really good, catchy (despite Doll‘s raspy vocals) and very well crafted. I’m thinking this year’s Sleaze Roxx’s Top Ten Albums may need to be expanded to a top 20 because there are way too many very strong releases this year and we’re not even halfway through the year. And oh yeah, Suicide Idols is one of this year’s very strong releases. Suicide Idols does not appear available on the usual channels such as Amazon or iTunes so if you want to snag a copy, I know Doll is an active participant on Facebook and can be reached via the band’s Facebook page.

Track List:
01. Intro: A Divine Transmission
02. Suicide Idol
03. Ready For Tonight
04. Next World War
o5. Never Gonna Change
06. We Got Tonight
07. Keep An Eye On You
08. Generation Kill
09. Sex Star Icon
10. Waiting
11. Just One Fuck
12. Outro: Over And Motherfucking Out (Part 3)

Band Members:
Chris Damien Doll – The Sleaze Fuhrer – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Lazy Leather – The Sex Gunslinger – lead guitar, backing vocals
C-Slim – The Thunder Mechanic – bass, backing vocals
Lyle Starr – The Beat Commando – drums

Additional Musicians:
Dave Derglin – narration (1, 12)

Production:
Arranged by Suicide Bombers
Engineered by C-Slim
Mixed and mastered by Maria Maxwell

Band Website:
Facebook

Reviewed by Olivier for Sleaze Roxx, June 2017

Suicide Bombers‘ “Suicide Idol” video:

SUiCIDE BOMBERS – SUiCiDE iDOL (Official Music Video)

SUiCiDEBOMBERS #SuicideIdols #SUiCiDEiDOL #overandmotherfuckingout #officialmusicvideo #rock #sleaze #ChrisDamienDollSUiCiDE BOMBERS – SUiCiDE iDOL (Officia…

Suicide Bombers‘ “Ready For Tonight” video:

SUiCiDE BOMBERS – READY FOR TONiGHT (Official Music Video)

SUiCiDEBOMBERS #SuicideIdols #ReadyForTonight #overandmotherfuckingout #officialmusicvideo #rock #sleaze #ChrisDamienDollSUiCiDE BOMBERS – Ready For Tonight…