Suiciety

To the very limited information I could find on this band, they started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA in 1985. They released two demos in 1985 and 1986, then their first full length album was released in 1988 entitled "Endless War", which was released through Roadrunner Records. They then released "Suiciety" in 1990. After "Suiciety" was released they searched for a new label and supposedly recorded a full length album's worth of material that has never been released due to their demise in 1992.

So without further rambling, I bring you Realm's "Suiciety".

With this progressive/technical thrash I am always weary, because A LOT can go wrong with this style. I've heard many bands try to pull this sound off and it just sounds...bad. The key to this style is having talented musicians. Not to belittle classic-sounding thrash, because I love that sound too, but you need much more talented and skilled musicians to pull off this sound properly. Realm is one of those bands that HAS the skill necessary to pull this off.

As you listen through this album, you are taken on a journey of great riffing. All the songs on this album for the most part are chock full of awesome riffs and creative interludes that tie the songs together. The progressive elements work great throughout the songs without sounding weak. That's the key - thrash metal needs that edge, and sometimes the progressive elements can dull that. Not with Realm. They knew what they were doing and executed it well. It was to the point that while I was working on various things, I'd stop and just bob my head to the song. This is what it is all about. Fantastic.

The trend with most progressive thrash bands is to throw some bass fills into the songs. This album unfortunately doesn't have too many of these, which is really disappointing. The bass reminds me of that of Tom Araya-sounding, very twangy-ish bass. The bass just isn't memorable, which is surprising given the quality of the guitar work, but it is very audible and that's nice.

Thrash metal has never been known for groundbreaking drum work. The bulk of thrash drumming is focused around speed to keep the tempo of the song fast to faster. As many who listen to thrash, they can see it draws obvious inspiration from the punk style of drumming. Realm's drummer moves away from this, not totally but does a good job of spicing it up throughout the songs. It's not groundbreaking, but it's defiantly a nice change from stock thrash drumming. At times, it's really creative and sounds great, others...it's what you'd expect from a thrash band. Overall, above average for sure.

The vocalist has tremendous range and can do more aggressive style vocals while reaching those high notes multiple times with ease. I love this mix of vocal style throughout the songs as it keeps it interesting and draws you in, plus the awesome production this album has makes it sound just great.

Realm did a fantastic job with this album. It has a lot of creative elements throughout the songs and keeps you enthralled throughout the album. It's not a straightforward album whatsoever. It's not fast all the way through, nor is it slow. It's all over the place with speed. The soloing is beautiful and compliments the songs immensely. It does have its moments where I think they could have made a better transition or added something here and there, but this is a minor concern.

I give Realm's "Suiciety" a very solid 8.5/10.

Thrash Till Death!

-Fritz

www.osiriswebzine.blogspot.com

Pretty much everyone knows that Roadrunner records has become one of the most detested, reviled, and flat out disregarded record labels in the “true” metal scene, and deservedly so. The label used to support a grand collection of classic death metal bands like Gorguts, Malevolent Creation, and Cynic, but now it produces garbage like Nickelback and Slipknot. Well, Roadrunner had one band in the late 80s/early 90s that wasn’t death metal, but was also excellent and highly underrated, and that band is Realm.

Realm was founded in 1985 by guitarists Paul Laganowski and Takis Kinis with the intention of creating heavy, progressive, technical, and futuristic sounding music. In that same year, they released their Perceptive Incentive demo, and with this, they got some great gigs (including opening for Megadeth), but, more importantly, they got the attention of Roadrunner. After this, they replaced their old rhythm section with Steve Post on bass and Mike Olson on drums. Realm then recorded and released their Final Solution demo, which was successful by demo standards, selling thousands of copies. But Realm soon realized that they needed a new vocalist, and tapped Mark Antoni for the job. Soon, Realm were finally signed by Roadrunner based on their first two demos, and they released Endless War in 1988, and the subject of this review, Suiciety, in 1990.

I randomly stumbled upon the initial release of their second (and unfortunately last) album Suiciety awhile back while going through a box of mostly non-metal used CDs, and I picked this one out purely based on the metal-ness of the logo hoping for the best, and I was incredibly surprised by it. Although I feel like I may be taking a big leap here, I think I might even compare this band to Atheist in terms of instrumentation, although they’re not quite that good and much more in vein with traditional thrash metal than the unique and genre-defying technical death metal sound that Atheist had. But regardless, this band has a very solid sound, powered forward by pounding bass lines high in the mix, intricate and clever riffs, soaring vocals, and subtle, yet complicated drumming. On Suiciety, Realm presents many great ideas and constructs their songs very well, mixing in progressive parts with regular thrash parts very nicely. Tracks like ‘Gateway’, ‘The Brainchild’, and ‘La Flemme’s Theory’ successfully represent many of the different ideas that Realm implements to create an original, fresh, inspiring piece of thrash metal right after thrash had supposedly died.

There’s not much to say about the production on this album, other than that it’s great. It really fits the sound, while also giving every instrument it’s chance to shine, especially the bass, which is so often buried in the mix in metal.

Those who know my tastes know that I am usually bored to death by thrash metal. The uninspiring riffs, uncreative bass, and generic drum work just doesn’t interest me in any way, shape, or form. But Realm is a thrash band that I can truly appreciate. They craft thought-provoking songs with excellent musical craftsmanship.

Realm re-released both of their albums through Metal Mind Records in 2006, limited to 2000 copies each. If there are any left, I highly recommend that you get them.

Written for http://thenumberoftheblog.com/

Realm's debut Endless War remains one of my favorite US tech speed/thrash metal albums of all time, a beautiful balance of intense, aggressive and innovative melodic riffing and the shrill siren of Mark Antoni's psychotic wave-like voice. It would easily make my short list of best all-time US thrash; every song was brilliant.

It's followup Suiciety follows a very similar style and perhaps becomes even more creative with its dynamic thrash. For instance, you heard few bands of this sort making such intense use of the bass, yet Steve Post is all over this thing, playfully plodding below the twisting and frantic guitars. The disjointed intro "Rise" leads into the excellent "Cain Rose Up", with Antoni's voice going ballistic. It's either going to turn you off completely or make you fall in love and worship everything this band has ever done. "Fragile Earth" is another excellent track with some great mute picking and thundering bass. "Energetic Discontent" could perfectly sum up the band's entire style, and I love those solos in the beginning. "Gateway" weaves a nice complex riffing structure with some experimentation and guitar effects. "Final Solution" is just as fun as anything on the debut. Also of note is the excellent and lengthy title track, which you might consider an epic of technical Milwaukee thrash! There is also "Dick" which...well it's a little silly but not for lack of good music.

The mix is pretty interesting here because the vocals and bass really dominate. The drums and guitars are clear as day though, it's just that they don't take any priority. The musicianship is superb as it always had been with this band. The vocals are almost as wild and rangy as King Diamond himself, without aping the lord of darkness. Realm truly had an original take on this style and it's a complete fucking shame they didn't get more recognition than they did. In the end I don't think Suiciety was quite the masterpiece Endless War was, but it's still a damn fine followup and if you love the first album you will also find a lot to enjoy with this.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

If you're a fan of progressive or technical thrash, you'll love this cd. I can't believe nobody has reviewed this yet, because this cd kicks some major ass. Suiciety is even better than their previous release "Endless War", and that cd was great as well.


Realm is hard to describe in terms of another band. Nobody else really sounds like them. Maybe some of the guitar rhythms sound a bit like Toxik. They have high pitched vocals that are sometimes kind of wiggly sounding as if the vocalist is being violently shaken by an angry gorilla. You'll understand what I mean if you have either of their cd's. The music itself is very technical, so for some people it may take a couple of listens to really appreciate it and digest all that the music has to offer. It is one of those cd's that you will find something new in every time you listen to it for the first few times. "Suiciety" also has some progressive elements to it, but they aren't as pronounced as in "Endless War". This is also the heavier and of the two cd's. Compared to "Endless War", this is also far more technical. The technicality should by no means scare you off if you're not used to technical thrash. It seems to add a lot of replay value to the cd.


The cd begins with a short intro that sounds pretty fucked up. Kinda reminds me of an alien spaceship coming down with a little bit of guitar in the background. Will the listener be anal probed? You won't get anal probed, but you'll get your ass handed to you by the riffing madness in the next song. "Cain Rose Up" really will annihilate you with fast paced riffs and the wiggly, yet powerful vocals. I'm not gonna go into the detail of every song on here, but in the next few songs, expect more fast riffing, tempo changes, more wiggly vocals and the occasional "Satan in a cave" vocals. The beginning of "Final Solution" has more of that alien spaceship noise. It seems we have some fuckin metal aliens here because as soon as the song's intro is over, we get some intense, fast riffing that makes me wanna punch a mule in the face. The next song is "The Brainchild" and holy fuckin shit this song kicks ass. This is hands down the best song on the cd. It begins slowly. The first few seconds make the song seem as if it'll be calm. Oh no. This is not the case. This is probably one of the fastest and most aggressive songs on the cd. It goes through multiple tempo changes varying between a midpaced calmer section and a fast, asskicking section. Sometimes the vocals even seem more gruff (at least for this vocalist). To top it off, the chorus is catchy as the black death in the middle ages. The next song has another alien-like intro which is different from the others and the song itself is slower to mid-paced. The next song "Dick" is much like the previous song and is probably my least favorite song, but it is still good."Knee Deep in Blood" is a kickass mid-paced thrasher with a sweet angry chorus where they just angrily repeat the name of the track. Finally the title track comes, which clocks in at a little under 10 minutes. For the first minute we have silence. Then come in the alien spaceship sound effects again which tell us one thing: this track is gonna kick ass. At about 3:38 into the song we get some riffs that sound very urgent and help build up the song a bit more into some fast riffing. Finally at about 7:05 we get silence again followed by some thunder in the background. Seems like they are trying to tell us that the storm of metal has ended. The asskicking metal is done and they leave us with calm wind and an occasional faint acoustic guitar line.


So to sum it up, This cd kicks ass. There are no bad songs to be found here. Even the production is perfect. I can find very few flaws in this cd. The only one perhaps is the song "Dick", which just seems slightly less good than all the rest, even though it is still a decent song. Metal Mind recently re-issued this cd and "Eternal War", but they are both limited to 2000 pressings, so you better get yours soon. If more people find out how good this cd is, you'll be shit out of luck.