MARK HEYLMUN of Suicide Silence: Death Before Dishnour – The Evolution Of Deathcore
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
The release of any new music from a well-established band is always highly anticipated, but never before has a new record created such polarization of fans as Suicide Silence’s self-titled fifth studio album. Following the death of founding member and lead singer Mitch Lucker in 2012 and the inclusion of new lead singer Hernan ‘Eddie’ Hermida in 2013, the band have embraced a new direction and they stand by their work. Speaking with lead guitarist Mark Heylmun we explore some of the themes of the album and the thought processes behind it.
Tracks 1 [Doris] & 2 [Silence] are the first singles to be released from the new album. Have you released them in sequence as a subtle hint to listen to the album in accordance with the track listing; to start the journey at the beginning and travel through to the end?
Ah maybe yeah and it’s a good assumption. I think in general what went into it is that any song on this record released was going to be a shock and we feel that yes the record needs to be listened to as a whole and it’s going to require the record being out and people giving it a chance. These songs are good and we like them, we have another single which is ‘Dying in a Red Room’ coming out this weekend right when the record comes out, which kinda breaks the chronological order. But yes absolutely the record is a journey and it’s to be listened to as a piece, as a whole, cause all these songs, they kinda work together and they flow into each other and out of each other so yes and no to your question [laughs]
Speaking of the first single [Doris] – who does the song refer to?
A lot of people ask about it, because Doris is the name of the Statue of Liberty on ‘…And Justice for All’ [album cover] so everyone thinks it’s a Metallica reference and it’s not [laughs] Plain and simple Doris is Eddies Aunt, it’s a story of her and how Eddie’s family was tested when they were going through some hard times.
With this album you really have pushed the boundaries and it has caused a lot of controversy. Your second single [Silence] features the lyrics “to hold your head high, ego must be low” does this allude to the pushing of said boundaries and that to put yourself out there and take a chance you have to keep the ego low so that you can say yeah, we are proud of this?
Yeah you hit it on the head really. It’s very hard to predict the future and we we’re trying not to predict the future. We were trying to create a future that we can’t expect, something that is going to be new and different whether its love, hate, all of it. So when it comes to that song Silence, it’s really a self-reflection of the process that we were going through when we were working on this new approach to the music. Its observing how we were feeling and how Eddie was feeling and also kinda a love song to the voices in your head and the silence that we are trying to avoid in this day and age with so much activity and so many things that keep you distracted. Not listening to what is going on inside of us – which is what we really should be paying attention to – following our souls, following our hearts and so yeah, you’re catching the drift! If we’re going to add to the noise we would like to add noise in a way to inspire people to be themselves, period. And that’s kinda where Silence is at.
With the fourth album You Can’t Stop Me the band were still possibly finding their feet with Eddie at the reigns. Do you personally feel that the band is now moving as one?
When Eddie joined the band, to satisfy the fans, to satisfy our egos I guess, we quicktracked; we put clicktrack in every one of our songs which we have never done. We’re usually up there just flowing off of each other playing live, playing as a band, moving with the feel of everything. But when Eddie joined, because we wanted to give fans and people who were going to come out to the shows the experience that they may have heard on the records we clicktracked to the tempos that we recorded to on the record. And somewhere in the light of us playing all these shows, we just kinda started feeling like fuck this clicktrack shit, like we never used to do this, this isn’t really us. Now Eddies flowing, we’re flowing so we stopped playing to a clicktrack and just felt the realness of it all and we’re so ready to do this again which is what we did on ‘The Cleansing’ [album]. We just went in the studio and recorded a record, did it all live and from the heart and that’s what came out, that is what ‘The Cleansing’ was. There was no deathcore before that you know; ‘The Cleansing’ was one of the pieces that birthed deathcore.
So with this record, we wanted to do a self-titled [album] which can bring out the best of ourselves and really help us build. We knew that when we just stripped away the machine of it all and we were flying like humans again, vibing off of each other, that something really cool was going to come out. That’s pretty much the inspiration of the record too, just knowing that we are a well-oiled machine and that when we put our minds to it and our hearts to it that something bad ass is gonna come.
Besides wanting to create something different, what were some of the biggest non-musical influences for this album?
I want to say, as ethereal and weird as it is: mortality. We were approaching this record from an aspect of if we all were to die after this and we never release another piece of music how would we want to leave, how would we want to affect listeners? I think that influenced us to want to write a record that would inspire people to be free from caring about judgment, be free of trying to create art that is purely there to satisfy the people that are gonna see it or hear it. In general a lot of pent up creative energy that we had been harbouring for years that we put at bay because we thought that people wouldn’t respond well. But now that we’re older and have been doing it long enough it’s like people can respond however they want and that’s perfectly fine; that’s the way it should be, that’s how everyone is, their gonna respond exactly the way they are and that’s the way we want to encourage people with this record to feel. Exactly the way they are.
In the track ‘Listen’ there is a line that says “The perfect storm will never be good enough” what does that personally mean to you?
The song is basically about the thoughts that go on inside your head, that no matter how you interpret them you interpret them to be a negative. Even if the storm was perfect and washed everything away and just destroyed everything; you can look at it as if it was destroyed and it’s never gonna come back again and everything that you knew is gone; or the perfect storm will come and wash everything away and leave room for something new and something different to rebuild. The whole song is just kinda about being there for anybody; anybody that is feeling suicidal or feeling like they don’t want to exist anymore but they’re not looking at the world in a way of temporary things, they’re looking at it as something that is there forever and that will affect them and that it’s never going to end. And that’s why we’re saying, listen, I’ll listen to what you have going on in your life, I wanna give you a different perspective of it and try and help you see a different way.
So is this particular evolution of the beast that is Suicide Silence now complete or do you believe that you guys will shed your skin a few more times yet?
It’s a never-ending work, I mean we’re already talking about what we’re gonna do on the next record and how we’re gonna go from here. It’s always worth taking the next step and looking to the future but [also] being here and being with what we have right in front of us.
Hand on heart do you guys still consider yourselves deathcore? Or do you say fuck you to genre and sub-genre labels?
Well we have kinda always said fuck you to genres and then eventually we were like whatever, you wanna call us deathcore that’s fine it’s not the end of the world. I would say that we’re just taking a step in the next direction of what deathcore could be and that’s the evolution of deathcore I guess.
Do you have any messages for the New Zealand Suicide Silence fans?
New Zealand fans! Every time I have been to New Zealand I’ve had such a good time meeting fans, [and] just local people around. I can’t wait to be there again! Last time I was there we hung out with fuckin Phil Anselmo and played with Down which was like one of the craziest memories I’ve had of my life. I look forward to making it down there and making more memories; having a good time and sharing this music with everyone. Thank you for everything, we’re always grateful for our fans anywhere, but New Zealand is fucken’ badass!