Review by Daniel for Suicidal Tendencies - Join the Army (1987)

Crossover thrash… it’s always been more of a niche subgenre really. In fact, when most metalheads hear that term mentioned there’s usually only a short list of bands that pop into their minds & almost all of them are American with California being one of the more notorious breeding grounds for these hybrid groups (along with New York of course). Historians investigating the roots of the Californian scene will almost certainly begin by looking at two key occurrences. One would be the relocation of D.R.I. from Houston to San Francisco in 1983 with D.R.I. going on to become a huge influence on the early crossover scene. Their 1985 debut album “Dealing With It” represents arguably the first genuine crossover record to be released globally & it would provide the basic building blocks for other East Coast bands like fellow San Franciscans Attitude Adjustment & Santa Monica’s Cryptic Slaughter to launch their careers off with 1986 seeing full-length releases from both acts. 

Now, you may be waiting for me to announce the second key moment as Suicidal Tendencies’ self-titled debut album from 1983 but that’s not exactly where I’m going with this. Suicidal’s debut was indeed a very important & influential record for the local scene but it wasn’t technically a crossover thrash release in my opinion. The band were still closer to a standard hardcore outfit at that point. Sure, they may have incorporated some flashy, chorus-effected guitar solos into their repertoire which was generally discouraged in the punk scene but there wasn’t a major metal influence on the riffs & song structures just yet. That element of the band’s sound wouldn’t be fully developed until talented guitarist Rocky George replaced Jon Nelson in their lineup the following year; a lineup change that would prove to be more significant than any of the band members probably realized at the time as it would subsequently alter the course of Californian crossover history. 

Suicidal Tendencies’ sophomore album wouldn’t be released until 1987 which was a full four years after their debut had taken the underground by storm. By that stage the crossover thrash sound had been fully formed & defined by bands like D.R.I., S.O.D. & Corrosion Of Conformity, so why are Suicidal so often referenced as being one of the innovators? Well for starters, the band was first formed in the Venice beach area way back in 1980 which predates almost all of the other key players & secondly, they always had small elements of metal in their sound & had been an influence on the early thrash metal bands like Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica & Slayer with their 1983 hit single “Institutionalized” building a sizable cult following after introducing the MTV audience to hardcore. But it was arguably the involvement of Suicidal front man Mike Muir in building the Venice crossover scene that was the most important factor. A year after Rocky had joined the band, Muir would put together his own label known as Suicidal Records, intended primarily to give local hardcore & crossover bands an avenue for releasing their music. The label’s first release would be a compilation record entitled “Welcome To Venice” which included the Suicidal track “Look Up… (The Boys Are Back)”; a song that would see Suicidal pushing further out into more metal-infused waters than ever before. Interestingly, the record would also include material from Muir’s other two bands, Los Cycos (also featuring Suicidal bassist Louiche Mayorga & former guitarist Grant Estes) & No Mercy (with guitarist Mike Clark who would join Suicidal in 1987), along with fellow Venice locals Beowulf & Excel. All of these acts would become the basis for the Venice crossover scene in the years to follow with Beowulf, No Mercy & Excel all releasing their debut albums in 1986/87 which made “Welcome To Venice” quite significant in the grand scheme of things. 

The success of the debut would see Suicidal signing with Caroline Records (i.e. the New York sub-label of Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Records) for the follow-up “Join The Army”. Caroline hadn’t made all that big an impact with their previous undertakings but “Join The Army” would prove to be their first release to gain any genuine success with Suicidal reaching number 100 on the Billboard charts, most likely off the back of the popularity of “Institutionalized” as well as their strong following in the skateboarding scene. The cover artwork would be quite distinctive & I feel that this has played a part in the success of the album. The picture of a muscular solider making an obvious call to arms seems to be quite an ingenious play really. It’s not the most professional of images however it’s done well enough to satisfy the DIY punk rock & skateboarding philosophies but also draw in a new audience of fans who were looking to be a part of something fresh & underground. For this reason, the album cover has gone on to gain somewhat of a cult status in metal circles & is still instantly recognizable to this day. 

The band would co-produce the album with Primus bassist Lester Claypool whose only previous production experience with a metal-related release came through the 1984 live album “Live Sentence – No Parole From Rock ‘n’ Roll” from Graham Bonnet-fronted LA hard rockers Alcatrazz which would be followed up by engineering credits on the first two solo albums from super-talented young Alcatrazz guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. The result was probably not quite what the band would have hoped for as “Join The Army” certainly doesn’t sound as punchy & energetic as it’s more highly regarded older sibling. This is mainly due to a very tinny rhythm guitar tone that had much stronger ties to the hardcore scene than it did with metal. The guitars were also left too far back in the mix & there are some noticeable variations in both volume & balance across the tracklisting. The rhythm section sound much better & are able to overpower the guitars fairly comfortably with Louiche Mayorga’s bass guitar tone being the driving force behind the album. 

Despite being touted as the most important release in the growth of the crossover thrash subgenre by many, I have to say that “Join The Army” isn’t the most thrashy or metal sounding record. In fact, I’d suggest that the “crossover thrash” tag isn’t entirely accurate because this is definitely more of a transitional release that sees Suicidal still in the process of diluting their early hardcore sound. There’s really only a couple of genuine crossover thrash tracks included to be honest (see opener “Suicidal Maniac” & album highlight “I Feel Your Pain… & I Survive”) although there are further hints across some of the other tracks as well. The major component of the band’s sound was still hardcore punk in my opinion with more than half of the tracklisting sitting fairly comfortably under that banner. Perhaps this is contributed to by the guitar sound I mentioned earlier because it’s not particularly conducive to metal. There’s a reasonably strong influence from traditional heavy bands like Black Sabbath & Motorhead here too though with songs like the title track & “A Little Each Day” seeing Suicidal incorporating chuggy, mid-paced metal riffs just as often as they do your fast-paced & thrashy tremolo-picked ones. The skate punk links tend to be more of an aesthetic thing rather than anything attached to the band’s sound & I’d hazard to suggest that it’s really just the video clip for skater anthem “Possessed To Skate” that’s mainly responsible for that.  

One of the big differentiators from most of Suicidal’s peers in the 80’s hardcore & crossover scenes was the technical skill of the band as Suicidal show off a lot more talent than most of their competition were capable of at the time. They really were a very tight unit with each of the musicians sounding like they're in total control of their instruments. The performance of bassist Louiche Mayorga is of particular note as I’m really impressed with his contribution. There’s a lot of energy about his playing & he & drummer R.J. Herrera clearly have a very strong background in the punk scene. It’s interesting that Rocky George played in a hardcore punk side project band called Pap Smear from 1984-86 alongside Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman & drummer Dave Lombardo & I have to wonder whether that was where he picked up his interest in thrash. Rocky George is clearly a very talented shredder in his own right & is one of the real drawcards of Suicidal’s classic period releases for me personally. By his own admission, Rocky had an obsession with the elite musicians from all genres & you can hear that in just how confident & capable both his rhythm & lead work are. Suicidal always incorporated guitar solos (much the chagrin of punk purists) however Rocky was able to take things to another level &, in doing so, played the major role in gaining the attention & approval of a metal audience. 

One of the other major talking points of the “Join The Army” album is the change in direction from band leader & front man Mike Muir. The debut had seen him taking a more traditional hardcore approach to delivering his lyrics but here were see him moving in a couple of different directions. At times we find him toning back his aggression for a cleaner & more melodic delivery which often highlights his technical deficiencies. In fact, he can be quite pitchy during these moments & I find them to be pretty tough going for the most part. Then at other times he seems to be attempting to hit on a more gruff & muscular metal-oriented tone that’s equally ineffective. He really does annoy me here & I don’t think he was quite up to the task at this point in his career which actually results in him being the major contributor to me not really getting a lot of enjoyment out of the album overall. I honestly don’t think there are too many problems with the music from an instrumental point of view. It’s really just the Mike’s dodgy performance & the weaker production that put me off a bit along with the continual use of hardcore style gang vocals. 

Ultimately, “Join The Army” is a representation of a band that was still in transition from a very successful & confident hardcore punk band into a metal/punk hybrid. As I suggested earlier, I think it will still appeal more to the open-minded hardcore fan than the Big Four obsessed thrasher but almost every song incorporates some sort of reference to metal. I guess the crossover thrash tag is probably used as more of a catch-all given that there wasn’t really any other genre tag that fit at the time but I have to seriously doubt the credibility of statements that link “Join The Army” with the birth of the crossover thrash subgenre. I mean there were literally dozens of other crossover releases around between 1985-87 & many were of a much higher standard & sported a much more defined hybrid sound than what we get here. Perhaps it’s just a matter of taste though as the most iconic songs here seem to be some of the ones that appeal to me the least (particularly the God-awful title track which sounds more like Kid Rock than it does S.O.D.). “Join The Army” is a fairly inessential release in the Suicidal Tendencies discography &, although it could be regarded as a necessary evil for the role that it played in the development of their sound, I’d suggest skipping it & moving on to their next few releases. 

For fans of: DRI, Cro-Mags & “Animosity”-period Corrosion Of Conformity