Sweet Sweet Suicide

Surface appearances and first impressions notwithstanding, not all incoherent screaming says the same thing. Some incoherent screaming says "Kill yourself." Some says "Don't get up — we'll do the killing for you." And some just says "Whee! Isn't this fun!" Silence the Foe can't seem to decide which kind of screaming they're engaged in, and frankly, that's just fine — it keeps things more interesting than you'd expect. The other aspect of Silence the Foe's work that keeps it interesting is what sounds like genuine, unironic Christian belief: on "Everything They Thought Was Everything" the singer shrieks, "No one can ever take me away from thee/'Cause I will never ever deny my faith in Jesus Christ," and there doesn't seem to be any reason to think he's kidding. So what about the title track, which features lines like "I'll use my starting gun/Sweet sweet suicide" and "I'm dead to live/Suicidal homicide"? Well, read the lyrics closely and it looks like he's talking about killing the natural man in the theological sense rather than in the physical sense. Musically, things are more pedestrian, and stick pretty close to the hardcore mainstream, except for the borderline-melodic call-and-response vocals on the title track. Note also the two Quicktime videos included on the disc's CD-ROM track; the video for "Playing With the Old Me" is gorgeously filmed. Recommended.