Suicidal Tendencies – Controlled by Hatred / Feel Like Shit… Déjà Vu – Purple Vinyl Record

Description

Suicidal Tendencies – Controlled by Hatred / Feel Like Shit… Déjà Vu – Purple Vinyl Record

Controlled by Hatred / Feel Like Shit… Déjà Vu catches Suicidal Tendencies in the middle of their late-eighties expansion from hardcore into thrash metal. Released in 1989, between How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today and Lights… Camera… Revolution!, it brings together new songs, reworked material and two versions of a familiar title. That unusual construction gives the record a character of its own. Mike Muir’s restless delivery supplies the connection, moving between a bark, a spoken accusation and a more exposed vocal as the guitars change pace around him.

The material reaches back into the musical circle around the band. Four songs come from No Mercy, the group associated with guitarist Mike Clark, while ‘It’s Not Easy’ revisits Los Cycos. ‘Master of No Mercy,’ ‘Controlled by Hatred,’ ‘Choosing My Own Way of Life’ and ‘Waking the Dead’ bring that earlier writing into Suicidal Tendencies’ increasingly metal-oriented sound. These are performances from within a closely connected scene, rather than a random collection of outside covers. Heard together, they make the release a useful meeting point between the band’s punk origins and the longer, more developed arrangements it was pursuing.

The two treatments of ‘How Will I Laugh Tomorrow’ are an important part of the record. The video edit gives the song a more compact shape, while the Heavy Emotion Version approaches it from a softer, more exposed angle. Putting both on the same release makes the contrast easy to hear: one emphasizes the existing song’s direct impact, and the other changes the setting around its emotional center. For someone familiar with the preceding album, that second version gives a recognizable piece of writing a different atmosphere without turning the whole release into a repeat of its predecessor.

Elsewhere, ‘Feel Like Shit… Déjà Vu’ and ‘Just Another Love Song’ add to the record’s uneasy mood, while ‘Waking the Dead’ allows more space for the band’s thrash side to develop. Rocky George and Mike Clark give the guitar work both bite and movement; the songs depend as much on changes in momentum as on speed alone. Muir’s presence keeps that instrumental activity attached to a human voice. The feeling is often tense and confrontational, but the contrasting versions and song lengths keep the nine-track program from settling into a single approach from beginning to end.

This purple vinyl reissue is the Fruit Punch edition from Century Media and Epic. Its physical sequence places ‘Controlled by Hatred’ at the beginning of side A and ‘Master of No Mercy’ at the start of side B, with all nine selections included. It belongs beside the band’s surrounding albums for listeners following their transition toward a more expansive metal sound, and it also offers something specific to longtime fans: earlier material revisited, an alternate arrangement of a key song and a snapshot of Suicidal Tendencies still testing how much ground their sound could cover.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Release Details

Artist

Suicidal Tendencies

Album

Controlled by Hatred / Feel Like Shit… Déjà Vu

Format

Purple Vinyl Record

Media configuration

1 LP

Original album release

1989

Label

Century Media / Epic

Vinyl color

Purple (Fruit Punch)

Track Listing

Side A

Controlled by Hatred

Choosing My Own Way of Life

Feel Like Shit… Déjà Vu

It’s Not Easy

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow (Heavy Emotion Version)

Side B

Master of No Mercy

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow (Video Edit)

Just Another Love Song

Waking the Dead