SMAR SW Review - Suicide on Not Only Rock
Review on nietylkorock1992.blogspot.com
SMAR SW - "Suicide" (1996)
SMAR SW during the recording of "Consciousness" decided to move away from typical punk playing.
For many fans of the group, this was unacceptable, but the guys did not care about it and decided to continue doing their thing.
The same sound of the next album is confirmed - it is even more aggressive, diverse, even metal. Additional instruments, such as the konga, also add a peculiar flavor.
However, the differences do not end with the music itself; the band members were also forced to say goodbye to the previous drummer - "Sikor", who decided to emigrate to Amsterdam.
In his place, they engaged "Słonia" (by the way, the band also did not protect themselves from a change in the line-up - after the bestselling album "Let's Fight for Our Rights", the place of "Ninja" was taken by "Kaktus" on bass).
Another thing is the length of the songs on the album: maybe the number is not impressive, but the numbers are really long (e.g. "Fear", which lasts as long as eleven (!) minutes, and the slightly shorter "Suicide" - ten minutes and thirty-one seconds).
As for the content of the texts themselves - this is the only unchanging point.
The boys still oppose the system, the lack of freedom, the subjugation of the individual.
This aggressive album opens with "Strach" - one of my favorite songs of this band. An interesting procedure is to sing here with two voices, especially since both are definitely very different from each other.
"Yogurth" (the band's guitarist) has a strong, but cleaner vocal unlike the band's main shouter - "Sezona"; Anyway, it's his "hoarseness" and that "dirt" in his voice that makes him my favorite in this set. ;)
The second thing is the congo, thanks to the guest participation of Dominik Muszyński. A great procedure (we will also hear them in other places on the album).
The number starts with them, a moment later the bass enters, and then we hear "Yogurth" whispering:
"The fear that has overwhelmed you has been in you since you were born.
Only sometimes you feel it more strongly
and then you take refuge there,
where you can wait it out until the next attack.
How long can you run away from what is inside you? With you and by your side?
Either you defeat it yourself, or others will start to be afraid and run away with you"
Later, the music and vocals turn into a sharp, metal rock.
The guys shout out moments such as:
"To resist the laws of tradition - not enough determination.
To free ourselves from ignorance - not enough determination.
To reject a sick existence - not enough determination.
To get out of the cage - not enough determination."
Changing one's own thinking process is actually an extremely difficult procedure for most, especially if most people live according to established norms and patterns.
To some it even seems impossible (anyway, do they even bother about it?):
"It's too far to turn back and go in a different direction from the starting point.
Lost victims of defective evolution, lepers nurturing their disease.
Mass consumption of big industry, widespread illusions of collective psychosis.
Ubiquitous advertising of trash, prepared reality".
I think that this text fits the present times even more than in the times when it was written. And I:
"I am watching a spectacle of a joyful march to the slaughter."
And all this is "watered" with really sharp, "poisonous" music. Anyway, the guys shared the lyrics again, as in the case of "Fear".
"Na carrzeź" is one of the strongest points of this album (here is another bonus in the form of a cello).
"You live cut off from nature, the culture of the atomic age. You are developing against nature"
- Sound familiar? This time, the duties of the main screamer were taken over by "Yogurth".
"The City" tells the story of how a person exists, what his life looks like in such a place. Here, once again, "The Season" took over the reins:
"In dark, concrete holes, blind people cry for space.
Children of skyscrapers deprived of a horizon. Noise, crowds, plastic paranoia.
The city: mass, machine, mammon, mass media, menele, walls, deadness".
There is something in it, personally I often "recharge my batteries" by walking in places far from civilization; while finding inner peace.
We also have "Howl" on the album - a song known from "Consciousness" released a year earlier.
On the album in question, in a slightly different version; Personally, I was much more captivated by the atmosphere of the original.
"Suicide", the song that gave the title to the album, is a story about the mechanisms that took control of the individual, over his self-determination:
"Someone has violently entered your head, someone has brutally occupied your thoughts - now you are looking through their eyes, now you are breathing through their mouth. Now you think with their thoughts, now you breathe with their mouth."
And further:
"(...) The mechanisms of power formed in slavery took control of the human population. A powerful camera creates appearances; it's still the same tyranny."
Personally, I really like this song - for me - one of the best in the band's output. The singer found himself in this song perfectly, especially the end of the song is very nicely sung. It gives the impression of being sung in a "low" voice.
As for the music - "Suicide" smoothly turns into "Alien", which closes the album (again those congas!). Definitely the "lightest" number from the whole album. However, this "lightness" does not go hand in hand with the brutal reality that we find in the text:
"A stranger in his home, a stranger to Mother Earth. Blind in satisfying their needs.
Mother Earth - sold and plundered, raped by your insatiability.
He is not your brother, but your enemy.
The appearance of cities is painful to the eyes, there is no silence in cold cities.
You can't hear the call of a lone bird. Not by reason... "
Unfortunately, so far, there is no hope that anything will change in this matter.
"Progress" does not go hand in hand with nature.
"Suicide" - which I admit quite honestly - was hard for me to digest during the first listens.
Earlier, I postponed these attempts to get acquainted with the album for some time, absorbing my previous achievements.
If in the case of "Consciousness" the process of assimilation did not take too long, then "Suicide" took me a little longer.
By the way, it's strange for someone who absorbs heavier music...
I think that to a large extent it is the result of thinking - SMAR SW - punk.
Anyway, my first reaction after hearing a fragment of the album was: "it's not this band".
It's interesting, because I'm convinced that if I didn't know about the fact that this is the album of "this" band, I would probably have devoured the whole album right away. Or - if the band started with something heavier, some fans would probably have a problem with assimilating the punk face of the band.
Just a small example of schematic thinking. ;)
Coming back to the evaluation - the latest release of punks from Rzeszów is mature, not only in terms of music. If the subject of the lyrics is still the same, then the form is definitely more mature.
Listening to the lyrics from "Consciousness", you can say that this is a mature album in every way. And yet... The guys were able to surprise.
When I think back to the album "W jedności siła", released in 1992, which is only four (!) years earlier than their final work, I am really surprised.
In one sentence: SMAR SW committed a spectacular "Suicide".
Track listing:
1. Fear
2. To the slaughter
3. Atomic age culture
4. Conscious way
5. Antidote
6. City
7. Yelp
8. Suicide
9. Alien
Ingredients:
- Sezon - vocals
- Kaktus - bass
- Słoniu - drums
- Yogurth - guitar, vocals
- Dominik Muszyński - Congo
- Ewa "Cleo" Gunia - violin
Rating: 10/10
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