This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Suicidal Tendencies‘ self-titled debut. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 64 features comments from Charlie Benante, Gene Hoglan,  Alan Tecchio, author Martin Popoff, Mark Strigl from Talking Metal, and Aaron from Iron City Rocks. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.

This month we kick the comments off in a special way, Keith “Keefy” Chachkes of Metal Army America was nice enough to send us some regarding the album from ST frontman Mike Muir. This actually is part of a series Keefy has started over at Metal Army America called Conversations from the Crypt. Here are the excerpts that were sent along:

Asked about the DIY history of the band and carving out success

MM: “When we put out our first record. We had two labels call us about signing to a major. They both said ‘you have to change your name to sign with us’. They said ‘most of the stores won’t carry your albums because of your name.’ We said ‘forget that, we’re not changing our name!’ Then we put out our second record and we had eight labels call up. When we signed to CBS at the time, which became SONY, we were the first band ever in the history of that label to have it written in our contract that we had complete artistic control of the music, lyrics and artwork and if the label didn’t put our records out, we could leave the contract and still own everything. That’s how we were able to put out a record like (Controlled by Hatred)Feel Like Shit…Déjà Vu at the same time the PMRC was trying to whine and this and that. So we never had to submit any songs (to the label) or do anything like that.”

When asked about the legacy of the band after 30 years since the first record

MM: “When we first started off the punk magazines said ‘first record sucked, it was metal’. The metal magazines said ‘it sucked, it was punk’. Other than the skaters who were the first kind of people to get into us, nobody really like us. We didn’t have a built in audience to cater to, we built our own audience. We were able to get people that were really open minded. Consequently this really helped us out years later being able to play to really diverse crowds. We’re able to do a lot of things that other people haven’t, and it’s because we refused to kind of fit into to other people’s ideas of what success is. That is the most important thing. We did the right things and didn’t listen to the people who ‘knew what was going on.’ We were more concerned about the music than what other people wanted us to do. “

You can find the entire interview with Mike Muir here.

Remember that you can go here index page to find out further details on everyone involved in the column.

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – Great fucking band, ahead of their time.

Greg Prato – I love punk rock (I’m talking real punk rock from the 1970′s and early 1980′s though – not the crap that MTV played after the fact), and some could say that ST’s debut was the last true classic punk rock release. It’s amazing how many of the melodies in these songs stick in your head INSTANTLY, while it’s still pretty darn vicious. And the video for ‘Institutionalized’ remains one of the best!

Jon Leon – Classic anthems all over this record. I hold it in high regard. Everytime I see them and Mike live-they really bring it. How can you not like ST-like Motorhead they just kill you with anthems and character. First ST like Ace of Spades is as essential as it gets.

Erik Kluiber – Favorite album by far is how can I laugh tomorrow.

Ricky Armellino – I seriously spent a week learning a few of their bass parts. I love Tendencies.

Mitts – Classic debut record from a highly underrated band. This came out during the peak of the “speed race” years. Metallica, D.R.I., S.O.D., and tons of other bands, in a competition to see who can play the fastest.

Scott Middleton – Suicidal Tendencies A Crossover classic that still holds up to this day. Mike Muir and Rocky George produced a record that actually bridged the gap between metal and punk, not to mention skate boarding and street gangs. No band has ever sounded anything like these guys, yet everything about this band has had huge influence on my own band and music.

Jaye Schwarzer – This record rules!! I used to listen to this a lot while my cousin was teaching me to skateboard. Shred!!

Scott LePage – DRI and Suicidal were my two favorite bands at the time this came out. This is my favorite Suicidal album still. Very powerful album with damn good production compared to the first albums of other bands around the same time.

JL – I found out about the band thanks to the skater videos I used to watch, every time I hear them I remember all of the good times I spent skating. Back then it was infinitely more difficult to get your hands on certain albums, when you’d get a hold of an album like this you’d play it like there is no tomorrow.

Jandro Storm – A friend gave me a tape that had Metallica’s 91 performance at Donnington. To “fill out” the tape he added side one of the first ST album. The first thing that came to mind was “this album is perfect to skate to”, I wasn’t all that off. Since then Suicidal Tendencies has become one of my all-time favorite bands. Not only because of their music, but because of what they represent.

Chris Shrum – Some of the best and funniest punk rock ever!

Sean Bryant – God damn this reminds me of skating so much. Getting rad, breaking shit, throwing skateboards through windows and pissing off the cops. We used to wear our tattered clothing and destroy our Chuck Taylors shoes every week. sorry mom. it truly was the music. you did a wonderful job, I swear!!

Will Carroll – This is an album which seems to me if you listen to thrash than you HAVE to like it. Well I’m not one of those people. Its OK but I have a copy of it (which a friend GAVE me) and I NEVER listen to it.

Steve Smyth – Total classic album by the masters of LA hardcore punk/crossover thrash, or whatever “genre” you want to call them. I had friends that were deep into the band at the time, and they got me into them. Institutionalized is of course is a classic, but what about Two Sided Politics, Subliminal, the ever borrowed from I Saw Your Mommy?

Domonic Rini – All I can say about ST in 1983 was: Mike Muir and crew was a genius at putting out the classic hit “Institutionalized”. The punk scene was in high gear and ST was trying to capture both the punk and the metal scene and their debut was able to get them into the mainstream punk scene and movement into the metal world. ST was very well known for their gear. The inverted cap lids with the scribed Suicidal Tendencies were everywhere. A great record for a wondrous period of time.

The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:

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Judas Priest – Blood Stained
Katmandu – God Part II
Souls At Zero – Souls At Zero
Soundgarden – Face Pollution
Screaming Trees – Tomorrow’s Dream
Sacred Reich – Heal
Monster Magnet – Atomic Clock
Ministry – Just One Fix
Prong – Prove You Wrong
White Zombie – Black Sunshine
Suicidal Tendencies – Possessed (90s version)
Life Of Agony – Drained
Iommi – Flame On

Tonight’s episode features an all 90s line up of hard rock and metal. You’ll hear everything from Katmandu which was fronted by current Flogging Molly lead singer Dave King, a remake by Suicidal Tendencies, some Judas Priest, bands that where in a tug-o-war between metal and grunge, some thrash, some industrial influenced metal as well. The episode debuts tonight at 8PM EST / 5PM PST on stream A of MarkStriglRadio.com. The show is followed by the 80s, and 70s specials that have debuted the past few weeks.

There where 200 metal, hard rock, punk or hardcore albums where voted on, there were well over 300 voted on, but that’s where we cut the list off. We’ll wrap things up this Thursday on Mars Attacks Radio with a countdown of the top 30 albums selected by you the listeners. A podcast version of the show will follow on Friday.

Without further ado here are the 100 to 200 most voted metal albums:

100 Killing Joke – Absolute Dissent
101 East Of The Wall – Ressentiment
102 Howl – Full Of Hell
103 Negura Bunget – Virstele Pamintului
104 Scorpions – Sting In The Tail
105 Animal As Leaders – Wave Of Babies
106 Danzig – Deth Red Sabaoth
107 Disturbed – Asylum
108 Ozzy Osbourne – Scream
109 Darkthrone – The Guessing Game
110 Mantric – The Descent
111 Sabbath Assembly – Restored To One
112 Spiritual Beggars – Return To Zero
113 Ufomammut – Eve
114 1349 – Demonoir
115 Firewind – Days Of Defiance
116 Star One – Victims Of The Modern Age
117 Envy – Recitation
118 Baptized In Blood – Baptized In Blood
119 Coffinworm – When All Became None
120 Defeated Sanity – Chapters Of Repugnance
121 Harvey Milk A Small – Turn Of Human Kindness
122 Kill The Client – Set For Extinction
123 Soulfly – Omen
124 Coheed And Cambria – Year Of The Black Rainbow
125 Hail The Villain – Population Declining
126 Immortal – All Shall Fall
127 Terror – Keepers Of The Faith
128 Unleashed – As Yggdrasil Trembles
129 Danko Jones – Below The Bealt
130 Helmet – Seeing Eye Dog
131 Slough Feg – The Animal Spirits
132 Boris & Ian Astbury – BXI
133 Halford – Made Of Metal
134 Korn – III
135 Thou – Summit
136 Unearthly Trance – V
137 Knut – Wonder
138 Airbourne – No Guts, No Glory
139 Aeon – Path Of Frie
140 All That Remains – For We Are Many
141 Fintroll – Nifelvind
142 Heaven Shall Burn – Invictus
143 Karnivool – Sound Awake
144 Woe – Quietly Undramatically
145 Avantasia – The Wicked Symphony
146 Dommin – Love Is Gone
147 Sister Sin – Ture Sound Of The Underground
148 Charred Walls Of The Damned – Charred Walls Of The Damned
149 Joe Satriani – Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards
150 The Birthday Massacre – Pins And Needles
151 Bad Religion – The Dissent Of Men
152 Barren Earth – Curse Of The Red River
153 Dawnbringer – Nucleus
154 Magrudergrind – Crusher
155 Pendulum – Immersion
156 Salem – King Night
157 Celeste – Morte(s) Nee(s)
158 Gamma Ray – To The Metal
159 Priestess – Prior To The Fire
160 Protest The Hero – Fortress
161 Stargazer – A Great Workd Of Ages
162 Withered – Dualitas
163 Disprirt – Rehearsal At Oboroten
164 Satanic Warmaster – Nachzehrer
165 Castevet – Mounds Of Ash
166 Drudkh – Handful Of Stars
167 God Dethroned – Under The Sign Of The Iron Cross
168 Apocalyptica – 7th Symphony
169 Constants – If Tomorrow The War
170 Demiurg – Signed By Evil
171 Karma To Burn – Appalachian Incantation
172 Monster Magnet – Mastermind
173 Power Glove – Saturday Morning Apocalypse
174 Rock Bottom – Born To Hate
175 Suicidal Tendencies – No Mercey Fool! The Suicidal Family
176 Cradle Of Filth – Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa
177 Mutiny Within – Mutiny Within
178 Paul Gilbert – Fuzz Universe
179 Spock’s Beard – SBX
180 Trash Talk – Eyes & Nines
181 Weapon – From The Devil’s Tomb
182 36 Crazy Fists – Collisions And Castaways
183 A Day To Remember – What Separates Me From You
184 Circa Survive – Blue Sky Noise
185 Enforcer – Diamonds
186 Far – At Night We Live
187 Kamelot – Poetry For The Poisoned
188 The Vision Bleak – Set Sail To Mystery
189 Volbeat – Beyond Hell Above Heaven
190 Bloody Sign – Chaos Echoes
191 Gypsyhawk – Patience And Perseverance
192 Hardcore Superstar – Split Your Lip
193 Jorn – Dio
194 More Than A Thousand – Volume IV: Make Friends And Enemies
195 Philm – Amoniac
196 Seventh Wonder – The Great Escape
197 The Creepshow – They All Fall Down
198 The Grotesquery – Tales Of The Coffin Born
199 The Left Rights – Bad Choices Made Easy
200 The Red Shore – The Avarice Of Man

Here is the playlist for episode 31, all of these songs were released in 1992, or songs with asterisks next to them depict groups that had breakups or important member changes that year.

Kiss – Unholy
Iron Maiden – Fear Of The Dark
Lynch Mob – Tangled In Your Web
Vince Neil – Look In Her Eyes*
Motley Crue – Uncle Jack*
Ratt – Nobody Rides For Free*
Exodus – Bitch*
Pantera – Fucking Hostile
Tool – Part Of Me
Bad Religion – Generator
Alice In Chains – Got Me Wrong
Testament – Electric Crown
W.A.S.P. – Chainsaw Charlie
Black Sabbath – Computer God
Ministry – Just One Fix
Beastie Boys – Time For Living
King’s X – Black Flag
Manic Street Preachers – Slash & Burn
Faith No More – Be Aggressive
Def Leppard – Tear It Down
Biohazard – Punishment
Body Count – Bowels Of The Devil
Rage Against The Machine – Know Your Enemy
AC/DC – That’s The Way I Wanna Rock N Roll
The Offspring – Kick Him When He’s Down
Manowar – Metal Warriors
Warrant – Inside Out
Ugly Kid Joe – Goddamn Devil
Nine Inch Nails – Gave Up
Suicidal Tendencies, Monopoly On Sorrow
Kyuss – Green Machine
Megadeth – Foreclosure Of A Dream
Dream Theater – Take The Time
Motorhead – Ain’t No Nice Guy
Fear Factory – Martyr
Extreme – Warheads
White Zombie – Black Sunshine

Have you ever listened to a song and instantly been taken to a certain time period in your life? Well that’s what this episode is all about. It also helps further the fact that hard rock and metal were alive and well in the 90s, and that the decade offered a lot of great music. This episode is centered exclusively around songs that came out that year, or tied to events that took place in 92. You’ll hear tracks from the following bands:

Kiss, Iron Maiden, Lynch Mob, Vince Neil, Motley Crue, Ratt, Exodus, Pantera, Tool, Bad Religion, Alice In Chains, Testament, W.A.S.P., Black Sabbath, Ministry, Beastie Boys, King’s X, Manic Street Preachers, Faith No More, Def Leppard, Biohazard, Body Count, Rage Against The Machine, AC/DC, The Offspring, Manowar, Warrant, Ugly Kid Joe, Nine Inch Nails, Suicidal Tendencies, Kyuss, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Motorhead, Fear Factory, Extreme and White Zombie.

Episode debuts tonight 8PM EST / 5PM PST exclusively on MarkStriglRadio.com

During this episode you’ll find two interviews, one with Ivy and Tara from Kittie, and another with Mercedes.

The first part of the episode was conducted in March while Kittie was touring with Gwen Stacy and God Forbid. The latter half of the episode consists of an interview that was conducted back in December. Had a great time conducting both, everyone was really down to earth when I spoke to them, and as I mention during both interviews, I feel that they should be considered pioneers.

One thing I really wanted to point out which I forgot to mention during the podcast is Tara’s playing style. During the interview you’ll hear her sort of play down her influences, or better yet things that she listens to outside of metal. The first song in their set starts up, the solo kicks in, and she starts finger picking during the solo, I mean blue-grass style! I don’t know if that’s where she got it from, but it was pretty cool to see her whip that out! And no, I wasn’t expecting midgets….er eh, little people!

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