Suicide Commando
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Suicide Commando | |
|---|---|
 Johan Van Roy |
|
| Country | Belgium |
| Years active | 1986-Present |
| Genres | aggrotech electro-industrial |
| Labels | OffBeat, Dependent Records, Metropolis Records |
| Members | Johan Van Roy |
Suicide Commando is the name of a Belgian musical act combining aggrotech with elements of electro-industrial. Created by Johan Van Roy in 1986, Suicide Commando's first widely released album, Critical Stage, did not emerge until 1994.
Contents |
[edit] History
Johan Van Roy, Suicide Commando's only member, began experimenting with music in 1986. Three years later, he released his first tape under the moniker Suicide Commando, and made an appearance on the vinyl compilation, Electric. As Van Roy continued self-releasing tapes, he landed more compilation appearances on Rotation II and Induktion, Varianz und Deren Folgen, both released by Kugelblitz records.
1994 finally saw Suicide Commando's first CD, Critical Stage, released on the German label Off-Beat. Shortly after in 1995, Suicide Commando released Stored Images, which contains to date one of van Roy's most popular songs, See You in Hell.
1996 was the ten-year anniversary of Suicide Commando, and with it came the release Contamination, as well as the limited boxed version, which contained a bonus 3" compact disc. Contamination was released a year later in North America by the now defunct Electronic Death Trip records.
In 1998, Suicide Commando released the album Construct-Destruct and its sister release, Reconstruction, the former of which was picked up by Possessive Blindfold Records for distribution in North America with bonus tracks. The next Suicide Commando album, Chromodioxyde 1, reached number 7 on the Deutsche Alternative Charts.
Van Roy was one of the founders of the Dependent Records label in 1999. It was on this new label that Suicide Commando's next releases, two singles and one EP: Hellraiser, Comatose Delusion, and Love Breeds Suicide, accompanied Suicide Commando's 2000 release, Mindstrip, reached the number one spot on the Deutsche Alternative Charts. It was at this time that Metropolis Records began releasing Suicide Commando in North America.
For Suicide Commando's next release, Axis of Evil, a special edition double single called Face of Death was released beforehand, selling out in two days. The regular edition of the single continues to sell, and Axis of Evil was voted album of the year (2003) by the Deutsche Alternative Charts. Later, Suicide Commando released another limited edition double single, Cause of Death: Suicide + One Nation under God.
In 2006, Suicide Commando released the album Bind, Torture, Kill, featuring the single "Godsend".
[edit] Style
Suicide Commando exhibits a sound that is close to what musician Rudy Ratzinger labeled as endzeit electro in reference to his own work. van Roy is known for pounding, distorted, danceable beats, as well as dark chorus lines such as "love breeds suicide" and "see you in hell", yet also structuring his music around very catchy, melodic hooks in a manner similar to pop music. Suicide Commando represents the progression of a genre defined by earlier influential acts such as Ministry and fellow Belgians Front 242.
[edit] Similar Artists
- :wumpscut:
- Grendel
- Stin Scatzor
- Hocico
[edit] Discography
- Albums
- Singles/EPs
- Tapes
- Suicide Commando (1988)
- This is Hate (1989)
- Industrial Rape I (1990)
- Crap (1990)
- Go to Hell (1990)
- Into the Grave (1991)
- Industrial Rape II (1991)
- Black Flowers (1992)
- Electro Convulsion Therapy (1993)
