Integrity
Suicide Black Snake
A389/Magic Bullet Recordings
Street: 06.11
Integrity = Judge + Darkthrone + Ringworm
If you have been following Integrity’s trajectory these past five years or so, through split after split, EP after EP, Suicide Black Snake is the natural evolution in Integrity’s arc. For the past five years, Integrity have been Dwid Hellion and Robert Orr, exclusively, which lends a singular focus to the music. SBS draws a significant amount of its vocabulary from heavy metal, and relies less on hardcore. It is also apparent that Hellion and Orr are making only the music they are interested in. Although not necessarily the same musically, in attitude, SBS is akin to Darkthrone’s latest, which has no need for outside opinion, and brings in wildly varied metal influences. The rawness of Detonate VVorld’s Plague and the Gehenna Split was an acquired taste, so the more muscular, darker production on Suicide Black Snake goes down easier, and is a welcome addition to Integrity’s extensive canon. –Peter Fryer