Suicide Silence

Undeniably one of the biggest heavy bands in the world today, love them or hate them Suicide Silence are the envy of pretty much every other metal band alive. With two acclaimed deathcore albums under their collective belts, the band has been relentlessly touring across the globe. We were lucky enough to catch up with guitarist Mark Heylmun on the eve of their return to Australia for No Sleep Til, talking everything from Call Of Duty to Dazed And Confused.

Hey dude, please start out by telling us your name, what you do in Suicide Silence and your favourite comedy movie of all time.

I'm Mark I play guitar in Suicide Silence and my favorite comedy movie is Dazed And Confused.

What would you say are the band’s major musical (or other) influences?

Well I'd say we all have wide variety of influences musical and not. I'd say my musical influences come from bands like Suffocation, Morbid Angel, but I also like just good old classic rock like Sabbath and The Who. Also when I'm in writing mode I usually am playing a lot video games like Call of Duty, I can get influence from anywhere.

The band went on Warped Tour earlier this year. How did you enjoy the festivities?

Goddamn I partied all summer. Needless to say I had great time.

You guys released your second studio album “No Time To Bleed” last year. How was the recording process for this record in comparison to past efforts?

We were just more meticulous with everything this time around. It took about two weeks to track the Cleansing where as No Time to Bleed took about two weeks just to beat map it. We literally named every riff and transition before we actually tracked anything.

How have you generally found crowd or media responses to the new material so far?

Well we've toured on NTTB for little over year now and ya response are awesome. I couldn't be happier with it.

What was it like working with the almighty Machine?

It was great. He's such flamboyant dude with a ton of charisma. He's a badass for sure, we still keep in touch and he comes out to our Jersey shows.

The band is signed to Century Media, undeniably one of the world’s most respected metal labels. How have those guys helped further Suicide Silence’s career?

CM has done a lot for us all over the world, they've done everything in their power to get us all over magazines and media outlets. Put it this way - without them I wouldn't be answering these questions, so they do and have done a lot for us.

What’s the worst or funniest thing that’s ever happened to Suicide Silence?

Worst thing that ever happened to us was getting maced on stage in Florida because 2 girls were fighting, so they decided to mace us. I guess that's kinda funny too.

If your band could play with any artist or group, living or dead, who would it be?

Pantera.

Metal bands seem to listen to anything but their own genre in the tour van. What does Suicide Silence rock whilst on the road?

A lot of Korn, Meshuggah, but also a lot of early 90's shit like Alice in Chains and Faith No More. We listen to all kinds of shit.

Are there any cool new US bands that kids down under should be checking out?

The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza. Also The Devastated are badass, but there's probably more but those two that I especially like.

Other than gracing our shores again for No Sleep Til in December, what does the future hold for Suicide Silence?

Go home and write and record a new record so we can keep on touring and hopefully able to go to Australia more often.

Any last comments or shout outs?

Come out to the shows and hangout it's a short tour and were gonna make the best of it. Shout out to anyone who is reading this, see you soon.

Thanks mate! See you very soon.