Suicidal Tendencies Still Cyco After All These Years

Though it wasn't released until 1993, this re-recording of Suicidal Tendencies’ 1983 debut LP was actually made in 1989-1990, at which point the original album was out of print. It’s easy to see why Mike Muir wanted to remake the album rather than simply re-release it. The original was made by musicians who were still finding their feet, and Muir himself was a junior screamer. By 1990, Suicidal Tendencies had become a take-no-prisoners machine, featuring the precise and explosive guitar work of Mike Clark and Rocky George. Like souping up a vintage car with bigger tires and a more powerful engine, the reworkings of Suicidal classics like “Subliminal,” “Institutionalized," and “War Inside My Head” are louder and stronger, though they lose some of the original album's magic. While some fans assert that the band’s youthfulness and uncontrolled anger is what made the original a classic, Muir counters with the title that he's as energized and angry as he was at 19: “Still Cyco After All These Years.”