I can't even begin to imagine what was going through the minds of the remaining members of Suicide Silence when they had found out their leader, and frontman, Mitch Lucker had died in a motorcycle accident. Needless to say, they were not doing well.
A new interview published by AltPress details their time after Lucker's death. The rest of the band found themselves deep in alcohol & drug addiction and depression. Eventually guitarists Chris Garza and Mark Heylum started taking healthy living seriously and tried to clean up their eating and drug habits.
Shortly after deciding on adding former All Shall Perish frontman Eddie Hermida to the band, their manager suggested group therapy. The humor of the situation was not lost on the band, who compared it to Metallica's sessions in the Some Kind of Monster documentary. Regardless, it was helpful:
The guys were admittedly quite nervous about the process in the beginning. Some members participated more than others, but all of them drew closer from the experience. “There were things I didn’t even realize I was thinking, about Mitch, until the therapist drew it out,” says Garza. “I think we all bury shit emotionally and mentally. And when somebody makes you confront it, it really sucks at first. I was a mess for a while.”
Heylmun points out that Lucker’s death wasn’t the only issue. “Everybody that's been in a band knows that everybody has those things you don't talk about; things that are touchy subjects with different members that you just start to avoid,” he says. “Therapy is where we had to bring those uncomfortable things up and talk about them, because we had to hash it out and resolve them if we were going to continue on.”
It must've been difficult to get past all the personal issues but I'm glad to see the band on the other side of it, sounding as great as ever. Having seen them on Mayhem Fest, they seemed rejuvenated and ready for the next chapter in their growing careers.
Suicide Silence will be co-headling a tour with Black Dahlia Murder this fall. Get dates here.
