''Battle Hymns'' is the second album by the

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

punk rock band The Suicide Machines, released in 1998 by

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records l ...

. It was the band's last album with drummer Derek Grant, who left the group the following year. The album's musical direction continued the band's style of ska punk but moved in more of a hardcore direction, with most songs lasting under two minutes in and consisting of fast, aggressive musicianship and vocals. A

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was filmed for the single "Give" and the song was featured in the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

motion picture '' Brink!'' The album peaked at #127 on the Billboard 200.

Background

The album's fast aggressive nature was due to the band wanting to record the album as fast as possible in order to pocket the leftover money from the budget they were given, which was $280,000, the same budget as their previous album. Another thing that got in their way was the fact they were touring extensively and accepting big deals to play with large bands so they had a very tight schedule for writing a new album. The album was written within 2 weeks and the songs were recorded in the span of a few days with Navarro blowing out his voice for a bit. The result was an album that was completely unmarketable for a major label album except the song "Give" which became a single. "Give" was banned from being played on alternative station

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The stat ...

due to an incident involving a free show played outside of Tower Records, where the band played their set at grindcore speed and told everyone to go into Tower Records and steal anything they wanted. "Independence Parade" was written by Derek Grant and is about his exit from the band and why he left, which was because he had lots of social anxiety and he didn't want to be famous, as he typically refused to be in photos or videos.

Track listing

All songs written by The Suicide Machines #"Someone" – 1:34 #"Hating Hate" – 1:04 #"Give" – 2:19 #"Hope" – 1:26 #"Black & White World" – 1:52 #"Numbers" – 0:53 #"High Society" – 1:57 #"Pins and Needles" – 0:50 #"Confused" – 2:07 #"DDT" – 1:05 #"Punck" – 0:04 #"Step One" – 1:12 #"In the End" – 2:04 #"Face Another Day" – 1:47 #"What You Say" – 1:00 #"Speak No Evil" – 1:52 #"Empty Room" – 2:12 #"Independence Parade" – 1:52 #"Sympathy" – 1:48 #"Strike" – 1:17 #"Sides" – 1:18 #"Jah" – 0:05

Personnel

Jason Navarro The Suicide Machines are an American punk rock band formed in March 1991 in Detroit, Michigan. During the course of their career, the band has released seven full-length albums on the labels Hollywood Records, Side One Dummy Records and Fat Wre ...

– vocals * Dan Lukacinsky –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, backing vocals *

Royce Nunley Royce Nunley (born 1976) is an American singer who currently sings lead vocals in Blueprint 76. He founded Blueprint 76 in 2002 after eight years in The Suicide Machines. He owns and runs Ringside Recording Studios and Broken Spoke Records in D ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, backing vocals * Derek Grant –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Additional'' *

Julian Raymond Julian Raymond is an American songwriter and music producer. He has worked with various music artists, including Insane Clown Posse, Glen Campbell, Cheap Trick, Jennifer Nettles, Fastball, Albert Lee, Fleetwood Mac, Kottonmouth Kings, among othe ...

– producer * The Suicide Machines – producers * Phil Kaffel – engineer * John Srebalus – assistant engineer * Chris Lord-Alge – mixing * Mike Dy – mixing * Mastered by Bryan Gardener – mastering * Design by Shepard Fairey – design * Enny Joo – design * Dave Snow – design, creative director * Sandra Navarro – photography * Dave Snow

References

{{Authority control The Suicide Machines albums Hollywood Records albums 1998 albums Melodic hardcore albums Albums produced by Julian Raymond