Highly Suspect makes alternative waves with “MCID”
By: Kyle Spencer
Creative Editor
The rock/alternative group Highly Suspect just released their third studio album “MCID.” Highly Suspect formed in 2009 in the heart of Brooklyn with the talents of Johnny Stevens playing guitar, synths and vocals, Ryan Meyer on drums and vocals and Rich Meyer playing the bass and vocals.
The three combined to make a powerful group whose unexpected breakout in 2015 lead to two Grammy nominations and an extended tour because of all of the support. Their new album “MCID” really pushes them into the alternative talk using upbeat synths and powerful vocals.
The album starts with looking upon their past and focusing on emotions and relationships. “Fly” sends a message of being honest and not regretting your past as they say in the song “One day you’re gonna hear this song and laugh because you stayed so strong.”
Highly Suspect shows off their alternative side using a bass and hard hitting drums in the song “16” once again looking at their past relationship as they belt “I wish I could hold you but baby I know that it’s over.”
The whole song slowly builds up to a climax at the end, bringing everything together from synths, bass, drums and background vocals.
But with the song “Canals” they decide to reach into their side of rock using an electric guitar and drums with screaming vocals as Johnny yells “What are we living for” and “Let me go.” As rock groups generally give off a sense of not caring they make it clear that they don’t either in this song.
In “Tetsuo’s bike,” the group shows off how much they like to pay attention to synths and how effective they can be by mixing drum pads and studio drum kits. In this small piece with no vocals they decide to let the instruments do the talking.
The band is really trying to appeal to all genres as they get Young Thug onto “Tokyo Ghoul” with the addition of Terrible Johnny. The song has a lot of repetition in the chorus as they constantly say “Dirt boy, dirt, dirt bike, whip.” Young Thug fits into the song perfectly as he sings on the track over the spacy synths.
If you’re looking for heavy guitar and loud screaming then “SOS” featuring Gojira is the song for you. Suspect shows us what their roots of music are and how they got into the music industry as a rock group in the first place.
This song goes from head banging to a mellow, slower rock song.
In “@tddybear” featuring Conor Manson of Nothing But Thieves, Highly Suspect absorbs Manson into their sound producing a chilling alternative sound with a great mix of vocals, bass and guitar.
With “Arizona,” Suspect dives into their country side, singing over the nice acoustics of a guitar then slowly bringing other string instruments into the song producing a beautiful piece of music in the end.
“The Silk Road” featuring Tee Grizzley really differs from the rest of the album with it being the first song to contain rap. The lyrics are everything in this song, with Grizzley’s lyrical verse and the strong chorus from Suspect.
Overall this was a good alternative album. Even though most of the songs sound the same, most of them have very different meanings and different feelings. Final album review 6/10.