AMG Review of Friends and Family, Vol. 2

Johnny Loftus
All Music Guide

The second volume of Suicidal's Friends and Family compilation series assembles more grooves from Suicidal Tendencies and its extended family. Kicking off with the title track to ST's Free Your Soul...And Save My Mind, it moves quickly into the previously unreleased "Fight the Losing Battle," which works the classic funk-thrash model to a tee. After a few tightly-wound funk numbers from Infectious Grooves (including an instrumental), there's some ridiculousness from Jeremiah Weed and the Bad Seed, which returns at the end of the disc for a hokey closing bit. In between, there are two amazing tracks from Missile Girl Scoot, the Japanese compatriots of Suicidal who mix punk, thrash, and pop as only the Japanese can. "Big Mouth" even finds a way to mash churning metal into chirpy, third wave ska. Friends and Family's second half is given over to guest shots from other Suicidal artists. Of these, two previously unreleased tracks from My Head seem to be the standout. Overall, Friends is pretty enjoyable. It provides a nice primer for where the label is now, and gives longtime fans a wealth of rare material. Ideally, the label's next project should be a domestically-issued Missile Girl Scoot album.