Suicide Puppets

Birthed from “hate” in 2005 — Fine Art of Hate, that is — the Suicide Puppets have begun to
mature and expand after reeling-in the puppeteering Fetzer Music Management; making
various lineup changes, until about six months ago when they adopted guitarist Steven
Suicide.
Now the band wants to record and disseminate its art.
“Actually, we were in a bit of a slump for a better part of a year until we got with Jim Fetzer,”
noted guitarist and vocalist Twisty Suicide, who continued, “When we got hooked up with Jim
it just kind of exploded and we are all over the place.”
“It’s good because he pushes us and that’s what we need. A foot in the ass doesn’t hurt.”
But even with the addition of management, Twisty pointed out that the band still has a heavy
workload besides the music: sitting in front of a computer working on flyers, public
networking and promoting, sending posters to clubs and street teams.
Included in the phalanx of puppets are cofounder, vocalist and bassist Johnny Suicide, who
was previously in a band with Twisty years previous to SP, called Individually Twisted; Veritas
Suicide on drums.
The majority of the band holds a lot of musical experience. Twisty and Johnny share 21 years
of experience each. Twisty’s coworker and former Air Force serviceman, Veritas, brings 16
years to the table. Twisty also believes that everyone in the band was self-taught.
In addition to the four puppets, some of the suicidal faithful may have noticed the horror core
artist, Mal H-Vock, who also performs with 7th Layer, running keyboards and adding a stage
presence. The search continues for a permanent keyboardist to join this
Industrial/Techno/Metal band, which has been compared as a mixture of Marilyn Manson and
Rammstein.
H-Vock has worked nicely, adapting his own image into the stage show and adding a few
surprises of his own, which is really no surprise at all to those that know his antics.
“He threw this flame; it’s the first time I ever seen it down at Small’s last week. It scared the
hell out of me, I didn’t know what it was. There’s nothing like playing and then, beside you,
you see this great big flame. I looked at him and went ‘Holy Shit!’ I thought my amp blew up.
He never said he was going to do it. It just kind of happened,” Twisty recollected.
Currently, the band is pushing hard to have something recorded for its show on Oct. 20 – The
Second Annual Facktory Fest.
“One way or another, we’re going to have something out by October 20th!” Exclaimed Twisty,
who added, “It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a couple or fifteen (songs). Something is getting
out.”
Twisty said he believes the band is going to record at Stress Free Studios in Harrisburg. After
last year’s very successful event at The Facktory, it has become a goal to have some
recorded material to be able to distribute at that show.
The band has some tracks available on its MySpace page; however, with the exception of one
song, “Not Sick,” the tracks were only done by Twisty and Johnny.
Twisty confessed as he further strengthened the band’s driving goal for a professional
recording, “The stuff we have up there now, the drums are all stuff that I’ve programmed. The
drummer we have now is pretty phenomenal and it’s a shame to keep him off of it.”
The recording capabilities the band has now has limited the number of tracks available. The
song, “Not Sick,” was a rough recording made available as a “feedback thing to find out what
people thought.”
Another big show on the horizon that the guys are pumped about takes place on Oct. 16 when
the puppets travel to Crocodile Rocks Cafe in Allentown to play an all-age show the same
night as Type O Negative brings their “Dead Again” tour into the venue.
“We had to sell 100 tickets for that. But it’s Type O Negative. How hard is it to sell 100 tickets
for Type O Negative?” Twisty cracked.

- Scott Griffiths

The Suicide Puppets are in their glory as they share the stage with The Misfits for Halloween.
Local band does good! Also the Suicide Puppets have been nominated as “Best Metal Band”
in Central PA. Check out www.hbgonline.com to get details of the awards show. Meantime
catch them live at Rumor’s in Enola, November 17th - Keith Hummel

On Saturday night, the Suicide Puppets cracked the earth and brought Hell to Johnny Joe's.

As a five-man band, they mercilessly ravaged their instruments with sincere rage and put the "heavy" back in metal.

Though they come from Harrisburg, their sound is more likely to have crossed the river Styx than the Susquehanna.

Twisty Suicide is the front-man, and it would be believable if that were his birth-name, because he looks like a zombie who reads grimoire when he isn't drinking bat's blood. Twisty's guttural screams made his look seem more like a manifestation of a sincerely dark nature, rather than a meticulously prepared costume. His voice was meant for this feral music.

Oddly, throughout a set that undoubtedly bloodied the fingers of each guitar player and Twisty's voice, the crowd sat quietly in their seats except for the occasional drunken "Woo," almost unimpressed by such savage talent.

Bludgeoning their way through "one that goes out to the ladies," the Suicide Puppets covered "Physical (You're So)" by Adam Ant with Twisty growling "Down on the floor, begging for more."

Their guitars veered into twisted Hendrix-inspired solos, and the drumming was an exercise in rapid precision, constantly switching the timing and tempo with double bass.

Veritas beat the house drum set like he was the metronome for a Gatling gun.

Twisty screamed, "The only person I fear is me," and that proved to be true. By the end of their set, the crowd began yelling, "One more!" but the Suicide Puppets ended without a reply, slinking back to the underworld. - DAVID BEITZEL, For The Patriot-News