Suicide Commando is a Belgian electro-industrial music act created by Johan Van Roy in 1986. For live shows, it consists of Van Roy himself on vocals, Torben Schmidt on keyboards, and Mario Vaerewijck on drums.
History
Van Roy began experimenting with electronic music back in 1986. Two years later he released his first tape under the moniker Suicide Commando, and his track appeared on the vinyl compilation Electronic. He continued to release more tapes until he was signed by the rising German label Off Beat. Van Roy's first album, Critical Stage was released in 1994. The following year, he released a second albumStored Images, which contains one of his most popular songs, "See You in Hell". In 1996, he released the compilation albumContamination for the act's tenth anniversary. In 1998, Suicide Commando released the album "Construct-Destruct" and its sister release, "Reconstruction" including the new clubhits "Desire" and "Better Off Dead". Van Roy was one of the founders of the Dependent label in 1999. It was on this new label that Suicide Commando's next releases, two singles and one EP: "Hellraiser", "Comatose Delusion", and "Love Breeds Suicide", accompanied Suicide Commando's 2000 release, "Mindstrip", which reached the number one spot on the German Alternative Charts. The "Mindstrip" album also was licensed and released in North America by Metropolis Records. In 2002, Suicide Commando released the DCD "Anthology" on Dependent, a "best of" compilation, including the band's biggest hits "Hellraiser", "See You in Hell", "Love Breeds Suicide"..., and offered some exclusive new remixes and rare versions. For Suicide Commando's next release, "Axis of Evil", a special edition double single called "Face of Death" was released beforehand. The regular edition of the single continues to sell, and "Axis of Evil" was voted album of the year by the Deutsche Alternative Charts. In 2004 Suicide Commando released another limited edition double single, "Cause of Death: Suicide + One Nation under God". In 2006, Suicide Commando returned with the album "Bind, Torture, Kill", featuring the single "Godsend + Menschenfresser". The album once again reached the top position in several alternative charts across the world and got voted "album of the month" in the German Orkus magazine. Released in 2007, one year after the band's 20th anniversary is the "X20" boxset including 3 CD's and Suicide Commando's very first live DVD. In 2009 Suicide Commando signed a deal with the German Out of Line label. First release on Out of Line was the 7" "severed head/until we die", not much later followed by a new EP called "die motherfucker die" which once again reached the top position in the German Alternative Charts. In 2010 Suicide Commando released the "implements of hell" album on Out of Line in three different editions and once again licensed in the US by Metropolis Records. Again the album reaches the number one position in the German Alternative Charts. At the end of 2010 even a third single from the "implements of hell" album was released called "death cures all pain". In 2011, Suicide Commando re-releases their first three studio albums as "The Suicide Sessions," a special limited six-CD box including remastered versions of his first three albums "Critical Stage," "Stored Images," and "Construct-Destruct," and three discs with much bonus material and many previously unreleased songs. One year later, van Roy returned with brand new material and first single from his upcoming album "When Evil Speaks," which was released in 2013. When Evil Speaks got released again in three different versions and this time reached the official German Media Control Charts at position 47. At the end of 2013, Suicide Commando released with "Unterwelt" a second single taken from the When Evil Speaks album. Simultaneously with the new single the band, also released a strictly limited picture disc vinyl with a remastered version of their first major hit single "See You in Hell." In 2015, Suicide Commando returns with a first new single "The Pain That You Like" taken from his upcoming new album, Forest of the Impaled which was released in 2017. The album reached the official German Media Control Charts at position 28. With the "Death will find you" MCD a second single taken from their "Forest of the impaled" album is released in 2018.
