Change is inevitable. At some point, you have to stop and think about who you were 10 years ago, 15, 20, etc. What music did you listen to back then and what do you listen to now? What life events influenced you to listen to edgier tunes or hate music altogether? I wouldn’t be surprised if we all have an album hidden in a closet somewhere, hoping no one will ever find out that you once loved bands such as Nickelback or Linkin Park. While our personal tastes diversifies, there’s one thing to take into consideration: bands change.

Metallica is a pure example of this, especially on 1991’s Black Album and then twelve years later with St.Anger. Norwegian metallers Enslaved successfully moved from black metal to a more progressive-melodic edge sound. Same with Opeth with their now progressive style. And Let’s not forget Gojira’s album (one of the best albums of 2016), Magma. There’s always Devin Townsend, where no album or style remains the same. These changes are of course risky and doesn’t always pan out, however, staying exactly the same gets redundant and boring. A different musical direction presents a new style and mindset to fans, and the feedback will be mixed between love and hate.

And then there’ Suicide Silence. Their new song “Doris” premiered a week ago and we were excited about it. Since then, the response has been, well, polarizing. While many like us like the song, the clean singing has caused a peak of troll traffic, negative backlash, and over ten thousand dislikes on the video’s YouTube. In since-deleted posts on Facebook,  drummer Alex Lopez gave it back, personally attacking trolls that voiced negative opinions of the song. Meanwhile, producer Ross Robinson chimed in on the hatred calling it, “fkg awesome.”

Then Youtuber/musician Jared Dines posted his thoughts about the song as well, and while he says that he didn’t post the video to bash the band, it’s hard to see it as anything but. While there’s been quite a bit of backlash already, February 24th will show whether or not fans embrace their new direction, and you can pre-order the band’s most polarizing album to date here.