How Will I Laugh Tomorrow | When I Can’t Even Smile is the third album by the American crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, released on Epic Records on September 13, 1988.
How Will I Laugh… is crucial to Suicidal Tendencies stylistic developments in that it sees the band abandoning most of their full fledged punk influences in favor of a more thrash metal-oriented sound. One could see this stylistic changes in this album’s predecessor Join the Army, but this album had a distinctly more defined metal sound; more complex and lengthy songs, as well as better production values.
The addition of a rhythm guitarist, Mike Clark (who had played in Muir’s side band No Mercy, which was supposed to originally be a metal only side project) changed the band’s style heavily as well. Clark writes much of the music for this album, and he gives lead guitarist Rocky George more soloing time. Thus creating another factor in this album and future albums more metal oriented sound.
The band’s major label debut, the album featured singles „Trip At The Brain“ and the title track, both of which managed to become successful with their target audiences.
