It’s a case of following the formula: hardcore aggression, punk-like speed, the gang choruses, anthemic and pointed songs. I like it. There’s social commentary, rage and the distinct sense of being pissed off but that’s New York Hardcore. No time’s wasted. There are fourteen breezy and infectious songs and we can all join in. Analysis is not what’s required.
So you know what? I’m not going to analyse it …. enjoy. Only joking, but it is what you’d expect: a cobweb-removal exercise in aural devastation and not some cerebral thesis involving the exploration of self-doubt. Loud and brash, it all stands up well. It’s robust musically and technically but it’s not to be underestimated either The song structures are strong with equally strong riff lines, as Sick of It All tread between drum-frenzied battle zones. After the anthemic “2061” on an album of anthems, I really appreciated the growly bass sections on “Road Less Travelled”. It’s an album of sound bites but I was surprised to hear the semi-positive “Living every moment, feeling all the joy and all the pain”. The joy? Then “Live your life”. This is unexpectedly upbeat. But defiance, as the album titles suggests, is as ever really the order of the day. So we are advised to stand up and “get Bronx”. “Part of History” is cynical – “everyone’s been suckered” – and just as that’s downtrodden, “Losing War” and “Never Back Down” are more punkish in their two-fingeredness. It’s fighting time: “we stand up for our rights …. we’ll never back down …. Fight, Fight, Fight”. Total energy.
And so it goes on. Here and there we’re granted a breather, as on Act Your Rage” but the loud in-our-face assault on all fronts continues. Lyrically, Sick of It All’s specialisms are the short and snappy and easy to remember – “up shit creek”, “one by one” “never outgunned” – just like the razor sharp music. They don’t waste time. But this is their eleventh album so we kind of knew that already. A drum roll signals enhanced excitement on “Outgunned” before the final hardcore anthem “DNC” lodges itself in our brain.
Apart from the album title, there’s nothing to suggest that is Sick of It All’s last act. These “living legends” still have plenty to say and say it loud.
(7.5 / 10 Andrew Doherty)
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