Sick of It All

Life on the Ropes (Fat)
by Tim Den

Almost 20 years running, Sick Of It All continue to deliver every time. Life on the Ropes is no different, except maybe that it pushes the band’s darker material (circa-Scratch the Surface) to the forefront. There are fewer melodic singalongs here, but no one will be complaining once they get an earful of soon-to-be-classics “All My Blessings,” “Going Out All,” and “The Innocent.” Concentrating on heaviness and brooding grooves, Life on the Ropes keeps things nice and short (average song length is two-and-a-half minutes) and never lets up the aggression and intensity. There’s a funny little “instrumental” called “Shit Sandwich” to cleanse the palette, but other than that, you know exactly what to expect when these godfathers of NYHC hand you a beatdown.
(PO Box 193690 San Francisco, CA 94119)