Almost 20 years running, Sick Of It All deliver every time. Life on the Ropes is no different, except maybe that it pushes the band’s darker material to the forefront.
Trashy recording with live as fuck drumming supporting a mid-tempo power surge like a six-inch blade covered with dried raccoon guts jammed between your ribs.
Why? doesn’t have a hope of capturing Sentenced or Rapture or Daylight Dies because the production is quite featureless, not to mention they’ve got a power metal guy at the helm.
Pushing the boundaries of hardcore/noisecore with message from the “Big Guy” above (read: God) New Hampshire’s Mercury Switch muscle up some creative ideas.
The combination of the rapidity of the beats, the hard-slicing guitar, and Caughthran’s melodic screaming amounts to the most pleasurably intense and hard-hitting songs.
Moments of fearsome noise here, howls from hell, stuttering riffs to make you look foolish if you try to snap your fingers to it, and plenty of jaw-dropping moments.