Sick Of It All

Death To Tyrants

[3/5] After 20 years, you’d think Sick Of It All’s engines would have cooled a bit, but Death To Tyrants is as fist-pounding and vein-popping as anything the band did in their ’80s salad days. SOIA have, for better or worse, stood by their guns, producing the same acerbic, anvil-heavy style of hardcore since before most of the people now buying the band’s albums likely soiled their first diapers. Now, that can be a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, most of us cringe when thinking of the albums hardcore bands put out after they “matured” (look no further than any of the Cro-Mags’ bargain-bin-ready follow-ups to 1986’s The Age Of Quarrel), so the fact that SOIA have remained true to their original sound earns them big points. On the other, the idea of “I’m mad about everything and I’m going to yell about it for 40 minutes” gets old pretty fast when your age lines outnumber your tattoo lines. So, while Death To Tyrants is sure to please purists, one imagines that overdosing on SOIA could unjustly drive people to listen to Nickelback just to catch their breath.
(ABACUS) Casey Lynch



ROCKS LIKE: Agnostic Front’s Riot, Riot, Upstart • Madball’s Legacy • Hatebreed’s Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire