Excuse Me Sir, Could You Tell Me Where Brooklyn At?
Grab your camo shorts, throw on your flat-brimmed Yankees cap and roll back the long sleeves that cover your regrettable “TRUE ‘TIL DEATH” tattoo. New York hardcore is back baby! While some loyal fans may argue that the NYHC sound never truly left, it would be foolish to believe them due to the infamously insulated nature of their cultural scene. It’s a New York thing, probably. Those same dudes might also tell you that Blood Sweat & No Tears is legendary Queens quartet Sick of it All’s greatest record, despite how poorly its material holds up to more contemporary hardcore. In fact, much of the group’s most cherished material hasn’t aged all that well. This seems to be the case with a number of other hardcore legends, like Agnostic Front and Full Blown Chaos, whose live shows, lyrics sheets and purported ethics always seemed to matter far more than the actual content of the recordings.
But just when it looked like the creative well had dried up, Sick of it All managed to pull off the nigh unachievable in 2006 when they ditched their label, Fat Wreck Chords, and released the pummeling, beautifully unhinged Death to Tyrants. The record–and everything that has come after it–stands head and shoulders above their early work; and the group’s 2016 EP, When the Smoke Clears, more than continues this winning streak.
While Sick of it All sculpted their own distinct punk sound on records such as Scratch the Surface, their newest EP’s title track makes no bones about acknowledging hardcore progenitors with its hammering, single-chord progression and the classic proclamation that “[they’re] out of step.” But Sick of it All have never been a group content with simply aping Discharge or Black Flag. There are pleasant surprises to be found at every (very sharp) turn, from tricky drum patterns to sudden key changes to the creatively grungy, almost shoegazing guitar intro of “Blood & Steel.” The Koller brothers–especially frontman Lou–sound incredibly youthful, which is absolutely crucial to operating as an aging punk band. When, on “Doomed Campaign,” Koller shouts, “[no one] can speak for us, none of them can relate to us,” he is able to come off as vaguely authentic despite the fact that this rather juvenile sentiment is coming from a man pushing fifty years old. It also helps that the band have thrown in some contemporary vernacular, like “first world problems,” into their vocabulary. In fact, the group’s lyrics are shockingly conscious (“what will be the consequences be of these shameful days?”), for New Yorkers, at least. On top of all this, both guitar tone and vocal delivery seem to only have sharpened with the passage of time, rather than dulled.
With its ever-enthusiastic call-and-response gang vocals, “Fortress” channels a bit of SOIA’s Big Apple brethren the Beastie Boys. This comparison has a lot to do with the jovial and bass-driven nature of the cut, only a step away from street punk and straight-up Oi! “Fortress” sounds like it should be sung by a chorus of eight drunken Brooklynites, with their arms around each other’s shoulders. With an uplifting bridge that insists that, “when your world goes wrong, these walls will never fall,” the EP’s final track features a refreshing dose of camaraderie.
When the Smoke Clears is almost enough to convince us that hardcore punk should only ever be released in EP format. You would be hard-pressed to find a better, big-name hardcore release this year; although “big-name hardcore” may be a bigger oxymoron than “convenience fee.”
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