SICK OF IT ALL

After celebrating 25 years of New York hardcore with "Death to Tyrants" (on now-defunct Century Media imprint Abacus Recordings) and hitting stride with renewed vigor and continued relevance, SICK OF IT ALL toured their asses off then spent a little extra time on the recording of "Based on a True Story", which benefits immensely from a sharpened songwriting focus and cohesive flow.

Easily on par with "Death to Tyrants", maybe even a pinch better when taken in its entirety, "Based on a True Story" is another cranium clobbering hardcore album from the guys. It demonstrates yet again how much the band is able to do as a quartet, getting the most out of every song and varying the arrangements just enough to keep things fresh, yet still working within the confines of their now legendary sound. Stop/start cadences and riffs that range from fluidly melodic to fat 'n nasty give new meaning to "tough". This is fist-to-face and boot-up-the-ass hardcore, a sound and delivery that Tue Madsen has absolutely nailed with his production. It is all thick riffs and bass lines, and thunder god drumming that reminds more of baseball bats and clubs than it does sticks. Through it all Lou Koller barks his guts out on every track (save for a 45-second interlude called "Braveheart") and raises the already high level of aggression to even higher altitudes.

As for the overall songwriting approach, I could describe it no better than what vocalist Lou Koller had to say about the sound of the new album: "It's typical us. It's a mixture of what we love — old-school sing-along Oi! music mixed with modern hardcore". The sing-along part of the statement cannot be oversold, as songs like "A Month of Sundays" (recalling all those CBGB Sundays "down at the matinee"),"Dirty Money" (as in "the dirty money system rules the world!"),"Death or Jail", "The Divide", and just about every other song on the album is filled with moments that will have you shouting at the top of your lungs and feeling all "tattooed tough guy" and "street." Now moving into quarter-century territory, SICK OF IT ALL keeps it real; real hard and real in your face. It is what has come to be expected from the veteran brawlers.