Self-released
Release date: 7/21/2019
Production: Simon Jovanovič
Album length: 31.11 min
Genre: Alternative Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
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SickBreed are a Ljubljana band that properly found their footing sometime in 2016, and last July gave birth to their debut studio album, “The Joy In Deception”. They’re yet another herald of the Slovenian alternative rock underground, living and breathing the present moment. The band reportedly only wanted to record a single song at first, but then kept deciding to record more, until between 2018 and 2019 they had piled up enough tracks to finally put out a debut full-length.
Right out of the gate, SickBreed prove they’re a band building a homegrown musical identity, which is a very ambitious starting point for a young group that still has to hammer out and polish its style. What grabs the listener immediately is the crumbling sonic abrasion, or rather the holy simplicity of the “stripped bare” moves of garage-sound tinkering, which, once that hook of sacred rage and rock’n’roll honesty lands, guarantees the listener a definitive loss of tooth enamel.
The trio recorded this album like a live show and managed to catch and deliver all the aliveness that spilled onto the recording. It’s hard to get more honest and rudimentary than what we hear in the sound of the band’s debut.
SickBreed are an interesting musical conglomerate. In the uncompromisingly thundering opener The Human Condition, they bring in elements of stoner rock too, there’s even a perceptible “sludge” pastel tint, and both get along remarkably well with the trio’s alternative rock defiance as a starting point. What wins you over is the incredibly piercing vocal stance, which dominates in character not just the phrasing but also the rattling bass lines and the lumbering drums. In some of the lead vocal melodies of the opener there’s even a bit of Mastodon-like dirt coaxed out, though the character of the theatrical vocal disillusion is vividly close to the self-destructive image of Kurt Cobain. If the opener doesn’t quite speak to you yet, the title track right after it is a fine example of the band’s acrid inspiration drawn from grunge, Nirvana especially, which SickBreed return to quite a few times later in the album. But! As already said, the guys are developing a musical character of their own, which is very good and very promising for a trio at the start of its career. In the free-spinning blazing and the spells of sonic nakedness it conjures, the band creates a sense of entirely instinctive reaction to stimuli from the environment (and from within), while adopting a thick, smeared-on sonic nature close to elements of “noise”. First and foremost, SickBreed build their character on a dark, crumbling atmosphere where guitar phrasing constantly calls the shots (even in the mid-eight passages). Still, the band is technically solid enough to string together several motivic modulations within the songs. SickBreed have a textbook potential to one day swing, among the new “alt-whatever” rock outfits in the traditionally colorful expanse of the Slovenian alternative rock underground, into the pick of the more exciting acts on the domestic scene. Pinning comparisons on them is a thankless job. Maybe, just for a passing bearing, something like “Dandelion Children on steroids” from their early era pops into your head.
The band develops remarkable compositional flow, there’s a thick, voluminous rhythmic groove, excellent contrast between the building blocks of the sound is guaranteed, and above it all, as said, reigns an outstanding vocal of distinctly destructive nature. And none of this would exist without the trio’s high degree of contemplative awareness in handling the craft of rock’n’roll. That’s why the trio could make its debut studio album in a relatively short time. Because the crew has an excellent distribution of energy lines that complement and support each other in their musical vision and jointly magnify one another through a shared focal point of musical artistry.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. The Human Condition (03:22)
2. The Joy in Deception (04:32)
3. Intolerance (04:26)
4. Skeletal (03:28)
5. SailFree (03:41)
6. Pink (03:24)
7. Slippy Hippie (04:17)
8. Separation (04:17)
Lineup:
Maks Drobež – vocals, guitar
Andraž Leben – drums
Leon Samotorčan – bass guitar
Right after the debut studio album came out, Leon Samotorčan was replaced in the band by their new bassist, Haris Mujanović.
