First time around, the Nu-metal era was all a bit embarrassing. Old music was dead, the weird kids were cool and there was a frenzied embrace of something new. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie, the scene was flooded and, once respectable bands started debasing themselves, the entire thing collapsed under a heap of super-baggy jeans and seven-string guitars. Time is a great healer. Twenty years later and Deftones are venerated, Limp Bizkit are headlining Download, Linkin Park are back and a wave of upstarts are finding new, exciting ways to resurrect the sound. Meet Sicksense.
If there’s one lesson to be learned from the Nu-metal era, it’s do not try and be cool. Ever. Make your art, make it well and hope people are inspired by it. That’s Sicksense’s mantra, they’re proud to be Nu-metal. Not safe, boring Nu-metal either, the strange, alternative sound that kickstarted the movement in the first place. They’re the weird kids in the corner of the schoolyard proud to be doing something different. Their sound fuses huge basslines, hip-hop and – of all things – melodic death metal while their two vocalists Killer-V and Rob The Ripper sing, rap or trade screams in what proves to be an intoxicating mix. After two excellent EPs, ‘Cross Me Twice’ is their first full-length and it’s an absolute joy.
Right from the off, ‘Sellout’ reaffirms their credentials, but something’s different. It’s the atmosphere. Choral vocals and twinkly pianos push their sound into a slightly different space. The obvious comparison is Evanescence but it’s actually closer to the European sound of Within Temptation or Delain, albeit with that groove-based, Nu-Metal twist. They’ve flirted with similar soundscapes on their preceding EPs and Killer-V turns out to be the alias of Viki Paraskis, former vocalist of The Agonist, so the change isn’t so much a surprise as the next logical step. There’s an irony in that the song could literally be about the band’s change of sound, especially as it’s closer (albeit not that much closer) to that of her former band. At its most effective, these sounds are enveloping and dreamlike. This is especially true of on ‘Follow Me’ and the interlude ‘Fever Dream’ which are evocative of a starlit sky but this shift doesn’t compromise the raw emotion presented elsewhere.
Both Rob The Ripper and Killer-V are versatile vocalists and switch styles with ease. Thus the songs take advantage of their different voices and perspectives and play out like a tug-of-war. It’s really all about contrast and although it’s Killer-V’s clean singing that defines the band’s sound, they’re wise enough not to rely on an aggressive verse/clean chorus structure. This means that although death growls provide the meat to ‘Sellout’, songs like ‘Invisible’ or ‘On Repeat’ have huge, soaring, accessible hooks. However, when they leverage their tones of voice like on the vicious, scrappy ‘Wildfire’, the effect is stunning. Regardless of the subject matter, the back-and-forth screams play out like a bitter argument and make it very clear why they chose a crossed baseball bat and jar of flowers for the album cover. At the same time, rap gives them no place to hide and occasionally the lyrics and flows can feel a little thinly sketched. However, this is a feature of nu-metal (Linkin Park/Limp Bizkit et al.), fits neatly with what they’re trying to achieve and doesn’t detract from the experience. Notably Killer-V sidesteps this by spitting words quickly, especially on the vicious ‘In This Carousel’, which is amusing given that she’s not the band’s designated rapper.
The record’s first half features huge, fun songs but the second is less overtly Nu-metal and is also more interesting. While the songs all feature a Korn vibe with ‘Fieldy-esque’ basslines and groove-based riffs, these songs are buttressed by more traditional metal sounds. There are rapid guitar lines on ‘In This Carousel’, relentless death-growl heaviness on ‘Masquerade Parade’ and a quieter, more completive (Relatively speaking) sound on ‘Invisible’. The way that ‘On Repeat’ shifts, contorts and even flirts with djent metal makes it a strange, brilliant hybrid. So, despite having one foot in the past, the overall sound is modern, unusual and feels like the work of a single entity.
The album’s most striking feature is the way it has been constructed. Although you can’t see the work that went into it, the way the energy flows through the track order proves that somewhere, someone did a lot of planning. You can hear it too, most obviously on the chorus of ‘Throwback’ which also provides the basis for ‘Here Come All The Memories’ (Or possibly the other way around). By interpreting the same lines in different ways, they neatly reinforce the record’s underlying themes and, because it happens to be a particularly engaging chorus, more than earning their place in the runtime. The album’s relatively short runtime also works in its favour, meaning that, despite containing two interludes there is a strong sense of momentum. It would also be remiss not to mention the sense of joy threaded through the record, it’s most clearly heard on ‘Sellout’ but there’s a lightness and tone threaded through the songs that speaks of a band having a lot fun.
As with all music, and in fact all art, there’s a tension between where you think the artists might go, and where they do. It’s surprising that they borrow clicks and beats directly from hip-hop and soundscapes from melodic death metal but Sicksense are smart enough to make it work. It’s confident and stylish, and they’re self-aware enough to name their most straightforward, mainstream metal track ‘On Repeat’.
Delightfully weird, thoughtfully constructed and with a strong personality ‘Cross Me Twice’ is Nu-metal for a new generation.
IAN KENWORTHY