Lifesick

Swept In Black (2018)

Sam Houlden

Ah, a new year. New beginnings, a fresh start, a chance for optimism and the sense that everything is going to be fine from here on in. Nope. It’s cold, wet, I’ve not got any holidays booked and over here in the UK, we have the ubiquitous spectre and impending catastrophe of Brexit hanging over us as well. So imagine my delight when I happened across this record whilst catching up on the few new releases from the Xmas period. You might not know much about the band (as I didn’t, before doing a bit of research), but the band/album names alone give you a hint that this isn’t going to exactly be Maroon 5 territory. Thank god.

A brief potted history – Lifesick were born in Denmark, released their debut album 6.0.1 through Southern Lord, subsequently signed to Isolation records (centre of excellence for hardcore), toured the first record, then promptly began work on album No.2 – which is what we’re looking at now. And what we’re looking at and listening to is another hardcore album of genuine quality. Hardcore has been on an absolute tear in the last 12-18 months or so, and most of the notable releases have their own twist on the classic hardcore sound. Some are bringing in alt-rock leanings (Turnstile), others are going down the super-caustic route (Jesus Piece) and some are even throwing in nu-metal influences (Vein). Lifesick are probably not drifting as far from the hardcore blueprint as some of the others in what is becoming a delightfully crowded scene, but that’s not to say they don’t have a certain something about them.

From the very get-go, you are left in no doubt that there are some pretty significant metallic influences coursing through the veins of Lifesick. Hardly surprising given their Scandinavian heritage, but it’s the thrash rather than black metal influences which are perceptible. Because of which, I could almost draw more parallels with Power Trip than any of the bands I mentioned earlier, and that’s good company to be in, I’m sure most would agree. The pace is varied from track to track, ranging from slow, borderline-doomy dirges (the opening track “Lifesick 2.0” is a good example of this), to the unabashedly up-tempo and more overtly thrash-influenced tracks like “Torment of Life” and “Keep Me Under”, but where Lifesick really hit their stride is in the crushing mid-tempo stomp area. There’s enough distinction to the riffs, groove to the rhythm section and character to vocalist Simon Shoshan’s delivery that where some hardcore bands might feel bereft of them, Lifesick manage to slip hooks into their songs – lots of them – and although they’re not always at the surface (although they often are in the case of the lead guitar lines), they’re definitely there and the songs really benefit from their presence.

It’s hard for me to be entirely objective about this stuff, because this brand of metallic hardcore is just something I’m always going to like. But even stepping outside my own specific tastes, I think there’s so much to enjoy here, that I would implore any hardcore fan to give this a spin. The production helps too, I think. Thick but punchy, with enough left in the top end to make the drums sound urgent – alive and raw.

Putting my critical hat firmly on for a minute…It could be argued that there isn’t a huge amount of variation in approach. Besides some acoustic guitar in the intro to “Suicide Spell”, the guitar tone remains much the same and the structure could possibly be seen as a touch formulaic at times, I suppose. Neither of these reduce my enjoyment of the record, but it’s these sorts of things that separate good records from truly great records sometimes. At the end of it all, I think this record is a great evocation of what Lifesick are. I know I’ll be listening to this for a long time to come and that might be because it’s my type of stuff, but I can’t help feeling that people who are less predisposed to this sort of thing than I am could well fall into a gloriously loving/hateful relationship with it as well.