Sick Of It All - Wake The Sleeping Dragon! Is an audio armageddon!

When you consider the fact that the birth of hardcore was founded over 40 years ago in the roots of the 70’s rebellious anti-establishment genre of Punk, fronted by seminal bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Stooges, Dead Boys, MC5, Bad Brains, and Cro-mags to name a few, you’d think the Hardcore genre would have enjoyed it’s 15 minutes in the spotlight and faded back into the shadows from where it once reared its angry head. Most bands struggle to write a decent second album, let alone continue to carve out a path of destruction for over 30 years the way Sick Of It All have managed to do. Since their inaugural self-titled release all those years ago in 1987 to their latest offering, ‘Wake The Sleeping Dragon!’, Sick Of It All are one of the few bands that have stayed true to their sound whilst still successfully developing as artists.

There’s a reason many bands from previous musical era’s fail to receive attention or acclaim up against the herds of new young blood in the modern era, it’s because they are physically drained from age, void of the sometimes violent passion they once had for their craft. This is a common fate many artists find themselves succumbing to. Sick Of It All, however, have just unleashed 17 tracks of pure unadulterated hardcore hell from their latest record, ‘Wake The Sleeping Dragon!’. If we had to use three words to describe the first 30 seconds of this record, we’d have to go with, “HOLY FUCKING SHIT”.

The opening track, ‘Inner Vision’ is absolutely monstrous, both in sound and passion. At only 2 minutes long, there are very few bands out there that can deliver such an onslaught of perfectly calculated chaos in such a short space of time and leave you feeling like you’ve just been beaten to death in a joyous rapture of audio. The first three tracks alone are absolute proof that Sick Of It All are out for one thing and one thing only, absolute domination and chaos.

‘That Crazy White Boy Shit’ continues the demonic sounds blasting through the speakers, which, in terms of sound, we can only describe as a World War 2 bomber being flown by Lemmy himself into the heart of a nuclear bomb, holy shit this is one of the most powerful records you’re going to hear for a long time.

This is the difference between veterans that spearhead genuine passion for what they believed in through their music and those random 5 guys that want to be in a hardcore band because they think it will make them look tough. Sick Of It All have always been true to themselves and this speaks volumes throughout ‘Wake The Sleeping Dragon!’.

As always, Sick Of It All are making their personal opinions on the world around them very clear. With titles such as ‘Self Important Shirthead’, ‘Robert Moses Was A Racist’, ‘Beef Between Vegans’, ‘Deep State’, and ‘The New Slavery’, they spare no blood or hate within their music.

“So many different topics were covered, some way more lighthearted than others. We’ve done ‘serious’ so often, that what might stand out most to people is how much fun we had with the lyrics. It’s always time for revolution, so that message is loud and clear on multiple songs, but we also sing about musical heroes like the Bad Brains (‘That Crazy White Boy Shit’), inner demons (‘The Snake (Break Free.)’), our distaste of animal abuse (‘Bull’s Anthem’), annoying narcissism on social media, friends we’ve lost, life on the road, impending wars for resources, as well as mosh pit patterns that can be linked to male pattern baldness. We’ve allowed ourselves greater lyrical freedom on this record for sure!” says Majidi.

Wake The Sleeping Dragon! is so incredibly heavy and filled with such a wide range of intensity, dedication, fury, rage, and spirit it’s not just a record, it’s a portal to another dimension where heads are smashed, beers are chugged, and your tiny little mind is crushed by the sheer abundance of power the band have managed to capture in their most brutal record to date. You can expect to hear classic Sick Of It All chants, fast power chords, heavy bass lines, vicious vocals and nothing but pure anger throughout.

Tracklisting: 1. Inner Vision 01:54 2. That Crazy White Boy Shit 02:05 3. The Snake (Break Free) 01:57 4. Bull's Anthem 02:02 5. Robert Moses Was A Racist 01:28 6. Self Important Shithead 00:58 7. To The Wolves 01:39 8. Always With Us 02:26 9. Wake The Sleeping Dragon 02:02 10. 2+2 01:49 11. Beef Between Vegans 02:12 12. Hardcore Horseshoe 01:52 13. Mental Furlough 02:16 14. Deep State 01:53 15. Bad Hombres 02:01 16. Work The System 01:46 17. The New Slavery 02:3