"Rant-a-ta-tat": Sick of it All - Blood, Sweat & No Tears

There are certain bands in Hardcore that have the status of saints. Bands that everybody loves and respects. As it was, back in the old days, you gotta earn this status hard, so there's definitely something about all those legends. Don't you dare to shit on them! Still, I will do it with all of my heart and all of my brain cells still intact: SICK OF IT ALL suck.

In the 80s, New York was one of the top territories for HC/Punk. The bands were proud of their heritage and wore the letters NYHC on their sleeves, some even deemed them pretty militant. Personally New York never was my favourite territory, as I enjoyed the stuff from D.C. or L.A. way more. Still, you can't deny the influence of New York-bands like AGNOSTIC FRONT, CRO-MAGS, MADBALL or BIOHAZARD on the evolution of Hardcore. Their metallic edge left an impact, even outside of HC, with that "Crossover"-movement of the 90s. Hip-Hop definitely had a subtle influence on NYHC back then...

It was a working-class-kind-of-Hardcore, thus I'd never say SICK OF IT ALL haven't earned their status. Sure, they were at the right time in the right place, but they worked hard to make something out of it. While I can't talk facts, I'm pretty sure that these guys played their asses off during the 80s and 90s and I guess everyone into them already saw them at least once. Also in Europe you could feel their presence in terms of gigs. They're definitely more of a "live-band" than a "record-band", and I think most fans would agree with me. They're known for their energetic and violent shows so it's obvious where their legendary status comes from. Personally I never saw one of their shows, but I never had the desire to see them play these dull songs live, in the first place.

Musically they always were boring as fuck to me, and I gave them many chances. I started with their, so called "legendary", debut album from 1989: "Blood, Sweat & No Tears". It stands symbolic for all of their other albums (up to "Death of Tyrants" from 2006) I gave at least a spin or two. Their debut-LP offers an at best average, totally generic brand of Hardcore. As I said before, I never was the biggest NYHC-fand, but I found something to like every now and then. Despite being way older than "Blood, Sweat & No Tears", AGNOSTIC FRONT's "Victim in Pain" or CRO-MAGS' "Age of Quarrel" had more finesse and originality on their side, and also more power and energy. I mean, GORILLA BISCUITS' "Start Today" was released only four months prior to "Blood, Sweat & No Tears". Eventhough the BISCUITS never fit in with the "classic" NYHC-bunch, their sole full length is what I would call a clear cut classic of Hardcore. And not the first SOIA-full-length. On top of everything, the recording quality is pretty poor, even for late 80s-standards. They upped their game in terms of production with their second album "Just look around" from 1992 and all their other 90s-records, yet that only made them slightly more interesting. They were never able to hide all their dullness.

What's especially bad about the songs on "Blood, Sweat & No Tears" is the indefinite and/or abrupt ending of most of these songs. It's just one track tacked on the next one, without any reason or rhyme, and everything blends together like shit. Yes, it's Hardcore in the late 80s/early 90s and not the "art show" it became in the 2000s, though, bands did already better in this era of HC. Really, I could continue, but then again I couldn't care less about this band. One last thing I'd like to add is Lou Koller, their singer. His vocals are as bland as bland can get and he does absolutely nothing for me. He probably is a strong reason for my ever present bias against this band.

To end this on a forgiving note, I've got one good thing to say about "Blood, Sweat & No Tears": It's the shortest SICK OF IT ALL-album. But -you guessed it- even these 24 minutes tire the fuck out of me. If I should ever get into them in this lifetime, I'll convert to the church. Talking about "saints" and stuff...