EP Review: Yeah, Sick – Your Herbs And Spices Won’t Save You Now
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Out of the state of Victoria, Australia – and beginning as a lockdown project – hardcore punk mob, Yeah, Sick! issue the follow up to their 2022 debut, Set to Devour Us All, with another fast foot-centric platter: Herbs and Spices Can’t Save You Now.
The original duo of guitarist/ vocalist Liam Frost-Camilleri and drummer Benito Martino have added bassist Dazz Powell to the EP’s ingredients and, in many ways, his is the most prominent flavour. Dazz’s basslines dominate much of the run-time, taking the lead on songs like #SOFRAGILE, in which the charging, killer riffs groove and intermingle, giving the whole of the disc an exciting uncertainty of where the music might take you next. Hardcore vibes rub shoulders with Death Metal growls, and everything seems to coalesce in Mr Bungle-like moments of madness.
Yet it all gets off to a respectable start. A Hold of Me opens the EP with an enticing riff and Liam’s comment “Here we go again” as the tune launches into a fat, punk stomp, crossover-style gang vocals add to the pummelling, and there’s even a haunting refrain added toward the end, just to stop you getting complacent and thinking you know what’s coming.
A soundbite from Joker and an off-kilter rhythms marks the beginning of A Trolley Out the Front, and there’s no let up in the chaotic and edgy attack, leaving the listeners unsettled and more than a little perturbed.
Fast Feud is the closest Herbs and Spices… comes to a title track; fast and hardcore driven, it the first time the record becomes a danger to other people’s health as, up to this point, it’s more likely to harm itself than anyone else. Coming with a crunching mid-section and a few crazy detours, it’s the album cover art of Ronald McDonald chinning Colonel Sanders put to music, with these obesity-purveying titans slugging it out amid the general musical insanity.
Central to Herbs and Spices Can’t Save You Now is Yes, My Gatekeeper, the longest tune on offer and one that allows Yeah, Sick! to utilise a big breakdown, fat drops and a grooving progression. Set against a big bassline, and with Liam’s angriest punk vocal, it has more than a feel of that other trio of deranged musicians, Macabre.
Short and to the point, but never predicable, this new EP proves Yeah, Sick! are true to their DIY roots by recording and producing the whole thing themselves. It’s raw, but it’s also a great deal of fun, though does contain a healthy slice of satire and sincerity while being so.
