Sickness

"The Fall of Reason" (Album, 2021)

Another DIY broadside from Nick Carter (late of Sanction This), and it's a ferocious, coruscating dissection of the ills of the world, consisting of five slabs of jet-black rage; as he says - "A litany of slaughter and butchery".

Guitars scream and grind, but also ring and soar, lights are snuffed out, bombers drone overhead, the new-born are crushed and the elderly die alone, while the media pump out images of consumerist excess and reality TV to a numbed and distracted nation.

The stand out song is Deceiver, where Carter sings of seeing the world "through the eyes of the dead" against a backdrop of propulsive Pailhead-style bass and piercing guitar. The title track is nine minutes of found noise, backwards feedback, and an almost stream-of-consciousness spoken lyric over chiming guitar driving toward a barrage of riffing at the end.

There's an old proverb that it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness, but on this release Carter manages to do both, which is an achievement in itself. The only weak point is Atrocity which has a too obvious chorus which lets it down somewhat, but overall a very satisfying follow-up to last year’s Loss, Decay and Insanity.

The high point for me is Carter snarling "This terror will fucking find you" with absolute conviction. 7/10

Nicky Hydra (February 2022)

Bandcamp page: https://sickness2.bandcamp.com/album/the-fall-of-reason

"Loss, Decay and Insanity" (Album, 2020) !Recommended!

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Sickness is a solo project from Nick Carter, and as the title implies, it is not a happy record.

Recorded in the spare bedroom of the marital home (some of it on his phone) following his decision to leave Sanction This due to health issues, depression is at the heart of this material, marking the songs with a dark smear as black and viscous as pitch; but coupled with a bloody-minded refusal to give in and a cathartic rage that is just as evident in every note and word.

The influences on show (principally Amebix – and thus Killing Joke - and Rudimentary Peni) are clear, but not overwhelmingly so; it sounds a lot like the best bits of Sanction This, but Sickness sounds like Sickness rather than any influences.

It’s a very difficult set of songs to listen to, as Loss, Decay and Insanity catalogues the disintegration of his mental health with a brutal list of torments. I could quote reams of lyrics from any of the songs here, but the image of being crushed in the cogs of a great machine, of being confined and tethered by straps and chains, of being imprisoned and entombed, of being devoured and consumed, of a numbness of the soul and a dulling of the senses recur throughout. 8/10

Nick Hydra (July 2021)

Bandcamp page: https://sickness2.bandcamp.com/album/loss-decay-insanity