{"id":39376,"date":"2018-03-22T18:54:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T18:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-sick-joy-amateurs-ep\/"},"modified":"2018-04-02T13:45:27","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T13:45:27","slug":"review-sick-joy-amateurs-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-sick-joy-amateurs-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Review:\u00a0Sick Joy &#8211; Amateurs EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/aeef48ad062ca199b50a9d80bb84543a\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so4_r72_1280.png\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">The lasting influence that grunge has had on alternative music is undeniable. Known just as much for its personalities as it is for its distinct, garage-esque tones, the genre is in a state of revival, with artists channelling bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. 2018 looks poised to follow this trend, and one of its first offerings is Brigton-via-Newcastle trio <b>Sick Joy<\/b>, with their debut EP <i>\u2018Amateurs\u2019<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The old adage of \u201cnever judge a book by its cover\u201d applies here, with the EP\u2019s title merely calling to attention the band\u2019s young age. Musically, we\u2019re dealing with something beyond its years, or, perhaps even before its time.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>A distinctly familiar palm muting makes way for to a lo-fi guitar riff to introduce <i>&#8216;Senses\u2019<\/i>, a song that can only be described as pure Nirvana-worship. In terms of the vocals, Mykl Barton screeches the first line with almost Patrick Kindlon levels of intensity, something mirrored in the second verse to <i>\u2018Karma and Ketamine\u2019<\/i>. The band really become their own by the end of <i>&#8216;Senses\u2019<\/i>, however, with a huge outro supported by layered vocals in which Barton\u2019s harsher vocals are offset by a softer female performance.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Sick Joy - Senses\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/43D-Ka65bdM?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Smiling Shame\u2019<\/i> continues the theme of a new flair on an old sound, as it adds some post-punk reverb and the deep bass of grunge to a Brit-rock chorus. There\u2019s even space for a breakdown.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Amateurs\u2019<\/i> certainly is an interesting release. On the one hand, this is grunge-revival at its very best: slick, modern production on the more gritty instrumentation of yesteryear. Looking at the other, however, it can sometimes feel like you\u2019re just listening to the grunge bands of the 90s. While the mimicry is done respectfully and with that modern twist, the question lingers whether <b>Sick Joy<\/b> add enough to a sound that, in its purest form, died two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>An EP out of time, <i>&#8216;Amateurs\u2019<\/i> is a great introduction to a band who love their influencers. Now its up to <b>Sick Joy<\/b> to push the limits of the sound even further and strike with an even better follow-up.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Amateurs\u2019<\/i> EP by <b>Sick Joy<\/b> is released on 23rd March on <b>SaySomething Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Sick Joy<\/b> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sickjoy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sickjoyband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sickjoyband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/sickjoyband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ben Mills (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenMills28\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@BenMills28<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lasting influence that grunge has had on alternative music is undeniable. Known just as much for its personalities as it is for its distinct, garage-esque tones, the genre is in a state of revival, with artists channelling bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. 2018 looks poised to follow this trend, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,15078,15026,489,487],"class_list":["post-39376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-amateurs-ep","tag-ben-mills","tag-saysomething-records","tag-sick-joy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review:\u00a0Sick Joy - Amateurs EP - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The lasting influence that grunge has had on alternative music is undeniable. 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