CoC : Sick of Society - Sportsman Sound : Review

Sick of Society - _Sportsman Sound_
(Independent, 2000)
by: Pedro Azevedo (3 out of 10)

This release has quite a mish-mash of styles, ranging from punk-like elements to groovier or more metal ones and even soft ballad parts; but all this results in nothing capable of interesting me. Neither the music itself nor the atmosphere it creates is ever impressive, consistent or remarkable in any way: mediocrity abounds. The music could at least have been reasonably aggressive, but that's generally not even the case -- and when they do try something a bit more aggressive, they fail to achieve any noteworthy results. The ballads they strangely decided to throw in the middle of all this do not help, either. By the way, I don't know what the great purpose of inserting nine minutes of silence before the last track in a 30 minute long record really is, but some bands seem to find that kind of thing hugely fun. And "fun" may also be what whoever might like this will probably derive from _Sportsman Sound_ given the music's general feeling, which is somewhat conceivable considering that the playing isn't bad and the production acceptable -- which earns them all their marks, because for me this just does not work at all.

Contact: Oliver Kast, Romerstr 26, 89269 Vohringen, Germany

(article published 12/8/2000)