Sick Of It All - When The Smoke Clears album review

More bloody racket

Sick Of It All When The Smoke Clears album cover

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

You may wonder how Sick Of It All have survived three full decades of very angry and active service without losing their potency, but When The Smoke Clears is as rampant and incensed as anything in the NYC band’s unrelenting canon.

Released to celebrate their 30th anniversary, these five new tunes arrive in tandem with a distinctly swanky coffee-table book full of nostalgic pics and memorabilia. But while the likes of Black Venom and Blood And Steel stick proudly to the SOIA formula of nuts-out and lean O.G. hardcore, the sheer ferocity the band continue to wield ensures that this EP feels fresh, vital and relevant for every second of its 11-minute duration. Here’s to 30 more years, you noisy c**ts.

Dom Lawson
Writer

Dom Lawson began his inauspicious career as a music journalist in 1999. He wrote for Kerrang! for seven years, before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine in 2007. His primary interests are heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee, snooker and despair. He is politically homeless and has an excellent beard.