Label: Virgin/EMIRating: 3 Guns
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Written By: Ben Millikan
Sick Puppies' newest release, "Tri-Polar," has all of the usual characteristics found in most contemporary hard-rock albums: it’s loud, angry, and simple. But what places Sick Puppies a cut above the herd lies within the melodic range of Shimon Moore. Although his lyrical content never strays far from the banal exasperation of failed relationships, he does so in a fashion that is anything but boring and simple. He's able to come at you with an edgy ferociousness on tracks like “Street Fighter (War)” and “You’re Going down” and still know how to tone down and showcase his amazing harmonies on “Odd One” and “Maybe.”
With that said, "Tri-Polar" is an aggressive album. The guitars are thick and distorted, the bass is heavy and present, the drums are deep and punchy. The songs are short and to-the-point, and with the exception of the final track “White Balloons” (a dynamic song that begins with a soothing acoustic guitar riff and eventually opens up into a powerful rock anthem), the band never really ventures outside of the four-to-the-floor feel that most hard-fans come to expect.
The bass on this album kicked ass! As one-third of the modern rock trio Sick Puppies, Anzai, along with drummer Mark Goodwin and guitarist/vocalist Shimon Moore, Emma Anzai has proven that she can hang with the boys, and the band has shown that it can contend with mainstream music.
Tri-Polar shows that the band still has plenty of room to grow and make their own niche in an overly crowded music scene, but with the album already reaching 31 on the Billboard 200, expect to hear plenty more from these guys (and girl) in the years to come.
Like Sick Puppies? Check out: Papa Roach, Disturbed, Shinedown
