Arizona-based Sicksense combine call-and-response male and female vocals, rapped verses, engaging choruses and intense screams in a fascinating, nimble and punishing nu-metal sound they describe as “authentic, energetic and innovative.”
The quintet of the intriguingly named Vicky “Killer V” Psarakis (vocals and keys, and who has intriguingly, among other things, voiced characters in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Resident Evil video games), Rob The Ripper (vocals), Breakdown Bran (guitar), Spot-On Sam/SOS (bass), and The Trve Cody Taylor (drums) originally started out in Montreal, Canada before relocating to Phoenix.
Sicksense began when Bran and Cody’s previous project Keychain was looking for a vocalist in 2017 and brought in Rob to work on demos. Bran proposed a second vocalist, which saw Rob’s wife Vicky join the crew and Sicksense was born. They concluded the lineup with Sam joining just before laying down their two EPs Kings Today and Fools Tomorrow, which were recorded just before the pandemic but have been released in the last year or so. And they passed the impressive milestone of one million streams on Spotify yesterday!
On the sound they’ve honed, Vicky explains: “We are creating our own unique sound that draws inspiration from nu-metal, modern metalcore, old school hip-hop, R&B and even classic pop music. There’s some familiarity in our sound, but there’s no other band out there that sounds like us.”
Our first taste of this is their second EP Fools Tomorrow, which was released in June. On the EP, Vicky told us: “There’s the critical reception from people who either love our music and then there’s others who simply do not understand us or what we’re going for at all. Then there’s the reality of our success, which has been amazing for an independent band. Our online numbers, views, streams and overall engagement significantly grow each day as new people discover us. We’ve also begun to catch the attention of industry figures, behind the scenes, so we’ll see what happens.
“Our Fools Tomorrow pre-orders quadrupled from our Kings Today pre-orders and our recent Double EP Release Party shows in our hometown of Montreal were a big success. We played two back-to-back nights to a packed crowd and there were so many other heavy music shows going on in the city at the same time. But people showed up for us, including numerous people who traveled from the US and one person who even came from the UK to be there!”
Fools Tomorrow perfectly portrays the diverse sound that Sicksense are aiming for. It opens up with Feed Them To The Wolves, which opens up with a scratchy electronic sound that explodes into life with heavy guitars and screamed vocals. That drops into rapped vocals over light electronic sounds and stabs of guitar, the pace drops and builds into a big singalong chorus led by Vicky’s engaging vocals. A second chorus gives way to a mellow instrumental section then laid-back vocals gradually build up to a final blast of the chorus. Check it out in the video here:
The EP is packed with high-intensity nu-metal goodness like its title track Fools Tomorrow and Run And Hide, which features an exceptional high-octane chorus. They also showcase their ability to mix things up with the delicious final song Erase, Rewind led by Vicky’s deliciously delicate vocals.
But a personal favourite track is the lively Invitation, which starts with a building riff that bursts into life with a big bouncy verse led by screamed vocals. Rapped vocals that begin “Step aside, punk, This ain’t a fucking drill, Got a semi-automatic, And I shoot for thrills, Don’t you dare pray to God, You’re going to beg to me, Get down on your knees, And have faith in me” take over before call-and-response vocals and the pace drops with clean vocals. But it explodes into more vicious screams and rapped vocals before a cool chorus of Vicky’s clean vocals answered by rapped retorts. The call-and-response nature continues through a really fun verse, which flows into the duo trading screams as the song comes to a heavy conclusion. Check it out in the awesome vocal performance video here:
Sicksense’s members draw influence from a wide range of music with a clear focus on nu-metal greats like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Slipknot. Vicky tells us she draws on her early 90s R’n’B and hip-hop influences plus the likes of Evanescence and Lacuna Coil. While Rob’s vocals draw on Corey Taylor, Bone Thugs, Wu-Tang Clan and more 80s and 90s rappers. Bran apparently listens to a variety of genres, including Napalm Death, and Sam is into everything from Mudvayne and Rage Against The Machine to more modern bands like Fever 333.
And on what inspires them to write music, Vicky explains: “Sicksense is a very real and honest band. We do know how to have fun with our presentation, our live show and our visuals, but our topics are drawn from our real-life experiences as individuals. We write about the things we’ve been through in our personal lives and what we’ve all learned from being in the music industry. We draw from the negative and positive stories and everything in between.”
Despite releasing two EPs in a pretty short time period, Sicksense are already hard at work writing new material this summer, which they’re excited to release as soon as possible. They’re rapidly gaining momentum from the new EP and hope to sign with a record label before the end of the year, so these are certainly exciting times for the Phoenix-based collective.
But Vicky adds: “We’re still independent. So any form of support goes a long way for us. Stream our music. Tell your friends about us. Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive content. We have built a really great community here and we have a huge family vibe. All are welcome and we hope that our music resonates with people in an emotional way. We’re not here to play ‘rockstar,’ we truly want to connect with people who appreciate our art, and we want to provide them with the best content possible. More music from Sicksense is on the way! We’re working on it and we can’t wait to share the new material soon. Thanks for having us!”
You can follow Sicksense on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Patreon, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Soundcloud and YouTube.
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