At the end of last year I visited a show of Sickbag, a French crossover-grindcore band that really impressed me that night. So when I saw that their album Bushido Codex had reached our office, I was very curious to hear it and review it. Let’s check it out!

 

Reading back my live review I can see I was very positive about this band. Listening to this record leaves me with mixed feelings. First of all this record is from 2006, so it could be that half of the songs on this disc aren’t even played anymore. But the tracks on this disc don’t manage to convince me that much, and it’s not so much the songwriting that creates this feeling but more the overall production of the record. This is a real shame, because I find it hard to keep my attention to the music because of this. The main problem lies with the guitars, which just miss the real power to convince or blow me away at certain points.

 

This aspect of Bushido Codex really drags the level of this disc down, and I don’t think that’s fair because the songs are quite strong. It’s just that it’s really hard to keep track of what’s going on, because the music is already busy as it is. They themselves claim to make grindcore with influences of death metal hardcore, sludge and crust, which naturally results in a whole lot of noise, not making it any easier to follow the music.

 

Nevertheless this is a record from 2006, so I can’t wait to hear what their next effort will sound like. With a better production and mixing process I have no doubt that their career will pick up speed in no time, because Sickbag knows how to blurt out some killer tracks, that’s for sure.