Review Summary: SSS doing SSS in the casual SSS way.
It seems weird that, as of next year, Liverpool's SSS (Short Sharp Shock) will have been together for ten years. When you consider the band are still very much roaming in the underground (though relatively big in the UK thrash metal circuit), it's even more surprising to realize that only four full-length albums have seen the light of day-the latest of which,
Limp. Gasp. Collapse being the first record with new label Prosthetic Records.
So what exactly has changed in the band's sound? Well, nothing at all actually. A new change in record labels does not mean a change in style, and that's exactly what SSS seem to have set out to prove with
Limp. Gasp. Collapse. Throughout the fourteen-song tracklist, we have the band's usual traits: Crossover thrash ("Burn all Fields", "The Sleeper Awakens", etc.), heavy metal ("Shape of Things to Come", "Beige"), hardcore punk ("Pig Owned", "Good Books") and the obvious ten-minute long closer to remind the listener that the band can, whenever they feel like it, change musical direction for once. Unsurprisingly, there's one thing which serves as both the core advantage and disadvantage of the album: The knowledge that you've probably heard it all before. But to the passive SSS fan, that's not even a disadvantage, because
Limp. Gasp. Collapse has plenty of short, snappy riffs to be enjoyed over and over again until necks snap. To anyone else, it's a massive disappointment, but not so much a surprise.
What really drags the quality down somewhat is the vocal delivery, which, even when you compare it to other bands following more or less the same musical direction (Ratos de Porao, Iron Reagan, Toxic Holocaust), is really half-hearted and lazy. After a couple of songs, it does begin to grow tiresome, and even when there's a slight change in the delivery (I.e., the harsher style in "Dead Wood" or the quirkier nature of "Capacity Overload") it seems like the vocalist, in plain English, just "can't be arsed". This means that the instrumental performance is good by comparison, but not really great. Riffs fly all over the place with little interest in calming down for a heavy groove, and the tight-knit coherence between drum and bass rhythms is very well-executed. Yet when the whole of the rhythm section doesn't offer anything new, the great divide between fans and critics of this sound becomes even wider. The closing ten-minute track, "Crushed by Drudgery", does have a mean groove throughout and can confidently be called one of the band's more experimental (calling it so is probably a bit of a stretch) songs, and at least it ends the album on a high.
Chances are, you already know who SSS are or at least which genre the band adheres to offers, but the fact is
Limp. Gasp. Collapse is still a relatively fun listen. SSS are like the band who play a local pub every Sunday while you're choking back a few beers and enjoying the experience while it lasts, and their latest album is, well, proof that they're still alive. That's all that needs to be said.
