Australian “genre-bending” act Yeah, Sick! formed during the lockdown era as a “tongue in cheek experiment that grew into something bigger”. Their debut release ‘Set To Devour Us All!’ presented a wealth of slap bass sounds colliding with muddy guitar work that set up a heavy but very rhythmic sound. The mixture of early 90s funk metal influences and nu-metal ugliness resulted in five tracks that were, at best, hard going. The music might’ve been a little more palatable if Yeah, Sick! were better songwriters. The material felt too frivolous to be taken seriously, but nowhere near amusing enough to sit with any genuine comedy themed acts. Beyond a couple of very easily pleased Mr. Bungle fans, it’s not entirely clear who might have found the EP interesting.

Nevertheless, the Aussie band returned with a second EP in 2025. Would they have improved in the intervening couple of years? Would they have managed to forge a half decent chorus to go with those incessant bass lines? Would Frosty’s vocals be a little more sympathetic to his bandmates’ sounds? The answer to all of these pressing questions is, with the exception of one track, a hard no. The DIY production on ‘Your Herbs and Spices Won’t Save You Now!’ can be forgiven – these guys are clearly working to a budget, and in fairness, it still sounds better than some of those low budget, supposedly professional thrash albums from the late 80s – but the songwriting and performance elements still remain average to poor.

‘A Hold of Me’ kicks off with a reasonable thrash riff, but alarm bells start to ring, quality wise, the moment Frosty lets out his first atonal roar. It’s ugly. Yes, it’s ugly on purpose, but his voice has an abrasive edge that’s immediately off-putting. He’s clearly aiming for a classic hardcore delivery, but that just doesn’t suit this band’s crossover style. Then, applying an extra gruffness over a speed driven riff where bass swamps everything, any hint of melody Yeah, Sick! might’ve managed to summon gets completely swept away due to his sheer force. The relentless bass rattle is rather cool, but it’s not used to drive anything resembling a catchy song, or anything with a decent hook. Across the next couple of minutes, the band confronts their audience with a vocal that’s unable to share anything close to a decipherable lyric, set against something that sounds like audio mud. Despite being just three minutes long, it’s a performance that honestly feels like it goes on for an eternity. ‘A Trolley Out The Front’ fares slightly better thanks to the band approaching their riffs at a slightly slower tempo, and the quieter moments between the jagged riffs further suggest bassist Dazz is the member of Yeah, Sick! who is keeping it together, due to sharing some pleasingly complex fills. Although this number has more of a discernable hook, Frosty’s incessant roar continues to sound rather out of place against the hard edged, funk influenced bass work, and once the band have hammered their way through a couple of minutes’ worth of relatively fast, really hard riffs – which at this point are seemingly shared without the aid of a guitarist, or Frosty’s six-stringed contributions have been utterly lost in the recording’s swamp-like final mix – it just becomes another track that’s likely to have caused listener fatigue. It actually borders on tiring to the point where it’s a chore to get through, despite running to barely three minutes.

During the intro of ‘Yes, My Gatekeeper!’, Frosty’s dirty rhythm guitar finally becomes audible, and with the band locked into a solid mid tempo, on a musical level, there’s actually something resembling a melody here. The band’s blend of melodic hardcore and funk isn’t aiming to be a genuine crowd pleaser, but Dazz’s busy bass work locks in brilliantly with drummer Benito’s aggressive style, and there are even moments where Frosty’s hardcore shouting makes sense. With an unexpected spoken word interlude, a few gang vocals and a superbly heavy bass grind thown into the mix along the way, this very much feels like a welcome throwback to the crossover hardcore/thrash scene of the early 90s. If the EP had started with this track, this EP wouldn’t seem quite as bad,

‘Fast Feud’ also shows a vague promise with bass grinds that borrow from nu-metal influences, creating an interesting contrast with a hardcore vocal – a rare occasion where Frosty’s shouting actually seems to suit the music – and Benito’s drumming is more than solid. Unfortunately, these elements aren’t used to create anything interesting song-wise; ‘Fast Feud’ is far too concerned with recycling bits of a hardcore and metal past to feel inspiring, and as tight as the heavier parts of the track are, there’s precious little to back up the riffs before Yeah, Sick! decend into a world of “comedy” voices. The closing number ‘#SOFRAGILE’ kicks off with a cool bass groove from Dazz, but everything is rather quickly ruined by tuneless vocals and a venture into uninspired hardcore. The unexpected arrival of guttural death metal inspired roars actually improves things once more, showing a completely different side to Yeah, Sick!’s hybrid sound, but its an all too brief interlude, as another second rate attempt at channelling Mr. Bungle soon takes over. There are a couple of glimmers of something here that could be expanded upon for decent results, but in the main, this track becomes annoying somewhere around the third or fourth play.

Bassist Dazz says the band “leaned hard into weirdness” on this recording, but everything sounds like an average funk meets bad hardcore blend from 1990. A cool bass sound aside, this release has very little going for it. The relentless approach of the music all too often never makes it too far out of a basic chug, the shouty vocal sounds like someone taking the piss – far more so than this band’s self-claimed tongue in cheek approach would deem necessary – and the songwriting quality is almost non existent. In many ways, the Pantera tribute shared in the artwork is the best feature, but at the time of this release in late 2025, offering any kind of love or allegiance towards nazi saluting Phil Anselmo is deeply unfortunate. In the broadest sense, Yeah, Sick! sound like a band having fun, but unfortunately the same probably can’t be said of their audience. There isn’t much here that translates very well unless you happen to know any of these musicians personally. With so much genuinely great rock and metal out there, this EP is best avoided.

January 2026