Rebreather's "Sick Sick Sick" Sludge Has No Antidote (Early Track Stream)

November 30, 2021

Since their inception in 1999, Rebreather‘s purpose has been unerringly clear: putting crushing riffs and weighty atmosphere into the trembling hands of the populace, tapping into the noisy intersections of doom, sludge, and more to do so. While they’ve toiled in the underground making a name for themselves, years upon years of gigs and four prior full-lengths have refined the band’s skill at crafting heavy missives. Their upcoming album The Line, Its Width, and the War Drone bears the same abrasive stoner-sludge-punk attitude that defined the band’s early releases, but it comes wrapped in voluminous production and an almost spiritual presence. More fully-realized than ever before, the band’s reverential approach to delivering massive riffs opens up the mind to new dimensions of heaviness. Experience the angrier, more immediate side of it now with our premiere of opening track “Sick Sick Sick”:

…

I’ve seen Rebreather once, a few years back (see photos below), and what I took away is a lot like what I get from this album: a sense of fully-mastered heaviness. Rebreather is completely attuned to their subject matter and their sound, and nothing here seems out of place or imperfectly executed. On “Sick Sick Sick,” after apocalyptically massive drums initiate a beat, the ensuing erratic riff barely seems to fit into the meter, always pushing the song forward into the next iteration as the syncopated drums perpetuate the madness. Carried on a tide of interlocking guitar, bass, and drums, guitarist/vocalist Barley Rantilla’s screams seem to be aged to perfection, now about twenty years more completely-done-with-it than on their debut. Clean vocals, a large part of the rest of the album and its mesmerizing atmosphere, are absent here: “Sick Sick Sick” has no use for them, being an expression of force and fury filtered through the oddly energizing lens of biting cynicism.

Barley Rantilla (guitars, vocals) comments:

“As soon as we wrote “Sick Sick Sick”, the song instantly became our live opener for the run of shows we were doing. This is a great song for us to blast right out of the gate to get our blood flowing, knock out any nervous tension, and pull the crowd into our little world. Therefore, we thought it would be appropriate to open our new LP, The Line, Its Width, and the War Drone, with “Sick Sick Sick” as well. This track is a good icebreaker that sets you up for the rest of the album.

…