3 out of 5

Label: 54’40 or Fight!

Produced by: Dave Gardner (engineer, mastered by)

I mean, Dazzling Killmen aren’t my favorite band, but they’re not my unfavorite, and mid-90s landmarks Face of Collapse and the Recuerda compilation still pack an intense punch, and are instantly recognizable as influencing any amount of hardcore bands, even when DK doesn’t seem to be the name most often dropped in that list.  So, yes, I’m definitely interested to know what Dazzling Killmen vocalist Nic Sakes got up to later on, and Sicbay’s Overreaction Time’s first couple of tracks suggest that time has only strengthened his approach, turning up the post-rock and syncing it to appropriate levels of aggression for some uniquely rocking blasts of weirdly poppy shredding.

Ah, and there’s also just a dash of Americana strumming mixed in there, as well as some experimental production trickery, and attempts at intimacy.  Which isn’t mixed in very well.

Overraction Time, as mentioned, kicks off pretty perfectly with the all-hands-on Herculaneum, continuing into the equally impressive Tocsin.  Both tracks feature Sakes bleating out one line attacks over music that maintains a toe-tapping pace and shifts between hardcore-tinged moments and riffage that’s more rooted in a Silkworm-type appreciation of roots rock, ebbing and flowing freely and excitingly.  Dave Gardner’s recording is rather flat, all up front, but it works for this; it keeps it very present.  However, Summersaults introduces the group’s occasional forays into experimentation, and while it shapes up into something by the end of its minute twenty runtime, it’s long and abrupt enough to put a halt in the momentum, which is continued on by Smoke Stains, a lower-key affair.  The recording style does not support these types of tracks on the album, which continue to cycle through in a pattern of rockers / experimentation / non-rockers; Sakes’ lyrics aren’t pointed enough to be too grabbing, and there’s generally not a notable enough tune or emotion to make the songs stand against the album’s more impactful ones.  Taken on their own, these songs aren’t bad by any means, and often come into their own toward the end of their runtime, showing how the disc’s varying styles could all feasibly play together, but when they’re followed, sequentially, by outright awesomeness like The Buckle, the inbetween tracks fade from memory.

Overraction Time is smartly bookended by some stronger tracks which are able to exist with some better blended dynamics, and its absolutely littered with enough highpoints that it merits cycling back through it with frequency.  But the non-highpoints just don’t stand a chance in comparison.