SICK N’ BEAUTIFUL
“Starstruck”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Sick N’ Beautiful are a rock/metal band from Italy formed in 2013, releasing three albums to date – ‘Hell Over Hell’ (2015), ‘Element Of Sex’ (2018), and ‘Starstruck’, released in 2022.

Fronted by the extremely beautiful Greta Di lacovo – better known as Herma Sick – the Italian five-piece Sick N’ Beautiful boast a rock/metal sound that transcends boundaries and ignores limitations, stretching right into the realms of industrial, alternative, grungy electro pop and punk. The bands new album ‘Starstruck’ is an eclectic mix of all these styles, catering for an extensive array of fans. The band are an enigma, with their stage performances featuring colourful costumes and striking visuals that grab the audiences attention, keeping them entertained for the entire show. Now I don’t know exactly how, why, and when Sick N’ Beautiful came to be, so I’ll leave it to the band to explain their origins:-

“We are intergalactic nomads, performing our numbers for the enjoyment of all species we meet on our travels. Rumour has it that we sometimes resort to ‘questionable’ means in order to make ends meet; all we can say is that life in space is never easy. We fly the BFS9000, a ship that has seen better days. A recent massive engine failure came totally unexpectedly, and with nowhere else to go, we crash landed on Earth, near Rome, Italy. Our ship is stuck here until we can get enough resources to fix it and resume our voyage.”

So there you have it, Sick N’ Beautiful are out of this world entertainers, with eleven new songs over a forty five minute ride – so plenty on offer to tickle our taste buds! And not just taste buds either – our eyes and ears are in for a treat too! With Herma’s beauty at the centre of the band to keep our eyes transfixed and ears pinned back listening to her sultry, sassy, and very sexy voice, the rest of the band keep us in a constant state of arousal with a tantalising aural avalanche of sonic thunder. And first outta the gate, ‘Tonight We Go To War’ is a very heavy slab of industrial orientated metal. The punch of ‘Tonight We Go To War’ has enough power to floor the greatest of boxing world champions, leaving them unable to beat the count! The band setting their stall out to deliver an array of knock-out punches in quick succession – first the opening jab, followed by the title song ‘Starstruck’, venomously upper cutting you with devastating accuracy. Heavier, and featuring more thunder than the albums opening salvo, ‘Starstruck’ (the song) swings around a number of genres, keeping you enthralled and totally intrigued as to which style the band are gonna move in to next.

Electro pop and punk is where Sick N’ Beautiful take you next – ‘Drop It 2 The B’ smacking hard like a dominatrix on double time! The sheer power pulsating through ‘Drop It 2 The B’ is high enough to raise the hairs on every inch of the body, creating goose-bumps too! Goose-bumps that don’t go down, as the band swagger on with the heavy hitting ‘This Is Not The End’, and a level of aggression not heard before. The mix of ’90s grunge with the bands gritty industrial roots, is an incredible blend, and one that is gonna turn heads wherever it’s heard – this is most definitely not the end, it’s just the fucking beginning! ‘Defy The Light’ increases the heaviness ten-fold and viciously stabs you multiple times – an unrelenting savage assault of murder by music. With blood spattering everywhere, you’re still gonna find the time to exclaim ‘Defy The Light’ as “fucking great”. Even imminent death ain’t gonna stop the enjoyment of this album – heaven or hell where do I go, ‘Starstruck’ (the album) is coming with me.

But while we remain in the land of the living, Sick N’ Beautiful march on with the heavy rocker ‘Deep End Dark’ – an up tempo and highly energetic traditional sounding hard rock romp. More melodic than what has gone before, the band show their rockier side, dropping many of their boundary breaking influences. Although they do return en masse, for the even heavier, hard rock ‘n’ rolling ‘Schadenfreunde’. With a venomous level higher than heard earlier, ‘Schadenfreunde’ will steam roller you flatter than a thin crust pizza base! With a force stronger than gravity, the band have kept the listeners attention, not letting it go for a single second – and with a sultry vocal performance bringing ‘Pull Of Gravity’ to life, attention levels are stronger than ever. Herma has an incredible range – from a sexy low rasp to a gorgeous husky growl through to a banshee like scream, the allure of her voice is only eclipsed by her dazzling booty, err, beauty. Beauty, I mean beauty. Oh my God, I’m all in a tizz – how embarrassing.

Regain composure Mathew, regain composure – ah that’s much better, With three songs to go I need to stay professional. But it’s so hard with such a sensational voice giving me eargasm after eargasm – the latest coming in the form of ‘Pray Tell Me’. A heavy hard rocker with a touch of head bang ability not felt before, ‘Pray Tell Me’ also features a sensual vocal performance to keep those body hairs standing fully to attention. ‘Angels Be Falling’ appears to be heading into ballad territory with the mellowest intro the album has to offer, picking up the bombast to become a melodic hard rock romp of the tallest order – the band once again shelving their root inclination to break dowm musical boundaries. And now to the final song, the palindrome titled ‘YTOPYNONAVEVANONYPOTY’ – and no, I’ve not got a fucking clue how to pronounce it either! Maybe it’s a phonetic respelling of the Italian phrase “I TOPI NON AVEVANO NIPOTI”, also a palindrome – translated means “the mice had no grandchildren”. I’m not sure, but then your guess is as good as mine. But whatever the song title’s explanation, it’s a thunderous and aggressive sounding end to a catchy and highly intriguing album of boundary crossing genre breaking stimulation.

Overall, a thrilling album of many different styles of rock and metal, ‘Starstruck’ is gonna keep you entertained from start to finish.

TRACKLIST

Tonight We Go To War
Starstruck
Drop It 2 The B
This Is Not The End
Defy The Light
Deep End Dark
Schadenfreude
Pull Of Gravity
Pray Tell Me
Angels Be Falling
YTOPYNONAVEVANONYPOTY

https://www.sicknbeautiful.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sicknbeautifulband

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