Vicious 12" review

Now that this band has a newer record out, I probably won't publish this in any zine, so I thought it could see the light of day here.

Vicious 12" (Wasted Sounds)
Not to pull a Jerry Maguire, but this EP “had me” at the Static Age album art, and even the cheesy band photos on the back cover (arms crossed, in coffins) was excusable because the guitarist is the cutest girl in punk. Actually, the vocalist is probably the most striking babe on the circuit, too; when I saw the Regulations (in which he plays bass), his ultra-tight jeans made *me* feel fat. With all these good-looking kids in the band, it is perhaps appropriate that their music is sexy as hell, but the lyrics are completely vapid: “I need somebody to destroy this generations, let’s invent our own” sounds so 2001.
Oh shit, did I forget to introduce this band? This is members of DS 13, Tristess, Regulations, and the International Noise Conspiracy playing basic punk rock in the vein of current Swedish bands, but more punk and less pop than, say, Knugen Faller. Their debut EP was widely praised for its authentic Bloodstains Across Wherever sound, and this record has elsewhere garnered comparisons to The Adverts. I’m really into this stuff, which probably means I shouldn’t have sold my Adverts CD the week after I first heard Skitsystem, but whatever.

The first thing you notice about this record (after their pants) is how *good* they are at doing this thing we think we are all tired of already. These six songs are all really memorable, the vocals (and lyrical tropes) threaten to get old immediately but never do, and the whole affair is punk as fuck. The singer should copyright his awesome way of saying the same thing once, and then saying “the SAME thing” “the same THING” “THE same THING” and making it really catchy. So, while this music could never be accused of complexity or depth, I listen to it all the time and it never gets old. They never deliver on the Misfits-promise of the album art, but I get the feeling this band is getting laid nonstop, so maybe they meant to and just forgot.