ALBUM REVIEW: Initiation – Sumo Cyco

One of the most powerful aspects of video and role playing games are the worlds they create and the characters within them. Players find themselves wanting to escape into those fantasy worlds full of action, danger, heroism, magic, and fun. It’s that feeling like anything can happen, and excitement is just around an given corner that keeps people coming back to games like Shadowrun, League of Legends, and Cyberpunk 2077. If it’s ever been a curiosity what kind of hard rock music would be perfectly tailored to fit these games and that kind of adventurous and wild atmosphere and thrill, the answer is Canadian quartet SUMO CYCO and their new third album, Initiation.

This is a band and a record that combines so many elements and treads so much ground in both instrumentation and performance that it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, it should be mentioned that every song on the record takes place within the dystopian fantasy world of Cyco City, created from the mind of band leader Skye Sweetnam. It’s a place drenched in neon colour and decaying rust, where, as previously mentioned, anything can happen. And that’s good to remember because the breathlessness and sheer zaniness of this album at times are put into greater context. However, it must be said that the sense of pure adrenaline this album gives off is wild, and this band sounds absolutely in their own category. It’s incredibly refreshing and thrilling to listen to this record.

Album opener Love You Wrong gives a perfect taste of what’s to come, and there is immediately a transportative effect from Sweetnam‘s manic energy and sassy, theatric vocals. There’s a punk energy to the song that gives it a carefree vibe, and the stuttering drumbeat over Sweetnam’s poppy to harsh vocals will, in the words of another famous band, kickstart your heart. Bystander is even wilder, and with its thrashy opening, this track feels like being plopped right in the middle of a wild race in a racing video game. The electronic elements on this track really give it some extra dimension, and they keep appearing throughout the record with sounds and textures that sound unlike any other electronics on a rock or metal record in the past few years.

Vertigo is an excellent track that is really bolstered by Sweetnam‘s pop sensibility and her powerful voice. In her past, Sweetnam was a pop star who once opened for Britney Spears and spent a lot of her youth immersed in the world of mainstream top 40 pop. Her experience and vocal talent from that past really adds a lot to her work on the album and on this song. This is pure glitched out, electronic tinged, hard driving rock with a great hook. The synths in the background literally could have been lifted from a pop song, but it totally works. There’s a half-time rap breakdown in the track too. It’s too much fun.

Bad News starts with some really quick, harmonized vocals before launching to a breakbeat, drum and bass feel. It’s got that fast, pop song flavour, but again, Sweetnam is the star. The ease at which she shifts from one vocal tone and flavour to the next feels so effortless and yet so excellent at keeping the listener immersed in that wild, video game-esque world. It’s hard not to get lost in thinking about leading an action hero through a horde of neon coloured thugs. No Surrender is a bit more straightforward, and it feels tailor made to be played on a big festival stage with a ton of fans. Its chugging riff and bouncing chorus are pure mainstream rock. It’s good, but doesn’t stand out as much with the untamed wildness around it.

M.I.A. takes it back to just pure uncharted territory. It’s opening clean guitar lick feels lifted from modern top 40, but the syncopated vocals and chiptune synth and atypical drum beat just add to a sense of chaos, maybe a bit too much, in fact. But the switch to the hard driving guitar at the end is very satisfying. This leads into Cyclone, one of the best tracks on the record. It’s so unique its hard to describe. It starts with an almost art-rock guitar riff that is just absolutely frenetic. It gallops hard and fast into a good chorus hook and rides into a little bit of nu-metal flair with Sweetnam‘s vocals, with her voice going full on pop star at the end. It’ll leave a smile, that’s for sure.

Run With The Giants is another excellent track. The electronics on this one are, again, wildly unique and set that crazy colorful tone. The guitar melodies also slot in perfectly here with their unexpected progression. This track is like a crazy circus. The adventurous lyrics and dancing stomp bait the hook, and the electronic stutter over the throbbing riff at the end seals the deal. Overdrive blends in a bit with the crowd, but it still keeps the fun going and keeps the video-game feel leveling up with its electronics. Power And Control finds Sweetnam channelling those Britney Spears years with a little bit of Britney magic of her own on this song’s opening cadence. It’s a magical way to start, and her vocal chops are more impressive on this track than any other. It’s a total blend of SUMO CYCO‘s frenetic hard rock and Sweetnam‘s pop instincts.

This vocal prowess continues on with This Dance Is Doomed. A wild percussive opening and hard charging riffs accentuate her delivery, and this song goes back to that facet of Sweetnam where she just effortlessly shifts her tone from snarling to manic to twinkling and everything in between. She just rolls with it on top of riffs that stutter and find themselves syncopating the beat quite often. And the fake live show ending is the cherry on top. It’s too bad that the album ends with Awakened, another track that feels a bit more straightforward. The hook is good, but it needs a little more bombast, which is a sentence that feels a bit out of place given the rest of the record. But still, it has some cool elements, like the dubstep wubs burbling in the background. A little let down of a closer, but every roller coaster has a flat section at the end.

It’s so difficult to categorise SUMO CYCO. It’s a totally unique blend of action/adventure, hard rock, top 40 pop, and electronics that sound ripped from Cyberpunk 2077. It’s pure video game adrenaline, and seeing as rock culture and video game culture will always be linked together, it’s most definitely an adventure with taking. The places the imagination will go when listening to this record are worth the price of admission alone. There are moments where things get repetitive and a few tracks blend in amidst the chaos, but ultimately, this is one of those bands with a sound so unique that it is begging for a fantastic live show in front of tens of thousands. Cyco City or bust.

Rating: 8/10

Initiation is set for release on May 7th via Napalm Records.

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