Sicksense - Funerals EP
Sicksense have never sounded particularly interested in staying inside the lines, but Funerals finds the Montreal-bred modern metal outfit actively redrawing them. Arriving independently on September 25, 2026, the four-track EP represents a clear evolution from the band's earlier nu-metal foundation into something considerably heavier, darker, and much more adventurous. Nu-metal grooves remain firmly embedded in the band's DNA, but they now collide with metalcore brutality, djent precision, melodic prog flourishes and cinematic atmosphere.
The result is an EP that feels less like a stylistic departure than a reinvention. Produced and engineered by Joey Doherty and Vicky Psarakis, mixed by Doherty and mastered by Tyler Smyth, Funerals is a compact but remarkably varied release, moving between furious aggression, sarcastic defiance, emotional heaviness, and genuine grief without ever losing the band's unmistakable identity.
"Artificial Irrelevance" immediately establishes the new direction. The EP's heaviest track is an appropriately volatile opening statement, throwing down ferocious rhythms, intricate guitar work, rap-infused passages, and soaring melodies against an ominous backdrop. The song's critique of modern internet culture gives the aggression a clear target, taking aim at artificial online personas and the obsession with engagement, numbers, and superficial validation. Musically, that sense of digital dysfunction translates into a chaotic collision of styles that feels deliberately uncomfortable.
If "Artificial Irrelevance" represents Sicksense at their most expansive, "Newsflash" reconnects the band with the attitude that defined their earlier material. Its traditional nu-metal grooves and angsty, sarcastic edge make it an immediately combustible anthem, but the song's djent-heavy breakdown outro demonstrates just how far the band has pushed its sound. Its message of individuality and rejection of impossible social expectations is straightforward, yet the performance gives it enough bite to transform that frustration into something cathartic.
"Seller's Remorse" follows naturally, maintaining the EP's confrontational spirit while introducing a more pronounced melodic component. Nu-metal textures and emotive choruses sit alongside modern heaviness, creating a strong contrast between melody and outright aggression. Lyrically, the song focuses on hypocrisy and the consequences of refusing to change, carrying forward the sarcasm of "Newsflash" before gradually taking on a darker and more serious tone. It's another example of Sicksense understanding that heaviness isn't only about volume or brutality—it can also come from the emotional weight behind the words.
Then comes "A Moment Of Violence," and Funerals takes an unexpected turn.
Beginning with Vicky Psarakis alone against haunting piano, mournful strings, and atmospheric sounds, the song initially feels worlds away from the three pummeling tracks that precede it. Psarakis' vocal performance gives the song an intimate vulnerability before the full weight of the band eventually crashes through. Thunderous instrumentation and monstrous harsh vocals transform the mournful ballad into a devastating final breakdown.
The song's confrontation with death, grief, and the struggle to understand suffering gives Funerals its emotional centrepiece. Its questioning of faith and the loss of loved ones isn't presented as an abstract concept; instead, it feels like an unresolved personal argument with a higher power. That uncertainty makes the song all the more affecting. Richard Regier's violin contributes to the orchestral character, while the transition from fragile piano ballad to full-band heaviness provides an appropriately dramatic conclusion.
Despite containing only four songs, Funerals feels considerably larger than its runtime suggests. Each track serves a distinct purpose, while the EP's themes gradually move from frustration with the artificiality of modern life and social expectations toward hypocrisy, consequence, grief, and mortality. There is a sense of descending deeper into increasingly personal territory as the record progresses.
The vocal chemistry between Psarakis and Fonts remains one of Sicksense's greatest strengths. Their contrasting approaches—Psarakis' combination of soaring melody and vicious screams against Fonts' aggressive delivery and rap-infused cadence—give the songs an almost conversational tension. Rather than simply alternating vocal styles for variety, the two approaches continually push against one another, reinforcing the EP's emotional volatility.
Funerals also demonstrates why Sicksense's return to independence makes sense artistically. The band sounds liberated, willing to follow an idea wherever it leads rather than conforming to a predetermined version of what the group should be. The EP can be crushingly heavy one moment, melodic and atmospheric the next, and unexpectedly vulnerable after that. Yet none of those elements feel like experiments for experimentation's sake.
Sicksense have taken the grooves and attitude that established their identity and injected them with greater technicality, melody, and emotional depth. Funerals is darker than what came before, but it is also more dynamic. It doesn't abandon the band's nu-metal roots—it weaponizes them alongside metalcore, djent, and progressive influences to create something that feels distinctly theirs.
With Funerals, Sicksense enter their independent era sounding reinvigorated rather than simply refreshed. Four songs are enough to demonstrate that this is a band unwilling to settle for repeating its past. From the furious social commentary of "Artificial Irrelevance" to the devastating final moments of "A Moment Of Violence," Funerals is a concise, emotionally charged statement that finds Sicksense getting heavier, stranger, and even more ambitious without sacrificing the raw individuality that brought them here in the first place.
Check out more from Sicksense: Website: https://sicksense.com/
Bandcamp: https://sickxsense.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sickxsense
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickxsense
Twitter: https://x.com/sickxsense
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