Wake the Sleeping Dragon! is the twelfth full-length album by American hardcore punk band Sick of It All. It was released on November 2, 2018 by Fat Wreck Chords in the United States (on CD and vinyl) and in Canada (on vinyl) and by Century Media Records in Europe (both on CD and vinyl). Wake the Sleeping Dragon! is the band's first release on Fat Wreck Chords in 15 years.
The album was announced by Sick of It All in August 2018. The first song of the upcoming album, "Inner Vision", was released the same month.[8] A second song, the title track "Wake the Sleeping Dragon", was released in October 2018.[9] A lyric video for this song was released a few days later.[10] A day after the official release of Wake the Sleeping Dragon!, a music video for "That Crazy White Boy Shit" was released.[11] A music video for "Self Important Shithead" was released in July 2019.[12] In June of 2020 a music video for the song “Bulls Anthem” was released, the video was made entirely from clips that fans submitted of them singing the song.[13]
Writing
the album title Wake the Sleeping Dragon! refers to a protest mechanism. In an interview Drummer Armand Majidi stated “On this record, we had a more open, communal, tongue-in-cheek approach to lyric writing,” “So many different topics were covered, some way more lighthearted than others. We’ve done ‘serious’ so often, that what might stand out most to people is how much fun we had with the lyrics. It’s always time for revolution, so that message is loud and clear on multiple songs.”
As for some of the song meanings he added
“We also sing about musical heroes like the Bad Brains (‘That Crazy White Boy Shit’), inner demons (‘The Snake (Break Free.)’), our distaste of animal abuse (‘Bull’s Anthem’), annoying narcissism on social media, friends we’ve lost, life on the road, impending wars for resources, as well as mosh pit patterns that can be linked to male pattern baldness. We’ve allowed ourselves greater lyrical freedom on this record for sure.”[14]
Album cover
The album cover was designed by Ernie Parada who had done work on the band’s previous two records. He alongside lead singer Lou Koller came up with the idea to make it look 50s era monster movie poster, while also using the bands Alleyway Dragon mascot. Majidi added “Lou and Ernie came up with the idea of doing monster-movie styled art as the cover,” “The dragon climbing the Empire State was a concept I always wanted to see brought to life, so the two ideas were destined to come together this way.”[14]
Critical reception
The album was met with very positive reception, Stephen Hill of Metal Hammer wrote ‘They’ve never sounded better’[15] Tom of Punknews added “Wake the Sleeping Dragon! is not sensitive, subtle, nuanced singer songwriter fare. It’s aggressive, angry and in your face. In other words, it’s exactly what hardcore should be.”[16] Jack from Cryptic rock wrote “Thick Hardcore riffs and insistent vocals drive this album, and it manages to keep an insane momentum in spite of such a hefty track list. There are few, if any, dull moments. It is great to see a band with such a storied history still producing records of this caliber. With Wake the Sleeping Dragon, Sick of It All have proved unequivocally that they still belong at the forefront of Hardcore.”[17]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
[1] 