One of Canada’s best-kept secrets will be exploding into the music world once again as Hamilton, Ontario’s own Sumo Cyco drop their second full length album since establishing in 2011. Opus Mar (Self-Released/Pledge) was produced by their very own lead guitarist Matt ‘Md13’ Drake and renowned producer James ‘Lerock’ Loughrey, known for his work with Skindred and Joss Stone.

The album brings strong guitar riffs, heavy jazz rhythms, and powerful, yet beautiful vocals; almost everything the rock listener could ask for. All of this is shown on the first track ‘Anti-Anthem’,  the single that helped the band reach 249% of their Pledgemusic goal, making this a fully crowdfunded album.

Skye Sweetnam combines her talents with Benji Webbe of Skindred in an inspirational song entitled ‘Move Mountains’, a track that mixes Heavy Metal and Reggae music with strong inspirational lyrics. My personal favorite is track seven ‘Rivalry’. It brings everything that makes this band great, together; the unique ska-style vocals of Skye are splashed with Heavy Metal influence, Drake and Ken “Thor” Corke’s  guitars are fast but jazzy and Matt Trozzi’s drumming is tight and heavy.

Sumo Cyco has thirteen music videos out there and their debut album Lost in Cyco City (Independent), which was released in 2014. I recommend looking into this young, talented band and that we all put Opus Mar on our must have albums list this Spring. It’s an all-round good album that will make you want to punch people in the face while dancing.

7.0/10

TIM STEBBINS