‘The Ruff Guide to Genre-Terrorism’ does exactly what it says, it is genre-terrorism, you can’t simply place one genre to this album, it mixes many, and it does it good, this is what makes the album so great, it is what makes Sonic Boom Six such a great band, they aren’t confined to just one genre, they have taken a wide range of influences for this album, this is what sets them aside from other bands, they don’t limit by genres, is this a reggae album? Or a hip hop album? Or a punk album?

The album as a whole is very fast paced, but it does have its slower moments such as the reggae fuelled ‘Northern Skies’ and ‘All-In’, a reggae tune with shared rap vocals, and the use of horn instruments. The vocals on the album are mainly led by female vocalist, Laila Kahn, but some vocals are shared with guitarist Matthew Reynolds, and bassist Paul Barnes, who both provide rap vocals throughout the album (Kahn does contribute rapping but also sings in other styles), the best example of the shared vocals is on highlight track ‘Piggy In The Middle’, where they swap verses throughout, and also on the ace track ‘Bigger Than Punk Rock’.

You can hear a variety of different bands have influenced this; it’s clear by a lot of the guitar that Refused have highly influenced their playing, but just as much as the ska style of guitar playing has, it is great how the two different style of guitar playing are formed together in different parts of the songs, quite often the faster paced parts of a song will be in a hardcore punk style, although you still get the occasional angry style of ska playing, often backed with shouty rap vocals, as well as the ska style to make the sound more calmer. Another band who has clearly influenced the album is The Specials; there unique style of punk mixed with reggae is borrowed on the album by Sonic Boom Six. There is also a large hip hop influence hanging over the album, with the fast rap vocals and the use of samples (much similar to some UK grime artists and Beastie Boys circa ‘Check Your Head’ are evident influences).

It is clear that amongst the amazing musical sounds and genre-combining, the band also is trying to get a message across in their music. There is a lot of talk of police, and how they are a bit of an unfair shambles in this country (‘Piggy In The Middle’) and also the hints at them being a bit, revolutionary, (mainly due to the shout of ‘the revolution is more than just a sound’ on the track ‘Bigger than Punk Rock’). On ‘Danger Danger’ they sing ‘my town aint safe no more, these streets are at war’ and the track also begins with a sample ‘sometimes we go to a town, but were not welcome, because we’re not like other people’.

The album is the band saying what they think of the current state of the country, as well as giving us a musical revolution with their fabulous use of many genres and styles over the whole album, making them more special than the average band around right now.

8.4/10