 
While She Sleeps have absolutely exploded on the
scene over the past couple of years; with only
a mini album under their belts they have managed
a couple of very successful sold out UK tours,
some pretty gnarly support slots and managed to
release material worldwide alongside pretty extensive
travelling. I have to say -because its no big
secret - I am a rather big fan of these guys;
their live shows are explosive and their music
ranges from a raging beast to a soothing storm
with a mere drop of the bass. This Is Six marks
the bands first actual full length studio release
from the band after 2010’s mini album The
North Stands For Nothing was released free with
Metal Hammer magazine and this particular milestone
could make While She Sleeps metals next big thing.
Ok, I’ve just had my face blown through
the back of my head. Opening track “Dead
Behind The Eye” has just completely changed
the nature of the game that we’ve been playing;
with a much thicker tone, a fuller drum sound,
much more aggressive nature, bounds of growth
and material too. It unlocks that angry primal
urge of me to absolutely smash everything in sight
just to match the chaos and to get the adrenaline
out of me that has been pushed into me. “False
Freedom” is the same except slightly less
sinister but only a touch; the compositions of
these songs make them epic minutes of a musical
journey, proves to all anti metal people amongst
the population that metal is not just noise it
has a degree of extremely well considered structures
and beautiful melodies, alongside a healthy expression
of frustration and angst.
Apart from the interlude “The Chapel”
and the outro “Reunite” I gave every
song a 5 star rating on my iTunes, I cannot get
over how fantastic it is and they only come from
Sheffield! A mere couple of hours from where I
live when all of my favourite bands are usually
from America this is an extremely proud moment
for me. Each song has its own structural anomalies
which stray from their standard layout which keeps
each track an individual and memorable, especially
the title track “This Is Six” because
even with Lawrence Taylor’s gritty vocal
style he still manages alongside his backing vocal
accomplices to produce melodic lines that etch
themselves deep inside your brain.
I can’t say anything more on this; I’m
just far too hyped on this for anything else to
make sense, I’ve been bouncing around my
house to this album all day now, I’ve even
accidentally swore in front of my mother just
out of sheer excitement. The whole thing has been
perhaps a touch of a bad influence on me and for
this reason as well as the quality for the third
time this week I’m putting an album in my
list for albums of 2012, it is a good year this
one.
5/5
Review by James Webb
|
