Review Summary: The best Steel City band and no, it's not Bring Me The Horizon
While She Sleeps hail from Steel City home to the often maligned Bring Me The Horizon but they are better, oh so much better. A band of 5 of I’m guessing 20 somethings with just generally amazing songs. They have been around since 2006 but only just starting to get the recognition they deserve.
They still don’t have a wikipedia page yet they are slowly becoming one of the biggest bands in the UK today. How? Due to this fantastic debut album. Oh, and it was offered free with Metal Hammer a few months ago so that helps a bit.
The musicianship in this band is incredible. The standard is so high there is no stand out instrument. Of course it is your standard metal album with breakdowns, heavy guitars, screaming vocals and double bass drums. But there is something different about them, they make it interesting. The intensity as well, they are determined to make the music big and by jolly it is
The passion in Lawrence Taylor’s voice comes through in every word and it is the same live. For a band’s first album the lyrics are also pretty incredible. Normally you would expect them to be quite pathetic and lacking meaning but they write lyrics like Maiden and Priest. With passion, through the eyes with sorrow and give it meaning. The lyrics in “My Conscience, Your Freedom” are incredible. It relates to a growing number of problems in the world from money to the lack of responsibility. But it also an uplifting album pointing out for the best in the future, “There's still chance for a new beginning.” For a debut album this is a brilliant lyric, the ambiguity makes the meaning even more clear. This should mean that their lyrics can only get better
All the songs on this album are incredible even the interludes. And here come my issues with this album. The interludes. They are good songs however I find them almost redundant. I also can’t work out if “the Truth” is an interlude or not. The middle. I always find I get a little lost in the middle, the songs are still good but “Lost Above the Arches”, “Proud of the Demon in Me” and “The Truth” all kinda merge into one, that may be blanking out but I think its the sound of a band’s first album who lost their audience a little bit there.
But still, an absolutely amazing album, one of my favourites of my year and its not bad live either. I am definitely looking forward to the next album and seeing them live again
