While She Sleeps

The North Stands For Nothing

Written by: BL on 17/08/2010 00:13:12

The recent emergence of a new wave of British metalcore led by the likes of Architects, the ever changing Bring Me The Horizon, and the breakthrough Bury Tomorrow have heralded a new era for the genre, giving new life and paving the way for more bands up and coming ready to carry the torch in times to come. While She Sleeps is a five piece from Sheffield hoping to follow in the footsteps of the mentioned acclaimed acts with their brand of melodic hardcore laden metalcore driven album "The North Stands For Nothing". With a total of eight tracks, including one short piano interlude and a mid album instrumental, the ride through admittedly isn't very long but it's one filled with promise and delivery on most of its fighting fronts.

Breaking things down, we have the guitars from Mat Welsh and Sean Long which range from some breathtaking ringing harmonies, barrages of low visceral riffing combined with some breakdowns that interrupt with fairly adept timings to the occasional flurry of more technical lead play. The musicianship is generally solid and can give an odd surprise here and there as well. One of my favourite tracks on the disc, "Lost Above The Arches" is a short but sweet instrumental where the guitars focus purely on combining ringing melodies ontop of well placed drum work and it's a real gem. Elsewhere you have the big single "Crows" which again starts with some fantastic ringing guitar before a bringing out the more hard hitting lower riffs. Then you have probably the most technical showpiece on the whole album with impressive guitar work all over in "Proud Of The Demon In Me".

Vocalist Lawrence Taylor is a new fit to the band, and while sounds a bit like a cross between Sam Carter of Architects and Charlie from Heart In Hand, has a strong defining voice that screams with real authentic charm and is right at home here. On the closing moments of the first and album titled track, the already mentioned "Crows" and the rather emotive "The Truth", he really shines in delivering the strong uplifting lyrics with those strained type screams that make every word carry that much more weight. Ofcourse anyone who takes issue with vocals that screams in the same range might complain at the lack of vocal variation, but to me is not really a problem.

My only real issues with "The North Stands For Nothing" really is that as I have already mentioned I wished it was longer. If you take away the short piano interlude and the albeit excellent "Lost Above The Arches", it's only six tracks which is more like a lot of the EPs I come across and as I see it somewhat short. Another thing is that though the content is mostly strong, these guys aren't really reinventing or displaying anything extraordinary that would make them outshine the so called big names that have been already putting out for some time now - in particular with the likes of Architects. Having said that, fans of metalcore and melodic hardcore alike should still be giving this album some play time nonetheless and keeping an eye out for this group as their potential to go places is now starting to take shape.

Download: Crows, Lost Above The Arches, Proud Of The Demon In Me
For the fans of: The Eyes Of A Traitor, Architects, Heart In Hand
Listen: Myspace

Release date 26.07.2010
Smalltown Records

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