The Sleeping "Believe What We Tell You" CD
[One Day Savior]
This band features former members of Skycamefalling, but despite minimal similarities in some of the more melodic metal-tinged moments herein, this is not at all the same sort of thing. Instead The Sleeping offers up some diverse emo that sort of falls in line with the more "popular" side of the genre in modern form, so there's a good mix of screaming and singing, really heavy chord progressions and lots of layered melodic lines, laidback clean passages, and so on. Not surprisingly they bear more than a few similarities to fellow Long Island acts like Taking Back Sunday and Brand New, though I'd almost argue that these dudes are messing with a wider scope of influences, as some of the more atypical passages have a weird sort of prog thing happening (loosely - check out "The Big Breakdown - Day 2" especially). I tend to like this stuff when it gets as heavy as this without really flirting with too much actual metal, so despite a few minor faults I think these guys are really going to do some damage over time. "Believe What We Tell You" is one of the catchier tracks, fusing post-hardcore textures with a really memorable chorus and subtly complex layering here and there, and if every song on the record was as good as this one I'd be fuckin' hooked. "Broadcast Silence" is another standout with its chunkier rhythms and creative melodies, not to mention an interesting vocal performance, and even though it runs seven minutes it's actually more focused and linear than many of the other songs, so it works perfectly. "15 on the Freeway" and "Fleet" are much more typical of the genre, but good tracks nonetheless. The sound is pretty good overall, but as usual I think it really needs that totally polished sound. They're heading in that direction and coming damn close, but a little extra cleanliness and fluidity really makes a difference. I definitely support their use of bass as a central instrument, though. The bass tone is killer and the bassist rules, playing with his fingers and often hitting on some jazzy little snippets that add a lot to the rhythm section. The vocals sound good but I think the harmonies need to be more pronounced. Hell, actually everything does sound good, it just literally needs a tad more punch, you know? But it sounds okay for a debut, so this is a really good jumping off point. I'm not wild on the artwork, but the thing comes in a digipack with a huge double-sided six-panel insert that's made up to look like a newspaper, including all of the lyrics and some photos and whatnot. It's not so bad, it works, I just think it looks a little uninteresting as a whole... mainly it's the art on the digipack that doesn't grab me. For personal lyrics, though, they're not too shabby. Not totally my thing, but certainly above average: "Counting down. Just a few more days until it's time to throw away everything. Nothing left behind. Such a painful price, payable with feeling. And I'm alive. Press on move out..." There's a lot of potential here, and I'm going to be really curious to hear their next record. I admire their diversity and the creativity of some of the riffing, I just think the record loses its focus in the end due to a massively long running time that drags on since the songs aren't as consistently strong as the brightest moments. An hour is just too damn long for most any record, so trimming the fat would definitely help. I really like a few of these songs though, and I do honestly believe that this band will blow me away in the future. Keep an eye out... (6/10)
Running time - 60:00 (approximately), Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Believe What We Tell You, Broadcast Silence, 15 on the Freeway, Fleet]
One Day Savior Recordings - http://www.onedaysavior.com

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