Final Veredictum: While She Sleeps - So What?
This album, the fourth, was produced by the band themselves and Carl Brown. The artists behind this are Lawrence “Loz” Taylor with the lead vocals, who joined the band in 2009, about 3 years after While She Sleeps was founded, Mat Welsh with the rhythm guitar, piano and vocals, Adam “Sav” Savage on drums and percussion, Sean Long as lead guitarist and backing vocals and last but not least Aaran McKenzie on the bass and backing vocals. Besides Lawrence, who joined later, but also happened to become an important member of While She Sleeps, all of them are performing together since 2006, which also makes them a perfectly coordinated team. Currently, they are signed to their own label Sleep Brothers in the UK.
With SO WHAT? the band goes into a slightly
different direction than with the albums before. If you take a look at the
whole album, it kind of drifts away from traditional metalcore roots.
While she
sleeps started to include more alternative and even electronic sounds, what I
find suits them very well! You could easily describe it as a surprise bag full
of ideas and experiments.
The song ANTI-SOCIAL, the opener of SO
WHAT? introduces with a mysterious atmosphere, created with deep tones and the
distant barking of a dog. It starts with melodic guitar riffs and low voices.
As the song goes on the vocals happen to sound more aggressive, “more metal” at
some points, in constant changes to the calmer parts that make the earwigs.
After the heavier part, it drops down to lower, calmer sounds just to surprise
us with the again faster and heavier end.
I´VE SEEN IT ALL directly starts with
melodic but fast guitars. This song concentrates more on the drums. It follows
a flow but still, as well as all the other songs has a lot of surprises. The
bridge inspires a dreamy atmosphere, in contrast to the more exciting chorus.
The next song INSPIRE has a slightly
heavier intro. The catchy electronic sounds blast a very own feeling, even if
the chorus works without. Here we have a few very well-arranged breakdowns.
Let's go on with SO WHAT?. Again, a very
calm start that While She Sleeps originated here. After that, the screaming and
guitars again create this unique feeling that comes with this whole album. The
changes between “normal”, calm voices and more powerful parts make it more
exciting as in every song.
A woman's voice takes the part in the intro
that the melodic guitar had in the songs before. The lead voice starting while
the woman's melody still goes on makes THE GUILTY PARTY stand out. While the
female voice slides into the background the drums and guitars happen to
initiate this “headbang-sounds”. At some parts, we can also notice some
electronic elements that spice up the song. The surprising change between
powerful voice and instruments to the calmer part makes this song overly
exciting.
The structure from HAUNT ME seems quite
similar to I´VE SEEN IT ALL at first glance. But still, this song creates its
very own atmosphere. The shrill guitars and the drums shape a coherent overall
picture of this song. Also, the bass has a particularly important impact here.
ELEPHANT makes up with the fast drum parts
and more metal voices, but still, most parts are good to sing along, as in
every song. Changes in calmer and heavier parts are arranged very well. The
lyrics are very memorable.
SET YOU FREE directly puts is into a
different mood with the low tuned, calm voices. The beginning here is probably
the “dreamiest” part of the whole album. Still, also this song has its more
powerful parts that make us move, even if it's more from left to right instead
of headbanging. As a surprise, we have a powerful scream here that connects to
the tranquil voice for a few seconds.
The next song's guitar sounds more serene.
GOOD GRIEF gives a warmer feeling. At all its very melodic. We have a spoken,
low voice part that connects smoothly to the heavier guitars. Here we can see
the electronic impact again. The song ends abruptly.
The intro of BACK OF MY MIND kind of
reminds me of a thunderstorm due to the low sound that passes over to the
heavier part. The deep electronic voice that kind of sneaks in in a short part
makes it stand out.
GATES OF PARADISE has the calmest chorus.
It is nearly impossible to not get an earwig from that. As it starts with the
chorus’s lyrics it directly pushes you into the song's atmosphere. The
background voices establish distinctive sounds. GATES OF PARADISE forms the
perfect final highlight of the latest album of While She Sleeps.
With SO WHAT? the band discovered new
unique elements, that make it easy to identify it to the band. Since most of
the songs follow the same structure and style, I can understand if people might
find it a bit more “boring” then the previous albums but for me, it makes the
whole album harmonic and easy to listen to.
The exciting sounds in constant change to
the calmer parts remain throughout the whole album. But what makes this album
so special to me is the melodic parts and tuneful riffs, as well as the catchy
voices and lyrics.
“I think people know the name of While She
Sleeps, but they don’t have a real idea of what sort of band we are. That makes
me really proud and we are aiming to surprise people again”.
Words of Sean Long in an interview with
Metal Hammer. That is what describes this album and the idea behind it best.
All 11 songs of SO WHAT? happen to easily
become an earwig due to the catchy choruses and lead you to sing along. The
feeling of the need to headbang might got less but still at some points it's
hard to resist moving your head and jumping around to the vibrance of While She
Sleeps.
Even if some people would say the sounds
changed too much compared to previous releases, in my opinion, the band did an
incredibly good job here, made me enjoy listening to the new album and looking
forward to the next one.
If you are interested in the behind the
scenes of the album, here is a documentary that details the albums recording
process.
