Released: 29 March 2024
Spinefarm Records
For many of us, music is life.
For UK metalcore outfit While She Sleeps, creating and producing music in their own way is a lifestyle. With each new release they’ve brought, the Sheffield metalcore kings have managed to make their art so endearing and so stylistically, them. The band’s sixth studio release, Self Hell is yet another transcendence into the limitless bounds of creativity that they hold.
While the opening track ‘Peace of Mind’ slowly builds into a thumping bassy introduction, the band’s determination makes way into ‘Leave Me Alone’, giving way to the familiar, distorted riff that we’ve become familiar from While She Sleeps. Juxtaposed with the rap-style verses by vocalist Lawrence ‘Loz’ Taylor, this track is frantic metalcore with an astronomical sound. The vast array of influences are super abundant, swerving between an intriguing electronic bassline and stadium-sounding guitars, creating an immaculate soundtrack that I haven’t heard since the band’s LP, SO WHAT?
However, with SELF HELL, you also need to forget what you know about While She Sleeps and take in this refreshed sound. ‘Rainbows’ is fast-paced ‘core that pushes their musicality into the stratosphere. Despite its title, this song is anything but rainbows. It’s dynamically dark and carries one hell of a breakdown that will surely go fucking off in a live setting. Leading single ‘Self Hell’ was released almost a year ago now, but it still is one of my favourite releases to date. It represents where While She Sleeps are at in their career and they’re all about pushing their musical boundaries, foraying into multi-genres while celebrating their freedom as an independent band with that DIY ethos.
While we’re at it, it is abundantly clear that there is a fiery passion burning so brightly on this record. “There is a fire, burning in my soul…” is that blazing hook on ‘Wildfire’ that sees While She Sleeps blend their past and present selves into one of their more defining moments. Follow-up track ‘Dopesick’ marks a collaboration with fellow UK musician Fin Power. Honing in on those soft keys throughout the intro before the thumping guitars kick in, we hear that rap-style verse from ‘Leave Me Alone’ return, and the chorus explodes into an empowering perspective on all too relatable low moments. Eerily reminiscent to the soundtrack from 8 Mile, “you are not your mind”, ‘DOPESICK’ marks a powerful emotional anthem on mental health paradigms, following in the theme from Sleeps Society.
‘Down’ is another heated collaboration, featuring Alex Taylor from Malevolence and highlights the band’s tenacity and energy for living large. The ambitions are set high on this record. While Taylor and Power are far from the only collaboration While She Sleeps put on this record, the diversity between this track, ‘DOPESICK’ and the EDM-inspired ‘No Feeling is Final’ (featuring Aether) is a testament to the band’s willingness to work with a multi-dimensional array of genres.
Self Hell is ultimately a culmination of the While She Sleeps ethos of putting their all into the music and it neatly comes full circle with ‘Enemy Mentality’. An empowering anthem about shifting your focus mentally and taking life by its horns and showing your face defiantly in anything you put your mind to.
With the album being produced by the band’s longtime collaborator, Carl Brown and guitarist Sean Long, SELF HELL is While She Sleeps at their purest. This is a captivating record that goes from strength to strength and I implore you to give this record a spin in the best way it so deserves – LOUD in your headphones.
Review by Tamara May
Rating: 8/10
Pre-save SELF HELL here
1. Peace of Mind
2. Leave Me Alone
3. Rainbows
4. Self Hell
5. Wildfire
6. No Feeling is Final (featuring Aether)
7. Dopesick (featuring Fin Power)
8. Down (featuring Alex Malevolence)
9. To The Flowers
10. Out of the Blue
11. Enemy Mentality
12. Radical Hated Radical Love
