While She Sleeps - Civil Isolation

It took me a little while to get into While She Sleeps. Their brand of whatever sub-genre you want to call this wasn't really what I was into around the time that the five piece released their first... mini-album (? eight tracks is way too many for an EP) The North Stands For Nothing. But by the time their debut full length This Is The Six came around things started to click a little more. And obviously their last album, 2015's Brainwashed, was nothing short of excellent.

This brings us to While She Sleeps' as yet untitled third album, due out next year, and the not so unorthodox way in which their funding the recording of the album, via PledgeMusic. There's a video on their campaign page that tells the story of the band via a fake Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption voiceover and also annoying soundbites of Beez saying how great a band they're going to be. To clarify, it's Beez that is annoying, not the fact that they're a great band. Some may think that a campaign like this ten years into a band's career is a sign of weakness, or that the band don't have the momentum to keep going without fan funding, but when you think about it, being at the point in your career where you have a wide fan base to support you, this kind of thing is really a no-brainer.

The first track we've been treated to from this forthcoming album is 'Civil Isolation'. For me, personally, the most important thing in music made by heavier bands is making the songs catchy especially in terms of getting new fans in and While She Sleeps do that really well. Still being super heavy and usually with pretty dark lyrical themes, tracks like 'Civil Isolation' are just straight up great rock songs, and the dual vocals sound so great on this track too. The mad subtle yet effective visuals (see below) are so rad as well.

SaveSave