ALBUM REVIEW - WHILE SHE SLEEPS; 'THIS IS THE SIX'

WHILE SHE SLEEPS; THIS IS THE SIX

★★★★★ 
Superb, powerful debut full-length album from Britain's best new metallers.

Just...wow. Sheffield has a knack for producing good metal and all things inbetween - look no further than the likes of Bring Me The Horizon and Rolo Tomassi among others - and While She Sleeps, the latest export, have made a frankly stonking first album. Brutal, at times unrelenting and shot through with occasional moments of moody clarity that just give you enough time to take a breath before it smacks you in the face again.

This is a record and a band that knows how to do metal right. There's the proper quality crushing guitar work -  heavy without the overkill, melodic without being weedy - the driving machine-gun drumming, and of course bloody good vocals. Mic-wielder Loz Taylor is breathlessly raw throughout, but avoids getting all Cookie Monster on us. The vox are powerful and carry the emotion behind the lyrics (which are also superb) and are one of the most distinctively strong aspects of the album. But all of this is balanced by the quieter, generally piano-led, moments. Far from being a deliberately soft and slightly meh tinkling of the ivories, it's another strong component that stops the album just being a noise and lends it real depth - those bits capture the mood of the album and are rightfully there.

Honestly, there's not a bad track to be had on TITS (snigger. I couldn't resist). From the heavy-as-fuck opener Dead Behind The Eyes, through the singles Seven Hills and This Is The Six, to the beautifully sombre instrumental interlude The Chapel and out the other side again to the brutality of tracks like Be(lie)ve and (personal favourite) The Plague Of A New Age, there are metal anthems galore. 

All in all, bloody brilliant. Play it loud. Too much more where this came from and these lads will find themselves on the road to becoming legends of British metal One of the best metal records I've heard in the last couple of years, and certainly one of this year's best. Own it, and help them invade the charts.