English metalcore band from Sheffield While She Sleeps is releasing their latest album You Are We on the 21st April 2017.

By Jane Howkins. 

Sheffield metalcore quintet While She Sleeps are back with another rocking album, this time titled You Are We. When they first emerged onto the touring scene back in 2009, the band were tipped for the top, and subsequent releases also promised this. However, despite having built up a very respectable career, they somehow never quite managed to get themselves up to those lofty heights. Thankfully You Are We shows great promise for the band’s future.

One of the things we’ve always loved about While She Sleeps is that despite being a metalcore band, they’ve always managed to bring in a punk element, harking back to the hardcore style that the scene was founded upon. A lot of the bands in the genre nowadays skip over this, heading for non-stop breakdowns instead of gutsy riffs and vocals, but that punk sound is still present here, and we love the band for keeping it in.

Something new that fans might notice is the presence of guitarist Mat Welsh’s cleaner vocalist, which has been a growing addition since the band’s start, with his vocals being at their most present on this album. It makes for a great sound, with both vocal stylings complementing each other in a way that if overdone, could easily ruin such a record.  Wide Awake is an example of how well this works, showing how both voices collide together, mounting the tension in the song. Also mentionable is the addition of Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon on Silence Speaks, which is just as frenetic as it sounds on paper.

You Are We is a great listen, and another step forward for While She Sleeps. Hopefully they can finally break through into the mainstream like they’ve been promising to for all these years.