Band:	While She Sleeps
Album:	Self Hell
Style:	Melodic metalcore
Release date:	March 2024

01. Peace Of Mind
02. Leave Me Alone
03. Rainbows
04. Self Hell
05. Wildfire
06. No Feeling Is Final [feat. Aether]
07. Dopesick [feat. Stone]
08. Down [feat. Malevolence]
09. To The Flowers
10. Out Of The Blue
11. Enemy Mentality
12. Radical Hatred / Radical Love

Let sleeping dogs lie.

The British metalcore scene has come a long way from the days when bands like While She Sleeps could be found propping up bills in small clubs and pubs; having worked their way up from the lower ranks, they find themselves trying to make that one final leap to cement themselves atop bills in the biggest venues around. Matching their growth in popularity is the band's creative evolution, with each subsequent step seeing them refine and redefine their approach and sound to keep up in the sonic arms race with their peers. Unfortunately, Self Hell sees While She Sleeps stray too far from their roots and stretch their identity until it's barely intact, in turn producing their weakest effort to date.

While She Sleeps have not been ones to do things the conventional way, from their decision to start a band Patreon, to their willingness to shift lanes creatively; it's risks like these that have resulted in the band producing some stellar musical output. It is in the areas where the band tweak their existing sound, rather than take the sonic leaps that pockmark Self Hell, in which they excel, with the electronic influence melding to create a solid showing on "Enemy Mentality" that highlights the band's ability to fuse the two elements well. "Rainbows" is sure to be a live staple in years to come with its explosive stop-starts, primed to see pits go off.

The jewels in the crown are the tracks where Loz Taylor's powerful vocals are left unfiltered and blast out the speakers in tandem with the guitars of Welsh and Long, namely "Wildfire" and "Down". While the whole band put in a solid performance on the album, the shortcoming is that much of the material does not give them the platform with which to showcase their talents consistently. Part of this is due to the inclusion of some throwaway ambient breaks (I like ambient breaks, but "No Feeling Is Final" and "Out The Blue" feel like wasteful inclusions), but also due to tracks where the band steer away from their strengths.

While She Sleeps unfortunately have found themselves (along with most of the British metalcore scene) caught in the orbit of Bring Me The Horizon, and as a result of that try too hard to keep up with Joneses. Where before the band kept themselves grounded while bending to the prevailing sounds of the aforementioned elephant in the room, Self Hell sees themselves caught up in the tailwinds and blown off course. The title track seems like a bad nu metal dream, while "Dopesick" feels like While She Sleeps tried to be Linkin Park, but come away sounding like Crazytown.

Self Hell does have its moments of quality, ones that will likely be highlights of the band's career for years to come. It is a shame, however, that the rest of the album contains songs that weigh it down like an albatross around its neck. Hopefully this blip does not derail the momentum that While She Sleeps have generated for themselves, and they can pick themselves up and continue their march to the upper ranks.