The Sleeping – Questions And Answers
www.thesleeping.com
www.victoryrecords.com

When I heard that Victory signed this fine young bunch of lads, I was happy and nervous at the same time. I was afraid they would either be overlooked by many people, or even worse, make a less than great follow-up to the first record “Believe What We Tell You” on One Day Savior Recordings. Now, I was wrong about ONE of those.

Apparently, this band (also has ¾ ex-members of one of my favorite bands from Long Island, the biggest reason I got the first above mentioned first release, and I was more than happy with it) is not heartbroken, and not dead. On the contrary, they released a very, ummm, SEXY record. From opener “Don’t Hold Back”, you know this will be a good time.

This record takes the semi-emo sound from the first release, fuse it with some uptempo rockin’, and turn loose. Yes, there are some slower songs, but this seems to be an album more about new beginnings and NOT past lives. While time will tell if this band has it for the long haul, The Sleeping have yet to let me down, even from the early internet demo’s.

I sense that the more mature song writing, and the basic, yet very subtle “**** you” tone of this record make people looking for quality amongst a sea of emo/screamo clones less jaded and more appreciative of bands like this. My biggest gripes with this release there was less screaming (hence the more upbeat rocking sound, its good, I just wanted more screaming, oh well, maybe next time  ) and no follow up song to the biggest anti-emo song “If Your Heart Was Broken, You’d Be Dead”. That is all I have bad to say about this record, I like it, and now, you should too.

9/10