Out Now
Words by Jimmy Glinster
I thought Sleeping with Sirens was an Australian band that I’d run into somewhere on the hardcore scene. Turns out I’m wrong about that, and they are actually from Orlando, Florida. Who knows who I thought they were, but never mind, I’ll get on with reviewing their latest Post-Hardcore effort Complete Collapse.
Yay for me.
Opening track Tyrant starts with some weird synth intro before quickly rocking into a hardcore style verse with what sounds like a guest vocalist. Turns out that’s just the singer Kellin Quinn‘s leggero vocal range, whatever that means. Thanks, google. The track gets pretty heavy by the end, while still remaining quite light in the very light and high-pitched choruses. Not my thing, so this should be fun.
Title track, Complete Collapse, kicks in with a pretty heavy intro riff but very quickly gets really pretty with that female style vocal. I mean, the heavy vocals, although higher pitched, are great but the main vocals sound like the Spice Girls asking what I want, what I really, really want.
Thankfully Spencer Chamberlain from Underoath steps in on the next track Crosses to add an extra layer of less Spice Girls sounding vocals. The riff in this song is a complete banger and as much as those high pitch vocals are shitting me, I’m almost finding myself banging my head through the verses. The breakdown is pretty good, and pretty goddam heavy.
Next up is Family Tree, and the intro makes me feel like I’m about to get hit with a ballad. Then it surprises me and starts to rock out, before dropping right back to sound like a ballad again. Let’s be honest here, it is a ballad, with some heavy guitars in the choruses and the odd accelerated section to give us the impression that it’s a rock song. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
Let You Down features Charlotte Sands and just like you, I have no idea who that is. Google provides me with fuck all information, and all I know is that she is possibly a chick, that sings pop songs and does the odd collab with other pop artists, I don’t want to assume genders here or fuck up pronouns. And I’ll literally never need that piece of information again, and it’s likely you won’t either. This band tries to rock, and musically it does. At least the female sounding vocals on this track make sense this time around.
Another guest appearance by Royal & The Serpent delivers a track titled Be Happy. This time around, I’m not even going to bother googling whoever the hell that is. The track rocks, musically, and the breakdown hammers. Not sure where the guests slot in or what they do, but I’m starting to hear a musical theme for this band. Heavy guitars, solid riffs, and female sounding male vocals. Whatever floats ya boat, I guess.
Low and behold, the next track Us has another guest feature. This time around it’s Dorothy … yellow brick road Dorothy? I haven’t heard any heels click yet, or references to a yellow brick road, so maybe not? This one’s a slow burner, not a ballad, just a slower track. Very pop orientated in the verses, but it does gain some weight in the choruses, which are still quite slow but heavy enough to provide some satisfaction to the heavy listener.
Ctrl + Alt + Delete is usually what I do when my computer starts fucking out. It’s holding on alright at the moment though, but I might be about fuck out if I have to listen any more post-hardcore today. This track is pretty much the epitome of it, although maybe more on the pop punk side of it. It’s just those high-pitched vocals, they sound so out of place to me.
Again, the music is great, I could listen to the band rock out all day. What a riff Bloody Knuckles smashes us with straight out of the gates. And then those vocals come in and spoil it again. I thought this was going to be a banger, but yeah, nah.
The band shifts tone for the intro to Mr. Nice Guy, which very quickly ends up sounding like a pop song. Even when it gets heavier, it’s not heavy. I mean, the riffs are there, but the tone has it sounding about as heavy as Ghost in their heaviest moments. Damn, Apathetic rocks the fuck out again in the intro. And then those vocals kick in, and I just can’t get past it. This album is exactly the reason I don’t like post-hardcore, an extreme version of it, you could say. I’m starting to think that Krispy stitched me up with this one, but anyway, let’s not let my musical biases get in the way. Too late, you say?
Yeah, it’s definitely too late, and I’m definitely not in the mood for a fuckin ballad, which is exactly what the final track Grave is. It sounds like a Five Seconds of Summer or Justin Bieber track or something. I guess that’s what happens when you sing like a 10-year-old pre-pubescent boy. Was there any need for that … probably not.
Yeah, not my jam. Maybe it’s yours, whoever you are …
