Already one of British metal’s biggest names, While She Sleeps are set to take things to the next sonic level with the March 29 release of their new album SELF HELL. As showcased with visceral intent on the recent singles, the title track and DOWN (featuring Alex Taylor of Malevolence), the band’s ambitious approach is simple – make everything bigger and more unpredictable than ever before.
TO THE FLOWERS continues the maximalist ethos of their recent singles. Opening with spoken words from the philosopher and spiritual leader Jiddu Krishnamurti, the song finds cohesion in chaos. Drawing upon an ever-expanding maelstrom of influences, their renowned mix of screaming with melodic textures, punk energy, synths and metallic breakdowns. The result again heightens expectations for the boundary-breaking scope of the SELF HELL album.
Guitarist Sean Long says, “This song means a lot to us. As much as we love a good breakdown and heavy riff, a lot of our passion lies within emotive musical pieces. This song has nearly brought us all to tears multiple times simply because it touches something in us that we hold very dear. A pain we all know and have felt down to our deepest core. The essence of our personal pain expressed in music is what the band is all about. Talking about the things we know are difficult but necessary. The working title was called “radiohead” and that should help understand the feeling it gave us when writing it. This contains the “double whammy” that I stumbled across just before the song was finished. It went insanely viral when I posted it online so I just had to get it in the song. People have been saying it’s one of the greatest lead guitar parts of all time, I’ll take it.’
