Album Review: The Sleeping - The Big Deep

With their second release in just over eighteen months, The Sleeping return with 'The Big Deep' and see them becoming slightly more diverse, but the usual gruff, hard rock style remains in tact. 'Dark Days' jumps right in with its fuzzy bass line before breaking off into a spacey mid-section that is quite confusing but equally acceptable. Whilst 'Boroughs Of The Ocean' is guided by eerie keys, whilst the rest of the band create an intense atmosphere.

'Beautiful Gloom' sees The Sleeping more upbeat, if not, more "mainstream". A bright, thriving chorus with a strucutre that works well albeit kinda predictable. Nevertheless its one of the stand out tracks here.

One thing The Sleeping know how to do, is create powerful, driving hard rock songs, as 'The Big Deep' and 'Deafening The UK' shows. The latter espeically does, with its soaring and sonic guitars complimenting Douglas Robinson's powerful voice well. Elsewhere the later stages of 'Black Waves (Yaya Con Dios)' has a superb guita solo, that dominates and somewhat wakes the record up, after the laid back numbers ('Get Your Back').

'The Big Deep' turns out to be a mix bag. As a band, The Sleeping are up to a high standard and have a decent level of consistency but it struggles to have a handful of stand out tracks. 'Beautiful Gloom' and the anthemic 'Oh, Gloria' are two definite highlights, whilst some are worth mentioning and some are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless it follows up last year's 'What It Takes' nicely and the band deserve credit for being daring, in terms of variation, therefore giving 'The Big Deep' a slight sense of uniqueness.

3.5/5

'The Big Deep' by The Sleeping is released on September 28th through Victory Records.

The Sleeping on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

Sean Reid