How do you become an era-defining metal band? Is it through peerless levels of intensity? Hooks strong enough to get everyone in earshot singing? Or is it something as simple as the self-confidence to pursue your dreams despite all obstacles?
Whatever the hidden ingredient is, While She Sleeps have it.
The world first heard vocalist Loz Taylor, guitarists Sean Long and Mat Welsh, bassist Aaran Mckenzie and drummer Adam Savage together on 2010 EP The North Stands for Nothing. Ears instantly pricked upon hearing their energy and ambition. Sleeps’ bombardment of punk attitude and seething metal shattered expectations, as has their every subsequent album. Their integration of pop, electronics and conscious lyrics, which tackle depression and anxiety head-on, has continually kept the band two steps ahead of their peers. Metal Hammer deemed 2021’s Sleep Society “an album very much for these troubled times, from a band we can continue to believe in”; its impact was followed by a weekend-stealing set at the Download Pilot and, in 2023, a sellout show to 10,000 at London’s Alexandra Palace.
All the while, Sleeps have stayed proudly, defiantly DIY. They’ve eschewed the trappings of the conventional music industry by building their own base in their hometown of Sheffield. They release everything through their hand-made label, Sleeps Brothers, while writing, self-managing, demoing, producing and making music videos exclusively from their HQ. These tireless creatives go so far as to build their own stage props, which have joined them on blockbuster tours through five continents, visiting nations from Canada to Colombia, Thailand to Taiwan.
Even in a career of bold, empowering moves, though, Self Hell is truly special. Sleeps’ sixth album (produced by Long and long-time collaborator Carl Bown) casts their net even wider, considering symphonic music, hardcore, synth-rock and metal alike. Yet, through all those styles, it never loses sight of the band’s ability to make confident, stadium-prepared anthems – nor their focus on advocating for everybody’s mental health.
“Before you get to ‘self-help’, when you’re saying it, you have to get to ‘self-hell’,” explains Long. “Before you gain the courage to take care of yourself, figure out what the problem is and hit it straight on, you have to reach a point of hell within yourself. Self Hell is about the awareness that you have to go through so much shit for anything to mean anything, and especially for you to take care of yourself.”
“It’s the place you’re in before you realise you need to do something about it,” Welsh summarises.
The one-two punch of “Peace of Mind” and “Leave Me Alone” instantly announces Self Hell’s genre-breaking, arena-uniting and wellness-championing goals. The introductory tracks pulls you in with a symphony of strings and choral vocals, before its follow-up contrasts that grandeur with pulse-pounding metal guitars. As lush synth textures and a cathartic chorus about shutting out the world’s bullshit (“Leave me the fuck alone!”) are added on top, it’s clear Sleeps are in their most eclectic yet focussed form ever.
On “Rainbows”, electronica and metal unite in the name of adrenaline, Loz screaming atop a flurrying drum and bass beat. “Down” reiterates Sleeps’ current place at the heart of British metal by featuring a guest spot from Alex Taylor, singer of Sheffield scenemates Malevolence, while pop-metal stomper “Dopesick” addresses the dangers of identifying yourself by your mental illness: “I’m getting high, on feeling low,” says its silken chorus. The title track, released as a single in September, has already proven its infectious power, that marching metal riff having got all of Ally Pally leaping last year.
While She Sleeps are just as confident in themselves as Self Hell’s music is in smashing conventions. Long declares, “What I want to happen, when the album comes out, is for it to show everyone that we can be what we’ve always been and it works. Ally Pally already proved that to me.”
“In the next two years, I want to take that show and make it a regular thing,” adds Welsh. “Hopefully that’s where people will see, this is what it looks like if you stay true to your creativity and don’t jump on a trend.”
Sleeps are already one of British metal’s biggest stars, and – when their growing fan-base hears the vision, prowess and exhilaration of Self Hell – there’s no doubt that that star will go supernova.
