The Sleeping - Questions and Answers

Genre rock Publisher Victory Records External Links Official The Sleeping Website Official Victory Records Website

One can occasionally see how the screamo genre is both thrillingly appealing and easily dismissible. On the one hand, it's filled with punk enthusiasm and energy. Great art doesn't come from holding back, and Lord knows that screamo bands don't hold back - not when it comes to the volume of the guitars or the candor and forthrightness of the lyrics.

On the other hand, it's that forthrightness that makes them look like blubbering fools, sensitive simps begging for girls in their post-teen pop phase to like them. And musically, it's easy to find bands that sound like them. And the screaming? Well, it hides the lack of singing ability and musicality under a wall of emotive shrieking.

The Sleeping's songs have melodies, but few have really strong, memorable melodies. Cameron Keym's keyboards are supposed to color the songs, but the production is gauzy and as overwrought as the emotional outpouring. What should sound like a festering wound glistens way too much. Haven't Fugazi albums taught the world anything?

How real is their pain? "Heart Beatz" mourns a deceased friend, John "Beatz" Holohan, the drummer in Bayside, label mates of The Sleeping and to whom the album is dedicated. Holohan was killed in a car accident last Oct. 31 while Bayside was on tour. The rest of the songs mourn deceased relationships. In "Dearest Mistake," lead singer Douglas Robinson sings, "I don't want you to want him, but I don't want you." Somebody call Oprah.

"Don't Hold Back" is the band's best chance at a hit with its start-stop dynamics and memorable riff. It's as direct as The Sleeping can be and is a shoe-in for the Rhino screamo box set destined to come out in 2015. Otherwise, the listener hears the repetition that echoes through "3 Cigarettes." "I am a mess," Robinson sings. So is this album.