AS WE SLEEP

Short debut work of this young Icelandic band mixes slight post-metal, heavy metal and some Icelandic post-rock sounds. The music is melodic, in many moments cold and beautiful, as sound of their great compatriots Sigur Ros. But the energetic level and instrumentation is very different.

The band has his roots in trash metal, so main sound is really metallic. Regular acoustic guitar intros make music warmer and more melodic as well as some almost folksy back vocals. In fact, all album's music is build on contrast combinations between acoustic melodic slow pieces and fast metallic trash. Not very original scheme, but the result is not so bad. I afraid main problem there is as often with post-metal bands: they repeat once found formula during all album's compositions. Music itself isn't strong enough to fill all other space, so even if being interested at very beginning, very soon listener become a bit boring because of very predictable compositions.

Nothing new or original, the album represents some very average post-metal music, what is not so band for the debut.

Perhaps too heavy for Post-Rock category, but in spirit, it follows genre's patterns. Low-high- low-high. However, while lows are acceptable acoustic parts (there isn't much to do wrong, right? I mean atmospheric pieces plays itself), highs are "dirty", trash-metal-growling beasts that sounds a bit out of place. Certainly unexpected from the rest and I am not sure myself if it's a good or bad thing. Sometimes they sound right, sometimes they don't. Except this, AS WE SLEEP doesn't offer much else. Fans of growls and post-rock will be pleased, others ? Well, that's quite clear what others will think about this Icelandic debut.