Review Summary: You won't be able to sleep after hearing how heavy and haunting Twitching Tongues can be.
Coming from Los Angeles, California is a hardcore band that mixes Sam Black Church’s bues-y hardcore with Type O Negative’s creepiness and Bolt Thrower’s aggression, creating something classic, yet refreshingly new. I’ve loved Sleep Therapy ever since I’ve listened to a few songs on it.
First thing I love about this band is that they are very accessible - the singer isn’t trying to be experimental or dark with his vocals. He just sings, and he sang very well in this album. The tones of the guitar and bass are so crushing, yet it doesn’t sound like an overproduced, Rise Records metalcore band. In other words, Sleep Therapy is heavy, but not in a cheesy way. Overall, the songwriting is very creative, with “Insane and Inhumane” starting off with an acoustic guitar, or with Arm In Armageddon: Part I” being a full-fledged doom metal song, while still mixing in some good old-fashioned hardcore punk, like the breakdown in the end of “Distance Clause” and the intro riff to “I Fell From Grace Feet First”. Lastly, the lyrics are so brooding and clever, singing about a painful result of a horrible sexual experience (Made a few mistakes/but you’re the one I’ll remember forever/I’m burning and learning my lessons), unreciprocated love, questioning the concept of faith, and the burdens of attempting to maintain a long-distance relationship.
The album length itself wasn’t too long, and it wasn’t too short. Sleep Therapy began appropriately, and ended with a song that actually sounds like a closer to an album, which is something that not many hardcore bands know or like to do. Perhaps one of the best albums of this year, as far as hardcore punk goes.
