Review Summary: For their sophomore album, Casey begin to shift away from the more Hardcore influenced sound of past releases but still manage to craft an album that's worth listening to.
With their first album Love Is Not Enough, Casey established themselves as a beacon within the UK Post Hardcore scene. While not exactly breaking new ground, the music more than made up for that with heaps of passion and intensity. Where I Go When I Am Sleeping, the follow up to their debut, shows the band begin to move away from the more Hardcore based sound of the past while not 100% departing from the sound that gained them fans in the first place.
Vocalist Tom Weaver, while still making use of screams, mainly opts for clean vocals this time around. This fits more with the more mellow and melancholic sound portrayed on the album, with songs such as Needlework and Flowers By The Bed allowing him to really showcase his singing voice. He's still given plenty of opportunities to scream though, such as in the singles Phosphenes and Florescents, which both contain sections where Weaver goes all out with the screaming without it feeling out of place. Lyrically, the songs are all mainly about Tom's struggles with both his depression and physical health difficulties. The lyrics gives the sombre sounding music a real weight and power.
Musically, the guitar work is significantly more melodic than the previous release, with the guitars sounding less weighty in comparison to the more beefy distorted guitars that rang through Love Is Not Enough. In spite of the softer sound, it doesn't sound like a massive departure from anything the band has done previously. Bruise, for instance, is fairly reminiscent of Teeth from the band's debut EP while also carving it's own identity. In spite of not being as heavy, the music itself still retains the sombreness and melancholy the band has employed in their music previously, and the music is no less passionate than before.
While overall, the songs are softer with some songs either using no screams or seldom using them, there's a couple of songs that contain the more Hardcore influenced sound from before. Wavering and Weight are both fast and energetic slabs of Melodic Hardcore that manage to fit into the flow of the album without sounding out of place.
Casey have shown a real sense of progression with this album. While some fans might be turned off by the more melodic sound in comparison to their debut, the band are still incredibly passionate about the songs they're crafting and this shines through on the end result. Not a 100% complete departure from their previous works, but still a step towards them carving their own identity within the UK music scene.
