Review Summary: Local MD hardcore album with two good tracks, two boring instrumentals, four generic tracks, and one singer that needs to be shot.
Arlington Sleeps is a local hardcore band based in Bel Air, MD. This is their debut full length album in addition to two previous EPs entitled "We Are Both But Human" and "Machines." As of right now, they are unsigned.
Most local bands aren't known for their quality of music. If they were, they wouldn't just be local bands for scene kids to drool over. Arlington Sleeps might just be another one of these local bands, but with some fine tuning, a lineup change, a good producer, and some luck, they could very well break out and become famous beyond the Maryland hardcore scene.
"The Whole World Is Sleeping Sound" is a good enough album, but is bogged down by some obvious shortcomings, notably over-simplified song structure, a generic sound, and an
absolutely awful clean vocalist. There are highlights though, including an excellent screamer, and one or two excellent songs. While everything on this album is fairly standard for hardcore, the music is enjoyable, though not overly technical or complicated. The instrumentation takes
a lot of cues from both Oceana and As Cities Burn. With a little more experience, they could definitely put together a coherent and well structured album in the future.
The song structure is defined by screamed vocals layered over mildly distorted guitars that usually leads to a sung chorus or verse. The closest band I can think to compare them to is Eyes Set To Kill, albeit without a female singer. As mentioned before, the screaming here is top notch, and I can actually testify to this as not being tweaked in the studio either, having seen Arlington Sleeps live, numerous times. But good elements or not, this is something that has been seen a million times over, and then you have the the clean vocalist, who is probably the worst thing about this band. Unbelievably nasally, high-pitched, whiny, and out of tune. Just when you think a good song has gotten underway, he ruins it.
The album wastes no time in trying to be as "brutal" as possible by opening with
Butcher, which is actually a decent song. At first. The most noticeable thing is the screaming, which as I said before, is extremely good. About a minute in, the clean singing comes in, and just ruins any semblance of flow the song had going for it. Next up is
Machines, which features some interesting guitar, and is actually one of the best songs on here, save for once again, the clean vocals towards the end.
The next track
Plague Years is the indisputable highlight of the album. The instrumentation varied, with an interesting intro, and a pleasant acoustic bridge. Plus the fact that there is no shrill singing here makes it worth a listen in and of itself. It ends with a breakdown-esque moment that is pretty cool to listen to.
Unfortunately, after this, underwhelming is the word to describe every remaining track. A useless interlude is followed by
Royal Breather, which might as well just have been stolen from Oceana's catalogue. (The catalogue with terrible songs that should never have seen the light of day.) The next track,
Kingdom could have been a highlight if it weren't material that seems to be rehashed from... every other hardcore band, really.
North is another useless instrumental interlude that showcases the guitarists ability to play one chord over and over and have someone else pick notes with reverb on over top of it. Album closer
Atlas can be described the same as the last three songs: completely generic.
As a whole, this album isn't worth a buy. Maybe download it and listen to it for a taste of MD's local music, and see what might become a big band (they have a ridiculous following of scene kids here to promote them) in the future. Beyond that, you'll most likely just forget you ever heard this.
