Review Summary: A very good album for the most part. But in a few parts it gets a bit boring and repetitive.
Oh! Sleeper – When I am God
Oh! Sleeper. A band that has formed from bits and pieces of multiple bands from across the board. They are a mixture of As Cities Burn, Terminal, and Between the Buried and Me. With these combinations we are sure to expect an exciting and dramatic debut album.
The album starts off with pure and perfect vocals collaborating with an eerie sounding guitar riff that catches your attention right away, in the song "Vices like Vipers". Although he starts with clean vocals, the tone quickly changes to an upbeat, aggressive tone. Which is very well fitting in this particular song. They show the ability to fit different aspects of their music into different genres all in one song. With some soaring guitar riffs through out, this song will definitely catch the attention of the listener. Some amazing musicianship is shown throughout this song. Let’s just hope that this album remains strong, like the opening track has proved to be.
Repetition is a weapon that seems to be used frequently in the second song "I Will Welcome the Reaping". The end of the song leaves you thinking you’ve been listening to the song for hours. Similar chords are used throughout, and similar bends as well. Even if other things are added in the background behind these chords and bends, it’s still redundant. Even flowing into the next two songs you don’t realize it’s a new song. And the vocals don’t change enough. It’s too much of a monotone squealing in your ears. All elements of track 2, 3 and 4 are too similar to each other. And if you’re listening to the album in order, it ends up being boring at this point in the album.
Ah. We’ve reached "The Siren Song". This song starts off amazing. A good combination of music and vocals. The screaming here suits the music perfectly. And the eerie ambiance sounds at the start set the mood right away. We’re now into some different kinds of guitar work mostly. There are a few slight tastes of the redundancy of the last three tracks, but it isn’t pulled down by it. As the song develops, and changes multiple times, giving you a few tastes of different things. In the middle of the song, it undergoes plastic surgery and a new piece of art emerges from the flames that his screaming has set in place during the first portion of this song. It slows down and beautiful vocals are poured out in perfect harmony to the song. They work their way back into screaming, although more melodically, and finally get back into the core of the song. And through all this never lost momentum, or feeling in the song. It remained constant and well thought out, and flows perfectly from your speakers into your ears.
Happily they maintain the feeling they’ve set forth with "The Siren Song", and push forward with the softer tone of "The Color Theft". With beautiful music combined with thought provoking lyrics. With lines such as “Who’s dreams are you killing?/And who’s pockets are you filling?/ Are you where you said you would be in the end?” Ask you if you’re complete. Are you what you want/need to be? As it works it’s way into a harder hitting beat, the lyrics keep pounding, as he pours out all emotions in his vocals. A beautiful combination of music and lyrics. This song is definitely one of the highlights of the album.
As "The Color Theft fades" out, you are instantly drawn into the start of "To Flagship". A little harder hitting than the previous, but it continues a feeling of urgency and honesty. With more flawless flows from part to part, this song exhibits some more great musicianship, as the album seems to be redeeming itself for the bore of the few middle tracks.
It loses something with "His Name is Bishop". It exhibits good musicianship but it doesn’t flow quite as well as other have. With guitars constantly changing, each part doesn’t seem to flow quite as well as they’ve shown they can do. A mediocre track at best. Very forgettable, but nothing so bad as to pull down an opinion.
The next song is very forgettable. So I will say no more about it.
"Revelations in the Calm" starts off with a softer guitar riff. A repetitive constant strum, that doesn’t fall to the redundancy that repetition quite often does. Although it doesn’t pick you off the floor, it shows a lot of emotion and thought. With each listen it sticks in your mind more and more, and you’re left wanting to skip ahead to this particular track. As it comes to a conclusion you’re hearing heavy breathing, as if he has poured all he has into this song, and it has left him short of breath. A beautiful piece of music.
Sadly the album ends on a more boring note, with The End of a Dark Campaign. On the positive side, it shows an extremely good guitar riff in the middle of the song. And as it slows down, it seems to get better and better. With the echoing vocals, it shows a lot more emotion than it had previously in the song….but as it picks back up it falls back into the kind of boring forgettable category. Which is not the greatest way to end an album.
All in all, it’s a very well put together album. A few of the songs seemed out of place, and in need of a little help. But it’s very easy to get into the majority of it, and with the unforgettable tracks such as "The Color Theft", and "The Siren Song". You’ll find yourself sticking this cd in more and more often.
