If When Reason Sleeps can pull ‘This Bullet Makes Us Equal’ off live, by Lord do we have a band on our hands. This Welsh sextet started life last year and has had airplay on Radio 1, as well as glowing reviews from Metal Hammer, or at least that’s what the press release would have us believe. From the opening minute or two of ‘Steven Seagal is the Final Option’, I’d started to wonder what all the hype was about. Lostprophets-esque vocals over an old-skool Funeral For A Friend backdrop, and a thousand cries of ‘I’ve heard this all before’ eminate from the speakers on first listen. But wait – a few minutes in and all of a sudden WRS go off at a complete tangent and suddenly become good. And original. And inventive. And exciting. And fucking nuts.
The aforementioned opener starts off in the same manner as any generic ‘emo’ band, but then WRS simply throw the rulebook out of the window, avoid any clichés and simply impress. There’s an atmospheric build-up in ‘Steven Seagal…’ which lulls you into a false sense of security before screams, handclaps and some fantastic metal riffs are peeled off. There’s even scratching and samples and all kinds of electronica going on in the background for the entire six-and-a-half minutes of the song. Think that’s a one-off? Guess again. This seven-track EP goes on for 60+ minutes, although about 12 of that is just effects, samples, quotes from films and general strange stuff.
‘The Glass Curtain’ is completely different from the previous song, starting life as a tender acoustic track, with strained vocals and stripped down guitars, featuring a sampled drumbeat in the background which later stutters and starts and again goes all strange at the end. ‘The Complete Guide To An Awkward Start’ again starts off like Lostprophets and shows the band’s accessible side. The closing third of the song sounds like Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw is guesting on the vocal side before drifting off into a funky sample. The start of ‘Life and Times (Poetry’s Greatest Hunter)’ reminds of bands like Hiding With Girls, but then the screams kick in and the breakdowns, especially the guitar parts, seriously shred.
I’ve tried to avoid reviews recently that talk about every song, but I feel with this record that I have to. ‘Words Can Kill’ is positively brutal, ‘Guns, Nuns and Sunsets Fit For A Girl’ isanely catchy and ‘Who Said Blood Was A Murderer’s Favourite Make Up’ ridiculously overblown and arty. It shouldn’t work as it’s basically thudding drums and dirty great screams over a rumbling riff, but it works so, so well. There are even samples from Casino and Goodfellas thrown in for good measure. It’s the aural equivalent of a serial killer wildly stabbing at his or her’s victim with a blindfold on.
At times this is positively generic Welsh post-hardcore, at others it’s shit-kicking genius. There are so many ideas going on here it’s insane and I hope to God these boys can pull this off live, because if they can they’ll be one Hell of a band. This EP is well worth checking out. It’s obvious yet different – just listen and see what I mean…
www.whenreasonsleeps.co.uk
Lifetaker Records
Paul