WINTERSLEEP – Welcome To The Night Sky
May 17th, 2009 | Published in Reviews
Wintersleep are a band I’ve been keeping an eye on for a couple of years now (in fact, I caught them live in 2007 in Toronto and they were fantastic), but it’s taken them a lot of time and hard work to break through in the UK. They’ve finally established themselves though and have issued their first album in the UK (and their third album proper), Welcome To The Night Sky. It’s a good place to start for the uninitiated, being a lot more accessible than their previous work. In fact, in ‘Weighty Ghost’ this album has their first song with actual chart potential! It’s a great little tune, and even the heavy subject matter (loss of identity) doesn’t detract from the jaunty melody. Elsewhere, on tracks like ‘Drunk on Aluminium’ and ‘Astronaut’ the band cash in on their heavy artillery in the form of drummer Loel Campbell, a prodigious talent whose playing is at once both potently ferocious and delicately restrained. Of course this is a band who are at their best in the live arena, showcased by the fact that ‘Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks’ can be a track you’d be tempted to skip on CD, but blisteringly powerful when performed in front of you. This being a UK release there are “bonus tracks” too. ‘The Kids are Ultra-Violent’ and ‘Early In The Morning’ are both good tracks, but neither add anything to the album. All in all, this is a potent release, but if you want to really understand the band, try and get hold of their tow earlier albums and prepare to be blown away!check them out at www.wintersleep.com