While She Sleeps revealed to a rapt audience at Alexandra Palace, whilst supporting Parkway Drive on Friday night, that they’d be headlining the very same venue in just under a year’s time on 23rd September 2023. At the culmination of the electrifying set, the band’s crew rolled out a handmade announcement banner, to an uproarious response.
Tickets for the unmissable evening will be on sale this Friday at 10am.
“We’re gunna be a bunch of fucking punx in a palace haha,” say While She Sleeps of the event. “This show will be the embodiment of our entire life’s work. Prepare for the biggest Sleeps show imaginable. It’s time for us to take that leap & we’ve never been more ready. For us, headlining our first arena-sized venue is proof that if we can do this, YOU the people have the potential to do anything. We’re here to make our stamp on history, not wait around for permission.”
While She Sleeps have been flexing their profound live prowess worldwide this year, appearing at a plethora of European festivals including Hellfest, Graspop and Hurricane & Southside. They also supported Wage War in North America, as well as headlining Australia over the summer and currently touring Europe and the UK with Parkway Drive.
WHILE SHE SLEEPS have dropped their new single ‘EYE TO EYE’ with a cinematic epic of a music video, clocking in at over seven and a half minutes, directed by the band themselves and featuring a star turn from vocalist Lawrence Taylor who plays two versions of himself in the bloody fervor.
“With this song and video, we wanted to push our DIY attitude to the limits, especially with the visuals,” says guitarist Mat Welsh when speaking on ‘EYE TO EYE’. “The entire video was directed and filmed by the band. We came up with the concept, built the sets, designed the choreography, wrote the score, directed the acting, and cut the edit. It’s our biggest visual project to date.
The song is born from an idea we’ve had for the past few years. We knew it would grow into a great Sleeps song but have never had the time within an album to focus on it and develop the idea into what it is today. It’s definitely an amalgamation of the last 10 years of the band. We wanted something that felt thrashy and something you can really blow off some steam to when you’re playing it live. We know from filming the video that it feels incredible in a room full of people. The song also contains gang vocals from Sleeps Society members – we recorded them at the warehouse (the band’s creative space in Sheffield) with 100+ people and also had members send in their vocals so we could get them on the song.
We wanted the video to visually present what one can feel in the midst of a mind attack of any kind. Wherever the negativity is coming from, we always seem to split ourselves into two. The one who’s in pain, the one running away internally, and the one causing the pain. It’s always a battle with ourselves and we get lost in between these storms.
The reason we wanted this to feel so disturbing is to illustrate the sheer torment the mind can generate within us all, which to anyone on the outside is completely invisible. This should serve as a wake-up call for us all to remember that each and every one of us can put on a brave face, and we often do, but no one really knows the extent of our internal universe. So it’s a way to remind us to stay compassionate to others as we walk through life.”
‘EYE TO EYE’ is set to feature on a new expanded Special Edition of While She Sleeps’ fifth album ‘SLEEPS SOCIETY’, which will be out 03 June via Search & Destroy / Spinefarm and adds five new and re-imagined tracks to the original, including a version of ‘SYSTEMATIC’ with Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds on vocals. The original version of the album was released in April 2021, to critical and fan acclaim. The band chose a non-chart-eligible retailer local to them to push the album, which racked up first week numbers that would have landed them in the Official Charts Top Ten.
2021’s Bloodstock is very much go with COVID-19 restrictions being lifted on July 19 – though the festival have had to make a few more last-minute changes to the line-up.
With Dark Tranquillity having to cancel their performance due to “international issues”, Loathe have been announced to take their place on the Ronnie James Dio main stage.
Erik Bickerstaffe says: “We are thrilled to be performing at this year’s Bloodstock Festival for the first time, and to be sharing the main stage on August 13 alongside an incredible and eclectic line-up of heavy artists,”
Elsewhere, after the news that Bury Tomorrow haee parted ways with guitarist / vocalist Jason Cameron, UK Metalcore crew have dropped off the line-up and will be replaced by While She Sleeps.
“Due to the band’s current line-up situation and despite best efforts we are unfortunately unable to play Bloodstock this year, we are truly gutted!” say Bury Tomorrow. “We support the festival and hope everyone enjoys every minute of the weekend!
“We are however over the moon to confirm Bloodstock have invited us back next year so we will see you all at Bloodstock 2022!”
On top of that, Black Spiders have taken the spot of Unleash The Archers, and Lotus Eater will no longer play (having just split up themselves) and have been replaced by Foetal Juice.
We have a massive congratulations in order for four bands today!
Starting off with Holding Absence, their debut record, ‘The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’ debuted at number 90 in the charts.
Now the only reason they’re not higher in the charts is because of Brexit. The band revealed that their UK exclusive vinyl would NOT count towards the final chart placing which haven’t shipped yet. Damn that sucks!
But nevertheless, the record did make it to Number 1 on the iTunes UK Rock albums and 3 on the iTunes UK Albums as well as number 6 on the UK rock Albums as well as number 4 on the independent albums chart.
For purchase of ‘The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’ check out the following link.
Hello everyone,
Since we released ‘The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’ one week ago, we’ve been both humbled and grateful for the incredible response from you all. It really has meant the world.
This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, from the high of entering the UK Top 40 charts on Monday, to learning on Wednesday that Brexit-related delays would mean our UK exclusive vinyl would NOT count towards the final chart placing, to the high of you guys reacting to this news by supporting us on digital platforms and getting the album to it’s final iTunes placing of Number 3 overall, and Number 1 on the iTunes Rock Charts!! Incredible is an understatement, and we thank you all so very much.
Even though the loss our vinyl sales was too much to claw back a Top 40 Chart Position (we still got our first Top 100 album though, going in at 90 ) we still somehow managed to still place at Number 6 in the UK Rock Charts, and Number 4 in the UK Independent Charts (and even cassettes at number 13 haha). Oh, and not forgetting Scotland – thanks for somehow getting us Top 20!
Oh, and you guys streamed it over 3.5 million times, which is really mind-blowing.
Anyway, the main thing is – rather than be bitter about something that was out of anyone’s control, we’re just overwhelmingly proud and grateful to have achieved so much already with this album, most of all in receiving the love and appreciation from you all that we have, from all over the planet. It’s been incredibly rewarding for us, and this is just the beginning.
Thank you so much, once again. You Are Everything.
This Is Holding Absence.
Check out ‘Afterlife’ below.
Next up are Sheffield metallers While She Sleeps. Last week, the band released their fifth record, ‘Sleeps Society’ but earlier in the week people saw that the new record wouldn’t be ‘chart eligible.
This was because they sacrificed any opportunity for ‘Sleeps Society’ to chart in order to pay their road crew!
Whilst being off the road and helping their tour due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the band were unable to pay their employed crew that way so the band have opted to employ them to aid with the independent physical distribution of the record. Usually an accredited distributor is utilised to report the sales data to charting organisations.
“At the beginning of this album we made the decision to independently distribute the vinyl & CD copies of it. This enabled us to rehire our touring crew, support our local business and give opportunities directly to the people around us who needed it, in a year where our industry & culture had been hit hard. This decision meant our sales would not be counted as ‘chart eligible’.
We started the Sleeps Society to create a sustainable future for our band, the people around us, our crew, families and collectively this felt more important.
The reaction to the album so far has been completely incredible & although our sales figures aren’t being counted as ‘official’, we are so proud to tell you that ‘unofficially’ we are no. 4 in the UK album charts today.
This would be our highest ever chart position. Your sales directly support our band, crew & the future of Sleeps. Thank you all so much.”
Absolute legends!
In any case, the record did end up charting in the top 100 at number 59 but we all know officially they should have charted at number four!
Orders for ‘Sleeps Society’ can be made via the following link.
Check out ‘Nervous Ft. Simon Neil’ below.
Up next are the utterly fantastic Greta Van Fleet with ‘The Battle At Garden’s Gate’, a storming sound of rock symphony’s and a fantastic throwback with classic rock sprinkled throughout the record debuted at the number eight spot, which is an improvement over their 2018 release, ‘Anthem Of The Peaceful Army’ at number 12.
Orders for ‘The Battle At Garden’s Gate’ can be made via the following link.
Check out the opener for the record, ‘Heat Above’ below.
And lastly today, we have The Offspring. Their number three spot for ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’, their first record in nearly a decade has become their highest charting to date in the UK, which surpasses their 1998 release ‘Americana’ and peaked at number 10.
Orders for the record are available via the following link.
Check out the video for the title track below.
There’s always releases going around in the world of rock but massive fantastic effort by fans of the UK in the last week. This is just a triumphant victory!
While She Sleeps released their latest record, ‘Sleeps Society’ last Friday.
Since then, it has made its way to the UK Albums Chart where it’s “unofficially” at No.04.
Why is it unofficially though?
Well the band have explained in a short statement.
“At the beginning of this album we made the decision to independently distribute the vinyl & CD copies of it. This enabled us to rehire our touring crew, support our local business and give opportunities directly to the people around us who needed it, in a year where our industry & culture had been hit hard. This decision meant our sales would *not* be counted as ‘chart eligible’.
We started the Sleeps Society to create a sustainable future for our band, the people around us, our crew, families and collectively this felt more important.
The reaction to the album so far has been completely incredible & although our sales figures aren’t being counted as ‘official’, we are so proud to tell you that ‘unofficially’ we are no.4 in the UK album charts today.
This would be our highest ever chart position. Your sales directly support our band, crew & the future of Sleeps. *Thank you* all so much.”
That is the correct attitude to be having in these times and why the spirit of rock is still alive.
🚨 UK CHARTS – POWER TO THE PEOPLE. Keep picking up the record, streaming it & spreading the world. Can you imagine an unofficial no.1?! @officialchartspic.twitter.com/vnDc9nMehR
Sheffield based quintet While She Sleeps have rescheduled their UK tour to September 2021.
The tour, which was originally scheduled to take place in May, has now been pushed back to September to align with the UK government’s guidelines and roadmap out of the lockdown currently in place due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Alongside confirmation the rescheduled dates, Loathe have also been announced as support for the tour.
Sheffield metallers While She Sleeps have released a new track, ‘Nervous’ which features guest vocals from Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro).
“The song ‘Nervous’ is one the band has been talking about ever since its first demo. It’s completely infected us since the start and we all knew instantly that something really special had happened. I would go so far as to say it’s the single most important song I’ve ever written in my life. It’s born from experiencing the pain and suffering generated by acute anxiety but also finding a way out from that, which whilst in such a dark and terrifying place felt like the biggest pipe dream imaginable. I felt like if I didn’t write this song then someone else would have. It feels like it needed to be manifested into this world ASAP. I truly believe it’s going to resonate with people on an extremely personal, deep, and meaningful level because I feel like it came from a place beyond what we may call ourselves and I feel the song is much bigger than our band.
I’d like ‘Nervous’ to be viewed as more of a spiritual request rather than just a song to enjoy. I’m talking about a particular emotion in this song but the idea is transferable to any negative or troublesome feeling. It’s about accepting your emotions, fears, pains, anxiety, depression – not only accepting them but owning them and becoming one with them completely. It’s about being proud of all our emotions. The song is literally telling you to BE nervous, be scared and be in pain. By this I mean a lot of our pain comes from the idea that there’s me on the one hand and the pain on the other. So when the pain arrives this “me” is somehow trying to get away from said pain. When we really think this through with clarity we inevitably see its a futile endeavour. The moment we realise this, we can stop fighting and running away and we can begin the healing process by feeling the emotions as if we wanted them to be there in the first place. Once you stop fighting and pushing the feelings away, you realise that most of, if not all of, the pain was caused by this attempt to split ourselves in two. Most of the pain was caused by the fear of the pain itself and the attempt to get away from it. It can actually be a good thing to feel these emotions fully and experience that journey of acceptance. If we just sit a little longer with the pain, fully go into the dark, feeling it with every cell of our being, there is a chance of something miraculous to occur for the individual. What do you have to lose? This is what ‘Nervous’ is about.”
Check out ‘Nervous’ below.
The band’s upcoming fifth record ‘Sleeps Society’ is set to be released on April 16th 2021.
UK faveourites While She Sleeps have released the details of their upcoming fifth record, ‘Sleeps Society’. The record is set to be released on April 16th 2021.
This news comes with the drop of their single, ‘You Are All You Need’, and the album’s tracklisting involes Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro and Deryck Whibley of Sum 41.
Check out the Cover Art, Tracklisting, Stream of the previously released tracks, ‘You Are All You Need’ and ‘Sleep Society’ as well as pre-order options below.
01.) Enlightenment (?) 02.) You Are All You Need 03.) Systematic 04.) Nervous (feat. Simon Neil) 05.) PYAI 06.) Know Your Worth (Somebody) 07.) No Defeat For The Brave (feat. Deryck Whibley) 08.) Division Street 09.) Sleep Society 10.) Call Of The Void (feat. Sleeps Society) 11.) DN3 3HT
Ahead of the release of his upcoming second record ‘Weird’, Yungblud has shared a new “misfits” themed Spotify playlist of artist who inspire him.
“These songs represent the individuality of a generation,” YUNGBLUD explains. “Why would you want to fit in when it’s so much more interesting to be different, to be yourself, to be a misfit.”
On the playlist there’s some fan faves including While She Sleeps, Bring Me The Horizon and as well as Fever 333, Grimes and Ocean Grove.
Check out the full playlist so you can get inspired below.
Hey everyone, apologies there wasn’t any roundup post the other, things have just gotten away from me this week and I’ve just lost track of so many things here. But now, we’re back to normal
So, what’s going on? If you’re new to the roundup we detail five new tracks that have been released in the world recently for your ears to devour! They’re not all within the same genre and they’re all different in some way or another but that means that there’s a little something for everyone here but come on, let’s get down to the music!
First up are the Chelmsford powerhouse five piece Tigress. ‘Choke’ is their first cut of material since their track, ‘Teardrop’ from last year.
Recorded and produced at Black Bay Studio by GRAMMY award-winning engineer Adrian Bushby (Muse, Foo Fighters, Black Peaks, Everything Everything).
Vocalist Katy Jackson had this to say of the track.
“Our new track is about living in the Information Age. It’s about having this information constantly shoved down your throat until you choke. Sometimes it’s too much, it’s like a cloud of smog choking your brain. There are so many opinions, videos, adverts, flavours of the week… I don’t even know if I have a single original thought of my own anymore. The video represents the ugly truth of consumerism and how its hijacked today’s technology to dehumanise the modern population.”
Moving into the American wave of bands now, we have the Pop-Rockers Grayscale with ‘Diamond’, which is their first track of fresh material since the release of their record, ‘Nella Vita’ in 2019.
Collin Wash (Vocals) says:
“It’s a song about that “damn, everything feels so good right now, I’m just going to ride this wave before it crashes again” feeling. Through struggle comes growth; I’ve had quite a lot of both the last few years. ‘Diamond’ is about conquering that feeling of hopelessness that comes through you, and just accepting that that’s part of being human. It’s all about enjoying the highs and taking the lows as they both inevitably come along.”
Now we have a duo you might not have heard of but that’s the beauty of these lists we make here at Almost Anything Media, you never know what might be coming here right now.
KidEyes, alternative pop rock duo from Los Angeles, shines light directly into a dark modern world with humble hooks, richly warm guitar melodies, shiny synths, and rock steady grooves. The duo, Greg Cahn and Ben Epand, communicate their music as honest pop through a lens of everlasting youth and optimism.
Their newest single “Don’t Hold Back,” out now, delivers an urgent message of hope and not wasting another breath. Cahn explains, “Given the weight of the world right now, music can certainly heal, and as artists, this song is our way to help do just that.” The track is the kickoff to their upcoming EP, slated for Spring 2021.
To coincide with the theme of the new single, the duo has launched the 20- day #DontHoldBackChallenge on Instagram and TikTok. In keeping with the theme of the song, which is about not holding back and doing something normally out of your comfort zone, each day one of the guys will post a video telling a story either about who they’re grateful for or of something they’re grateful they didn’t hold back on doing. KidEyes is urging fans to follow along and tell the world something they are grateful for.
Click on the following links for their TikTok and Instagram accounts.
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#DontHoldBackChallenge Rules:
*Start video with “Today, I am grateful for…”
*Share a moment of gratitude or share a specific grateful experience. It can be about anything, a person, place, experience, etc.
*Tag person/people you experienced it with in your post.
*Videos should be under 1:00 minute
The band says, “We want this to be fun, and we encourage you to join us! We all could use a jolt of positive energy! Sending everyone good, healthy and positive vibes. The time is now: DONT HOLD BACK. : )
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Check out ‘Don’t Hold Back’ below.
Now, heading back over to Manchester for the amazing Pop-Rock quartet Hot Milk. I have to say I personally love this band so much. They’ve had one EP and a few singles, toured with the Foo Fighters, played Slam Dunk and done so much as a band and when they release the aforementioned singles, you just want so much more.
And with that, their latest track, ‘Glass Spiders’ is just adding to their repertoire and will just be so pwerful when gigs do return.
On the new release, Hannah Mee (Vocals) says:
“Do you have those delicate invasive invisible thoughts that crawl inside your head, that whisper and tell you keep punishing yourself, that tell you you’re not good enough and that you deserve nothing? Those are glass spiders. They come in droves and they consume you. This song is about being at rock bottom, about giving everything you are until you have nothing left and succumbing to putting bad chemicals into your body just for the sake of wanting to feel something new”.
And lastly this week, While She Sleeps have announced their return. There’s going to be a UK Tour, a new record titled as ‘Sleeps Society’ and their latest track is the title track from that record!
The band also announced a new subscription scheme called Sleeps Spcoety via Patreon where fans can subscribe where they will have access to exclusive perks such as Secret Shows, Merchendise, Early acess to tickets and more.
Check out their track which is the final on this week’s roundup, ‘Sleeps Society’s Below.
And that’s it for another week of a countdown of the best new tracks out in the world in the last week. Be sure to check back next-time for another round of great music videos. If you have any suggestions for me to check out, be sure to send an email or message us via the socials on Facebook or Twitter!
) we still somehow managed to still place at Number 6 in the UK Rock Charts, and Number 4 in the UK Independent Charts (and even cassettes at number 13 haha). Oh, and not forgetting Scotland – thanks for somehow getting us Top 20!
Almost Anything Music 