26th December 2023

Review: “Existential” by Sleep In Motion

“This is an album that had to be written. For me this album reflects my own realisation of my mortality, coming to terms with growing older and dealing with my own personal anxieties of death. Creating this album helped me to release my intrusive thoughts and pour them into a physical entity. I’d say this album was my own therapy. My own existential crisis” ~ Ryan Brooks

Having only formed in 2021, Nottingham trio Sleep In Motion have been nothing but prolific, throwing to the Wolves a pair of EPs in February 2022’s “Recreated” and January 2023’s “Separate” which together have accumulated an incredible 238k of Spotify streams alone. That’s quite the mind blowing achievement in such a short space of time but what is more so is that 287 days after that sophomore record was released, vocalist and guitarist Ryan Brooks, bassist Lewis Brade and drummer Alex Smith have been labelled as Post-Grunge and have a debut album loving prepared for our listening pleasure…

…and perhaps that is part of the problem because as an album “Existential” feels like the kind of record you think you should love more than you actually do, which is a shame. Going into this review having heard the bands prior material and loving single “Terminal” there was a buzz around the album and an excitement for it which sadly fades like wilting flowers fairly quickly. From the pouring rain walk our trio of anti-heroes, drums building into a Southern tinged Metal riff as “Dead To Me” takes shape. The American accented vocals from Brooks during the verse before a smooth as silk chorus finds the band almost flattering to deceive. Just at the point where your brain tells you that you expect them to go a shade heavier, they take their foot off the accelerator. That’s a pattern repeated with a melodic drop out for a delicate female vocal which adds a melancholic touch to “Enemy” before rising up to the barnstorming main riff once more; fortunately the cycle is broken for “Terminal“. A cut with an earworm riff that you’ll struggle to get out of your head once it has burrowed into your brain. This time the chorus doesn’t stray as far from the path which works better, creating something that is catchy and fun despite the introspective lyrical narrative. That riff is what makes it stand out from this collection and sets the expectations high for the rest of the record but as it goes after a solid opening trio, things start to fall away badly. Four cuts deep and we get what sounds like a quintessential Bryan Adams esque power ballad in “Another Day“, a cut which feels like it’s going to get an edit from the better part of six minutes down to something acceptable for American Hard Rock Radio. It does have tasteful solo and is well written but lacks anything to raise it above anything else you’ve already heard in the 21 years since 1982. Saying that it will probably sell millions and take the band to the US Arena Rock circuit.

At the point at which you really want Sleep In Motion to neck a can of energy drink and pull something shorter, faster and adrenalized out of the bag, instead “Tomorrow” surfaces. A Wildhearts tinged Pop-Punk with all of the la-la-la’s you could possibly want but without the zest or swagger it needs. Then you have “The March“, a cut with a bouncy main riff, nice solo and catchy chorus, which is all good, but then is killed by being at least a verse and chorus too long at six minutes and six seconds. The duration leaves it screaming for a gut punch moment that never comes in the final third, however would have worked very well if it had come immediately after “Terminal“. The second best song on this album is “Play The Victim“, a well balanced Alternative number that is polished, effortless and concise. Out of context as a single with an accompanying music video it will go well with the bands on current rotation with Kerrang but in the album setting it needs to ahead of “Another Day” and “Tomorrow” which have sucked some of the life out of this one. The same thing can be said about “Walk Away“. A darker number with some dirge laden moments “The Edge” steps up nicely from the verse to chorus and down again but having started out strongly it gets repetitive and is simply too long. Lastly there is “Nothing Left To Say“, a song instantly reminiscent of “Bastards” by Machine Head but with a piano and string accompaniment to the acoustic guitar. It will probably find itself as the soundscape to a break up scene in the next big Romantic Comedy… [5/10]