SLEEP OF MONSTERS: ｢｢｢
Release year: 2023
Label: Svart Records
It’s been a long wait for fans of Finnish occult rockers Sleep Of Monsters: their previous album II: Poison Garden was released way back in 2016. And for some of us, the wait’s been even longer – but we’ll get to that in a while.
Led by Ike Vil, who might be a name familiar from (oc)cult act Babylon Whores, or for esoterically minded Finns either from the books he’s translated or his 2022 novel Daimon, anybody who’s familiar with the man’s oeuvre knows what to expect. Mystic stuff, in more ways than one.
So too with ｢｢｢ – the symbol in the album’s name is the third letter, Gamma, in the Greek alphabet. So it’s 333, apt for the third album. Or maybe it’s three times a trinity represented by Gamma? With a mischievous wink in their eye, Sleep Of Monsters continue veiling their art in mysteries without providing easy keys.
I must admit the two first albums left me somewhat cold. And here we return to those of us who’ve had a much longer wait that a mere seven years. In a way, my wait has lasted for 21 years, ever since 2002. That’s when aforementioned Babylon Whores, one of the absolutely best and most intriguing metal/rock bands from Finland ever released their final album Death Of The West.
So when Sleep Of Monsters emerged with their debut album Produces Reason in 2013, I had high hopes. Sadly, neither the first nor the second album was quite what I expected. They were decent albums with some highlights, but ultimately left me cold. Something just didn’t click in place.
It wasn’t the musical form: similarities to Babylon Whores were present, but Sleep Of Monsters refused to be a carbon copy or the same band under another name. I was fine with that, with the perhaps slightly lighter and more melodic expression (where Babylon Whores seemed to get a bit heavier with each album).
But something just didn’t click.
Until now. Now, on their third attempt, Sleep Of Monsters manage to rise from the proverbial nigredo into albedo at the very least – maybe it’d be a bit premature to call this their rubedo. (Here’s hoping it’s not!)
For one, I feel the band embrace their heritage in Babylon Whores more openly. Some of the melodies and songs remind me strongly of what I consider Babylon Whores’ magnum opus, 1999’s King Fear. There’s the same kind of combination of riff-driven heavy metal, Danzig’s occult rock stylings, and gothic death rock melancholia. All draped in layers and layers of esoteric, mystical and occult lyrics, symbolism and references.
But at the same time, ｢｢｢ is obviously not a Babylon Whores album, it’s a Sleep Of Monsters album. The overall feel is a bit lighter, with a bit more emphasis on melodicism. Perhaps there’s a bit of solve and a bit of coagula going on here in this sense: boiling down both Babylon Whores and Sleep Of Monsters to their base essentials, and recreating the latter into a union of both.
There’s more to ｢｢｢ than just that, too. It’s a strong combination of old and new, incorporating for example somewhat folk-y, acoustic sections with a strong mediterranean nature into the music, and even lead female vocals on occasion. As such, the album rises to become far more ambitious than its predecessors.
And unlike Icaros, Sleep Of Monsters manage to fly higher without burning their wings and falling back to earth. Because the short of it is – after the long of it, presented above – that ｢｢｢ is a blistering album. Just listen to a track like Black Blacker Than Black, a pretty straightforward, riff-driven rocker with a chorus to die for (and sooooo Babylon Whores it feels like I’ve known this song for 20 years – in the best sense possible). Or the mysterious Mother Of Phantoms with its acoustic, mediterranean intro of female vocals seguing into an almost dreamlike, ethereal song where electric instruments do kick in but things never get too heavy. And so on.
As they say, third time’s the charm. On this album, Sleep Of Monsters both embrace the legacy of Babylon Whores, and step out of its shadow. The end result is a truly impressive album of occult heavy rock music led by Ike Vil’s characteristic and charismatic vocals and his complex, esoteric lyricism. If you don’t see this on my best of 2023 list, it’ll mean that 2023 turned out into a year in music such as never seen before. (Or, more likely, that I just forgot to write one.)
Only Death Is Real 