Artwork by Luciana Lupe Vasconcelos
Style: Avant-Garde Black Metal (Harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Blut Aus Nord, Imperial Triumphant, Oranssi Pazuzu
Country: United States-AZ
Release date: 28 February 2025
Babe wake up, the new project from Cerulean mastermind Stephen Knapp just dropped! Er well, rather, it might be better not to let this one anywhere near your sleep schedule. The self-titled debut from Sleep Paralysis is a terrifying gripper of an album that is simultaneously bombastically thrilling and deeply insidious. Aptly named, Sleep Paralysis is a concept album designed to explore the themes of sleep paralysis and anxiety and does a damn good job of inducing anxiety of its own. Swirling, cacophonous guitar playing pushes forward at a frenzied pace, leaving the listener scarcely a moment to catch their breath. Strange perversions of familiar songwriting tropes from a multitude of styles inflicts a reeling confusion.
The opener “Last Drop of Sunlight” sounds like what listening to a Chopin etude in the Backrooms might feel like, setting the tone by immediately introducing one of the mainstays of this record: programmed piano. Programmed instruments are always a gamble on whether they end up working or not, but there is a manic attention to detail that sets this particular use case apart. The music here sounds feasibly playable by a real person, the dynamics are believable, but the most impressive aspect is the artificial use of a sostenuto pedal. The way the bass notes continue to slightly ring underneath the rest of the performance is convincingly authentic, though it may just be a happy coincidence of certain production choices. At times during later tracks, subtlety is thrown to the wind and the piano is just another tool adding to the hysteria, but this just reinforces the notion that these details are intentional. “Last Drop of Sunlight” ends with some Debussy-esque arpeggios that lead into “Sleep Paralysis”, introducing a second programmed instrument: the drums. These are handled with much less subtlety, but end up working in Sleep Paralysis’ favor, adding to the frantic surrealism.
As Sleep Paralysis continues playing out its runtime it only ramps up this feeling of phantasmagoria as if—get this—you were experiencing sleep paralysis. The bold experimentation on this album pays off practically every time; the songs throw curveball after curveball, and that Sleep Paralysis never becomes grating or fatiguing is a testament to the quality of the songwriting, especially considering how maximalist the experience is. Lead single “Helplessness” sounds like Fleshgod Apocalypse took too much acid, started playing a song, and then just kind of forgot what they were doing and started vamping on the intro idea. I love how this piece makes you lose track of the time feel through the constantly rising melodic pattern, making a sort of DIY shepard tone for the vocals to swirl within.
“Sleep Paralysis” wears its influences with pride: gross (in a good way) Imperial Triumphant-esque quarter note guitar chords punch under the main riff idea, exploding with a jarring energy that feels like a rabid animal scratching against a wall. “You Can Never Run Fast Enough” has a weirdly jaunty intro that turns into a swing feel, eventually leading to a skittering piano solo with the drums just fucking blasting behind it; “Stress” is like a fucked up Joplin ragtime; and “Fever Dream II – Paranoia” sounds like the soundtrack to a cursed Nintendo game cartridge taken straight out of a bad creepypasta. The familiarity littered through all of these tracks is mangled and twisted into an alien amalgamation of what we expect these things to sound like, as if you were listening to them in an alternative mirrored world.
Also helping along the violated feeling of familiarity is Knapp’s vocal performance, utilizing black metal vocal techniques, guttural yells, gasps and plenty of ominous whispering. Lyrics like the “HRAHHH” ten seconds into “Sleep Paralysis” or “they’re coming for you” in “Fever Dream II – Paranoia” are incredibly effective, but in general the lyrics are a bit on the nose. Subtle swelling choirs permeate the background now and again, adding a cinematic touch in the vein of a horror movie soundtrack. There is a general dreamy (read: nightmare-y) atmosphere that envelops the entire experience; notes that are held out for too long begin dripping, and are those whispers in the background or am I just hearing things? Even the interludes and more chill parts keep up a certain pace or use other compositional techniques to accelerate your heartbeat. The magic here is that all of these delicate textural choices are at war with a frantic pace and searing intensity, a dialectical force tearing open a rift out of which a delirious fever haze pours.
Sleep Paralysis even weaves a sense of humor throughout the record—like the cartoonish glissando about a minute into “Sleep Paralysis”—but the humor does not detract from the derangement, instead feeling more like the reaction of a broken psyche trying to cope with sleep deprived hallucinations. A couple of particularly egregious sound clips on the last track threaten to push the sense of humor into the realm of eye-rolling campiness, but they’re right at the end of the record so they don’t do much to hinder the albums flow or replayability.
“Nostalgia” works well as a climax to Sleep Paralysis, being the longest song on the record and dipping into nearly every oddity that has been on display during the previous forty minutes. Really, there are a lot of climaxes on this album, but none of them are cathartic; they just continue to build up the anxiety through smart songwriting decisions rather than relieve any of it. Sleep Paralysis leaves the listener a crumpled, sweating ball of uneasiness, shoving back the bubbling thoughts of Stockholm Syndrome as you hit play on the first track once again.
Recommended tracks: Sleep Paralysis, Fever Dream, Helplessness
You may also like: Fleshvessel, Inhumankind, Maybe That’s Why Humans Drink the Darkness That is Coffee?
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp
Label: I, Voidhanger – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Sleep Paralysis is:
– Stephen Knapp (All Instruments, Piano and Drum Programming)
With Guest:
– Lorenzo Kemp (Solo on “Nostalgia”)
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