Sleemo – Norwich, England, United Kingdom
The seminal stylistic of Post-Hardcore truly did wonders for underground Rock. Sleemo and ‘Heavenly Home (I’m In Your Mind)’ resoundingly exist within this plethora of legacy sounds, noises and bands that have capitalised on this creative Punk offshoot. The Norwich band, now settled into a three-piece, have been riffingly-chaotic since 2019 atop a Post-Hardcore influenced, Punk-adjacent Alternative Rock foundation. The eerie, incarnate rage, that was redirected after the OG Hardcore period is something dear to Sleemo. The band may not be scientists (that I know of) but given their hauntingly-heavy-set repertoire thus far, are more than aware that energy cannot be destroyed, only transferred.
That’ll do for an introduction I should think. Sleemo has, after their explosive EP Mutation Of, beset 2020 with a second offering. ‘Heavenly Home (I’m In Your Mind)’ teases a time where the ominous serious but not actually serious tones of Nu-Metal forebodingly flowed before the rest of the combustive whatever that was. Sleemo ebbs in on this tone, hybridised with a permeating Grunge-ism not too dissimilar to Soundgarden or Pearl Jam. This isn’t their most accosting brand Post-Hardcore enveloped riffy-heavy Alternative Rock but the track’s duration is impressive in its length. Intentionally.
So, as you’d expect, Sleemo edge toward their own-brand combustion. The band aren’t a stranger to this gloom-trodden Grunge but it can only persist for so long. Post-2:48, the band reach their intrusive journey into the mind as the band we know. Sleemo’s tone changes, subtly, but increasingly. The three-piece maintain the oozing layers of brooding uncertainty they have accumulated but make a move beyond it. The marginally melodic edge to their dirge, subtly coated in the thicker, raw and less Grunge-orientated Alt. Rock breakdown is the key to it all.
The sonically heavy-set three callback to their Post-Hardcore-isms. Sleemo show how resoundingly intrinsic they are to their sound subtly, simply in a reminder to say that they haven’t forgotten. The band then fall into another short verse after these pummelling stop-starts, with a victorious statement cast defiantly into the very aforementioned mind. The band then close with the thick and undeniably wanted, wanton gratuity they are known for.
Sleemo are a band feasting on the various fruit of their influences. This is a band true to the organic process of creating and their clearly nutritious soil perpetuates this ease. The band’s mainline 2020 release, Mutation Of, paved the way for a band on a mission. Sleemo wish to crash through the doors of heavy rock with whatever method works best. The release boasted riff-heavy Grunge and Alt Rock, the eerie technical legacy of early Post-Hardcore and lashings of brash Punk-Rock that existed just because. This, tieing back to ‘Heavenly Home (I’m In Your Mind)’ is what keeps this band hurtling through every obstacle, with a consistency that is at a strict, befitting and intentional fifty-per cent. Consistency is key, but evolution runs parallel.
Sleemo and ‘Heavenly Home (I’m In Your Mind)’ further the move to hegemonise underground rock. Find them below.
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