ENLIGHTENMENT(?) ensues as WHILE SHE SLEEPS play their biggest headline show to date

Initially naming themselves after a story from a magazine in which a woman murdered her husband whilst he slept the band, has spent over a decade defining modern metal music, producing albums under their own SLEEPS BROTHERS record label, Crowdfunding for their 2017 album You Are We, topping the UK charts and Achieving best album at the Heavy Music Awards (HMA’s) gaining notoriety within the British metalcore scene and accomplishing support slots with legends of the Metal community, Asking Alexandra , Parkway Drive and Bring Me The Horizon. Slowly but surely building their way up through the ranks of music venues in anticipation for their biggest headline show Alexandra Palace.

When WHILE SHE SLEEPS first announced their headline slot at historical London venue, Alexandra Palace, a year prior to the show you would be forgiven for having your apprehensions about the difficulty of achieving a fully sold out 10,250 capacity venue in the nation's capital even with the bands die hard fanbase, commitment , drive and determination. As i walked up the hill to alexandra palace on a warm september night i was reminded of the announcement of the show a year prior, handing out flyers on their tour with Parkway drive, holding up a banner announcing “While She Sleeps Headline Alexandra Palace 2023” and the scepticism that followed, ‘how could a band sell out such a large venue when the people they are opening for didn't manage to?’ As the band achieve selling out this famous landmark and thousands of metal fans alike take the climb up Muswell Hill full of anticipation and enthusiasm, reality looms over us as this much awaited show is underway.

Alexandra Palace, nicknamed Ally Pally, is one of my favourite venues in the UK, situated between Woodland Green and Muswell Hill in the London borough of Haringey millions of people have flocked here over the years to see their favourite bands and now it was WHILE SHE SLEEPS turn. As I enter the venue, after thorough bag and ticket checks, I am hit by the amazing architecture of this two-hundred year old venue, the stained glass windows offer a religious experience with the sun-set of the September night shining through onto the buzzing fans.

The array of food stalls and high drink prices gave the event a Day Festival vibe, offering excited fans a place to chill before the event went underway. There was no time to waste though as Australian metal band Polaris geared up to take the stage. After the sudden death of their lead Guitarist, Ryan Siew, earlier in 2023 this performance was one of deep poignance. As the venue started to fill up Polaris played a short 7 song set, opening with ‘Nightmare’ a song off their most recent album ‘Fatalism’, the crowd all bounced in unison, mosh pits opened and the gig was truly on its way. The crowd mosh, and dance and sing every word as the Australian quartet perfectly display their newest hits, with deep compelling guttural growls from vocalist Jamie Halls and tight riffs excellently executed by Rick Schnieder.

Lighting and stage production is kept to a minimum for this band, with only the occasional strobe lighting accompanying them as they play through their set of recent hits. As the band play their third song of the set we get an insight into the wide range of musical abilities being displayed, opening with a melodic indie like riff on their song ‘All Of This Fleeting’ followed by hard hitting, fast paced drums and powerful screams, this fusion of metal and soft rock is truly a perfect combination for this band. Before playing their penultimate song ‘Overflow’ they offer a quick tribute to their deceased band member simply announcing “this ones for Ryan” hitting the crowd with crisp riffs and soft vocals. Despite their relatively new launch into live performances, change in band members and keeping audience engagement to a minimum the crowd were engaged with this band through their whole set with mosh pits never ending and singing their hearts out with every word. Polaris were the perfect band to warm up the crowd for the rest of the night. 

Next to take the stage was Bury Tomorrow, a Southampton based musical powerhouse formed in 2006, and judging by the crowd's reaction this band is very popular among WHILE SHE SLEEPS fans. Accompanied by a simple but effective backdrop of an illuminating rectangle and the thunderous roar of the crowd the band open with ‘Boltcutter’ a song off their newest critically acclaimed album ‘The Seventh Sun’ immediately sending the crowd wild. The audience remains full of energy throughout the whole set as the band plays through their array of mosh-pit inducing hits, the juxtaposing voices of Dani Winter-Bates and Tom Pendergast in harmony echo perfectly off of each other syncing in unison throughout their hour set. Missing the opportunity to bring of Loz Taylor during their collab song ‘Heretic’ the band end on ‘DEATH ‘ever colder’ with the techno like intro coating the crowd and the powerful vocals causing feet to leave the floor and as the last circle pit opens up it is clear that Bury Tomorrow within themselves , are a headline band.

As anticipation rises within the crowd as the opening riffs to SLEEP SOCIETY blare out into ‘The peoples palace’ , standing shoulder to shoulder , supporting merch old and new the group of like minded individuals all here to support one band erupt in unison. With an animated background of a city slowly burning and scaffolding covering the stage displaying the word SLEEPS, built by the band themselves. The band enters, tearing through the crowd with their unmatched energy. Cycling through hits old and new the crowd remains as passionate as ever with huge circle pits and hundreds of crowd-surfers being passed over heads it is clear from the offset this band were made to headline this venue. The Sheffield born musical prodigies are perfectly portraying a classic WHILE SHE SLEEPS gig with the familiar high pitched smooth riffs from Sean Long and Loz Taylor's rustic deep growls the band have the crowd in the palm of their hand, controlling every action and calling for more mosh pits and crowd surfers.

 As the band's newest song, ‘SELF HELL’ plays we see the first drop of enthusiasm through the venue, controversially changing their sound much to the disappointment of older fans this song has been a hit or miss throughout the Sleep's supporters. The band's performance remained on point however and as soon as the opening sequence to ‘FAKERS PLAGUE’ was played the once energetic atmosphere was restored throughout the arena. The bands mostly older song filled set-list emphasis on looking back to how they started and what they have achieved, fan favourite ‘Silence Speaks’ was a reminder of this. Bringing on Dani Winter-Bates in replacement of Oli sykes, singer of Bring Me The Horizon, was a perfect substitute leaving nothing to be desired. It is clear that when planning for their biggest performance to date WHILE SHE SLEEPS took no expense spared with pyrotechnics, lasers and smoke machine grazing the audience throughout the whole set.  

WHILE SHE SLEEPS have never sounded better! Showing high amounts of dedication to their art over the past twenty years has truly paid off for these metal core high fliers. Every member of the band perfectly displayed their talents proving why they could sell out a show in such a historic and important venue. Loz Taylor stole the show however, gliding effortlessly around the stage , participating with the audience by acknowledging the luck and hard-work that went into achieving the monumental occasion and of course his vocals, which despite suffering in the past leading to surgery were on point tonight , there was truly nothing to be faulted. Each support band was excellently picked to warm up the fans for a night of immense energy from the very start. WHILE SHE SLEEPS have become metal core legends within their own right and have truly paved the way for bands alike.