Manchester band Asleep At The Helm is all about contrasts. The quartet aims to push boundaries with its brutally powerful yet melodic new age metalcore sound that they describe as “aggressive, chaotic and energetic.”
The vocals of Jimmy Dahmer epitomise the Asleep At The Helm approach, countering vicious screams, growls and whispers with beautiful melodic sections. He’s joined by guitarists Lewis Oldfield and George Finnigan and drummer Daniel Fleming to fuse driving riffs, wild guitars, brutal rhythms and electronic elements. Together, they’ve crafted a diverse nu-metal and tech-inspired metalcore sound that they describe to us as: “Imagine if Northlane and Dealer had a baby. That’s us.”
Our latest taste of this is Tarnished, which was released last month. It dives straight into the good stuff with a vicious scream and wild screeching guitars over vicious low-tuned guitars, dropping into Jimmy’s intense vocals. It soon drops into a surprisingly melodic chorus supported by dreamy guitars and a twinkling synth sound, before exploding into an even more brutal second verse. That gives way to grinding low guitars before the pace drops and the clean chorus vocals take over. Intense vocals return, before a wild outro with chugging low guitars, bursts of high-pitched guitar and vicious screams.
On the track’s reception, the band told us: “Absolutely incredible. This is the best-performing single we’ve ever had. New fans should expect a raw, unadulterated, new wave of metalcore.
“Tarnished explores the end of friendships and relationships damaged by ignorance, arrogance, narcissism, and abuse, and the inevitable pain that follows. The song represents a journey of growth, rebirth, and renewed passion for overcoming adversity, as well as the struggle to save something broken beyond repair.” Check it out in the video here:
That follows on from Our New Kingdom, which was released in March, and opens up with choral vocals that are joined by a chugging riff and stabbing guitars that, with the aid of big screams, feed into a big driving riff. It bursts into a powerful opening verse led by Jimmy’s fantastic vocals and big rhythmic guitars. What you’re not expecting is a catchy singalong section, but that’s what we get with the chorus “Release us from your claws, So set me free, Between you and me, There’s nothing here between us now, Your greatest gift, To leave me be.”
It drops back into another intense verse with dual vocals, which drops into doomy low-tuned guitars. Out of nowhere, the pace drops and the choral vocals creep into the background, setting up a final blast of the chorus. Check it out in the video here:
These tracks are the latest in Asleep At The Helm’s solid back catalogue, including their take on a Blink-182 track, 2022 album Keepsake and 2018 album Dissonance. To get a feel for the band, we firmly recommend checking out tracks like the magnificent Deaf Ears Hear No Voices and Altered State.
The Asleep At The Helm sound has been influenced by the likes of Dealer, Sleep Token, Alpha Wolf, Northlane and Diamond Construct. And on what inspires them to write music, they tell us: “Real emotion and aggression. We’ve had a lot of it over the past year.”
There’s plenty more to come from the band, who just closed out the year with a tour supporting Harbinger, and will have new music early next year alongside a run of exciting gigs.
You can follow Asleep At The Helm on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, get their merch here, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Asleep At The Helm on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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