Review: Sleep Paralysis – S/T
An actual nightmare in musical form
Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? I for one have not, but it is still a subject that intrigues me as it is an experience lying somewhere between science and the supernatural. Is it really as simple as one’s brain awakening from slumber before their body? It is a reasonable and straightforward explanation, however, there also exists the accounts of monsters or demons as the cause of their inability to function upon stirring from the world of the unconscious. With feelings of dreadful helplessness and a physical pressure upon your body, sleep paralysis demons appear to enjoy causing harm upon the psyche rather than the body.
Here is where the debut album from San Diego’s Sleep Paralysis comes in—a musical endeavor designed to play on your haunted brain synapses and rest-deprived hallucinations. I hope you don’t mind when a musical release decides to attack you by stating what many of us deal with in subjects such as insomnia, horrid thoughts that don’t allow us to fall asleep, and the terrors that await us once you are finally able to. Nowhere is safe when the monster you are trying to hide from is one from within.
Being the work of singular member Stephen Knapp, Sleep Paralysis has been the first full album this year that has both ensnared and enraged me. Now when I saw enraged, I mean that in only the most positive way as it is a release that seems to taunt me with its subject matter and lyrics. Just take the closing track “Nostalgia” with its message of never being able to truly find happiness, or even comfort in this world using the lyrics:
Nothing makes me feel like it once did
Nothing impresses me anymore
Yesterday always seems better than today
When did I become so fucking jaded
My time is running out
So much wasted time
I’ve missed out on so much
Trying to relive the past
Wasted time on bullshit
While loved ones wither away
The world you knew is dead
Just a distant memory
You can’t turn back the clock
Nothing remains the same
You wasted your fucking time
You look towards the past for answers that will never come
Nothing remains the same
You’ll never experience joy like that again
Your childhood is dead
Now you may have noticed that I haven’t actually said anything about the music itself and that is for good reason. Sleep Paralysis may the be musical definition of love it or hate it. This is due to it being extremely different from pretty much anything else I have ever heard. If you enjoy such acts as Fleshvessel and Rainer Landfermann’s solo work, then this will likely something you can connect with. Using dissonant and chaotic black metal as the base, Knapp also infuses things such as piano (not just synths), electronic chip-tune parts, and heavy jazz influences to drive home the nightmarish package into an unsettling experience. A fever dream in musical form might be the most apt descriptor as it aims to assault you via its music as well as how it is presented.
As I said previously, this is definitely a strange album as it is completely hostile to both the listener and music in general. One second you are bombarded with blasts and shrieks, the next brings a moment filled with raspy whispers and goosebump-inducing atmosphere all to be flipped on its head as it transitions into an electronic horror dance beat. When you realize that this is an I, Voidhanger Recordings release, I suppose it will all start to make a little more sense. I have tried to walk away from Sleep Paralysis many times to no avail. It constantly pulls me back into its spell of melancholy and madness. Just be prepared mentally, and also maybe physically, as it aims to bring to the surface all you want to keep hidden from those around you.
4.5/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Sleep Paralysis is out now through I, Voidhanger Records.
