Sleepercell @ The Mill

Whilst Preston's indie scene seems to be throwing up talent after talent of diverse bands gunning for the mainstream, there is an argument that, bar one or two cases, the heavy rock scene is slipping towards a large pool of similar sounding bands.

Sleepercell last Friday proved that, with youth undeniably on their side, there is more to local metal music than heavy bass and torn vocal chords.

The Mill's headliners were preceded onstage by Elcho, a three piece nu-metal/emo outfit that have been making a splash and grabbing attention for the past few months. However, on seeing them live for the first time, they appear quite unoriginal and disjointed.

Good potential

Only now and again do all three components come together to break into a regular rhythm, and all too often the stride is cut short. The moments of togetherness do exude good potential and form a worthy backing for the crisp, searing lead guitar.

Elcho's final song brings about an entirely different band - upbeat, honest and sung like they really mean it, with a bouncing 'almost drum-solo' which threatens to break the sound barrier before returning to normality.

Whether or not The Mill knew what to expect from Sleepercell does not matter, the crowd had no idea how to react. The cloudy, atmospheric four-piece slide into an ethereal build up that, if perfected will no doubt perform all the usual clichés of transporting listeners to other worlds and faraway dreamlands; but for now they sound good enough.

Hazy slide guitar

The bassist begins to sing early on but stops, maybe due to a lack of lyrics and necessity, or maybe just nerves, but he looks much more at home and comfortable whilst concentrating on his bass.

Sleepercell know very well how to build up a song with pace-conducting drums at the helm and a hazy slide guitar, but seldom do they drop over the cliff and break into the heavy, bass-driven monster that lurks within.

In a twenty minute set the band hit top gear only twice or thrice and end in an impressive mess of feedback. They could be accused of being a tad over-indulgent - but as i said, time is on their side.

Written by Dan Jeoffroy

Photography: Dan Jeoffroy