“It’s better than devil you know, than the devil you don’t.”
Sleeping with Sirens is one of the rare groups in the scene to get true mainstream exposure. Their hit track “If You Can’t Hang” is closing in on 150 million views on YouTube, which is massive compared to any of their contemporaries. There’s no question that they’ve put out some great tracks over the years, but I think an underrated aspect of the band is their consistency even to this day. I was not a fan of 2017’s Gossip, but I believe that both Madness (2015) and How It Feels to be Lost (2019) are fantastic and highly underrated albums. This consistency has now manifested into their upcoming effort – Complete Collapse.
We are still getting albums that were written during the peak of the pandemic, and Complete Collapse seems to be the newest entry in such releases. Vocalist Kellin Quinn has a bit of a different take, though. He is on record stating that he was feeling burnt out prior to the pandemic, and that the forced time at home allowed him to prevent this ‘complete collapse’ he felt was impending. This is most evident in, big surprise, the title track. Quinn waxes poetic about his mental state and how he perceives the world. The top line here is great, and the backing instrumental flips to a more industrial tone at points to really boost the rhythm of the track.
I should mention that the album starts strong right away, too. “Tyrants” has a strong juxtaposition of heavy, screamed verses and a chorus that is epic with a methodical delivery. The aforementioned screams have that ragged, unrefined edge to them that Quinn has usually delivered, and I’m happy that they have not been abandoned for this new release. This is admittedly a mostly by-the-books track, but it serves as an engaging opener. This style continues with “Crosses” which features Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath. Chamberlain always lays down a great contribution for his features, and these two vocalists show high compatibility as they build off each other and trade screamed contributions on the bridge of this song.
I do think that the album drops off a bit after a competent start, as there’s only so much quality in the next handful of tracks. “Family Tree” holds the grouping up a bit with a good flow and interesting bridge to it, but the excessive use of “whoa-ohs” never really lands for me and it certainly doesn’t here. Then there’s the Royal & the Serpent feature on “Be Happy”, which would be a solid cut thanks to her contribution and heavier breakdown, but outside of those features, it’s all chorus with a simple backing instrumental. It only just gets the job done, which can be said of the entirety of “Let You Down”, as well. The only track that I straight up dislike, however, is “Us.” It comes across weak in delivery and the topline, which is the main drawing point of the song, becomes grating before long.
It’s not until “Mr. Nice Guy” where I feel the quality of the highs of the record return and rebounds it in a big way. Quinn gives his most impactful and cathartic performance on the chorus here. That cathartic nature is channeled again but twisted a bit as the bridge transitions back into another chorus.
Complete Collapse closes with “Grave.” I’m of the group that really enjoys when the band does slower, acoustic-centric tracks, with these occurrences standing as the reason why Madness jelled with me so effectively. I think another one of these could have been a boon to the album, and the fact that the album went without that almost makes this type of ending come out of nowhere. Despite that, it’s a good entry in its own right, and the sentiment that Quinn brings to the table of asking the listener to “separate the man from the artist” is interesting, combined with the fact of the rest of the song being from the first person perspective. I could see how wrestling with these thoughts would lead one to the brink of a complete collapse.
What I expected out of this album was what I personally ended up getting out of it – a product similar to How It Feels to be Lost, yet lesser. The sound present here is largely the same ‘heavier‘ Sleeping with Sirens vibe, but in my opinion, without some of the more engaging songwriting aspects that I personally enjoy. I’d take “Another Nightmare” off of How It Feels to be Lost over any track here, as just one example. Other entries in the band’s discography are too different to directly compare, but nevertheless, Complete Collapse is a fine entry.
6/10
Complete Collapse will be available this Friday, October 14th via Sumerian, and you can pre-order the record here.