While She Sleeps

The British metalcore band When She Sleeps was formed by school friends and musicians Sean Long (guitar), Aaron McKenzie (bass), Adam Savage (drums), Mat Welsh (guitar), and Jordan Widdowson (vocal) in Sheffield, England in 2006. They self-released their debut EP, And This Is Just the Start, that year but Widdowson would exit the band whereupon Lawrence Taylor would take over as lead singer. Their 2010 EP The North Stands for Nothing turned out to be their first break. It garnered strong reviews for its amalgamation of metal and punk and scored the group a high-profile stint as the opening act for similar-minded bigger bands like Bring Me the Horizon. Their 2012 debut LP, This Is the Six, captured their unique combination of heaviness and melody, and earned them an award for Best British Newcomer. After Taylor underwent throat surgery, they released 2015’s Brainwashed. 2016’s You Are We got them into the Top 10 of the UK album chart. While She Sleeps challenged themselves creatively on 2019’s So What?, bringing new elements including electronic flourishes to their aggressive musical attack. That experimentation continued on 2021’s Sleeps Society. In Septermber2023, While She Sleeps released the “Self Hell” single, which was the first track to be taken from the album of the same name. In 2024, they issued the singles “Down” (featuring Malevolence’s Alex Taylor), “To the Flowers,” and “Leave Me Alone” before they finally released their sixth album, Self Hell, in March 2024.