Band:	Sleep Terror
Album:	Probing Tranquility
Style:	Progressive death metal, Technical death metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Overture
02. Vague Sentiments Unveil
03. Amaxophobia
04. Somnambulistic Pedophile
05. Probing Tranquility
06. Diurnal Enuresis
07. Ginsu Frenzy
08. Hypersomnia Rationale
09. Autoerotic Spy
10. Primordial Void
11. Androgynous Charade
12. Dysrhythmic Vexation
13. Tables Turned Crimson
14. Hypnogogic Qualm
15. Ascetic Meditation

Sleep Terror used to be one of my favorite Death Metal bands in the scene; when I received their debut album, "Probing Tranquility", to do this review I got really excited, so much that I even left aside my already queued reviews as I knew this Sleep Terror was going to be one of the best Death Metal experiences in my entire life?but I was sadly wrong.

"Probing Tranquility" shows a less Death Metal side of Sleep Terror add the fact that we no longer hear the amazing human drummer pummeling our ears with sickening irregular beats, instead we are bombarded with a drum-machine that takes most of the great textures of the old Sleep Terror (like Blast-Beats for example). So it's a different kind of sound, but that doesn't mean it's a bad one.

Maybe the programmed instruments made this album kind of annoying and not very professional, but I was thinking "what if these things were actually played by, I don't know, Flo Mounier and Raphael Couturier" the album would have sounded a lot better?and I'm almost saying that it could be a whole new and different album. The songwriting is so good that even if the drums and the bass-lines sounded a little flat, the general scheme sounds just marvelous and it makes you stay to the very end of the CD.

Now, if you don't see this album as a Death Metal release your perspective will seriously change, I did it and I now hear a very interesting Avant-Garde band doing a heavier side of bands like Behold?The Arctopus Liquid Tension Experiment, Spastic Ink or Dysrhythmia . The general mixture of elements (Jazz, Metal, Rock, etc.) is still a shivering incident; musically, Luke Jaeger, proves that he's a really talented guy, he just needs to polish some aspects out and then we'll have a blasting masterpiece in our hands (I also hope to hear humans instead of machines in the next album)

So, Death Metal maniacs won't care a lot for this release, but Avant-Gardists out there will rejoice this event for a long time; I personally was expecting a lot more though?and maybe that was the main problem. But if you're unfamiliar with this name and if you're looking for adorned music with a touch of aggression, believe me, you'll be really pleased with "Probing Tranquility".

Best Tracks: Amaxophobia, Ascetic Meditation.