Sleep Terror - Probing Tranquility

Sleep Terror sound like if Necrophagist and Primus had a child and raised it on surf music and schmaltzy jazz. That would probably be horrible, wouldn’t it? But at high enough speeds, neoclassical riffs, diminished arpeggios, and rubbery, slap-happy tones somehow make sense together. Right now, the band is one guy, Luke Jaeger, on guitar, bass, and keys. I’m not surprised he’s without a drummer at the moment – few are this nuts.

Hypersomnia Rationale
Hypnogogic Qualm

I admit, I still don’t understand why people make this kind of music. But it’s practically its own genre now (“seizure core”?), with Behold…The Arctopus, Psyopus, The Faceless, Dillinger Escape Plan (some), and Buckethead as patron saint. I suppose it has a math-y, epileptic appeal, like if you tensed up really hard and somehow willed those Matrix falling numbers to rain down on you. Metal has come a long (and very strange) way since Sabbath.

A Sleep Terror release is supposedly due out early 2008 on Blackmarket Activities. I don’t know if it’ll be a reissue of Probing Tranquility (Feeling Faint, 2006), or if it’s new material. Evidently, artist and label have beef – according to this, Jaeger isn’t seeing any royalties from the album, and ordering from the label is an uncertain proposition. However, every distro seems to be out of it, so you’ll have to get it at Feeling Faint’s Myspace. Or, contact Sleep Terror via its MySpace, where you can also buy demo tracks digitally.