I really should start buying more CD's. Digital format is nice, but there is something inherently special in physically owning the music. So here it goes, a review for Volumes' album "No Sleep".

I actually listened to their premier album, "Via", a few years ago, and jammed it a few times before, but it wasn't memorable enough for me to keep listening. I bought a few songs off of "Via" that were catchy enough. I had almost forgot about Volumes until Misha Mansoor got a question via (no pun intended) Ask.FM a week ago about his contributions to Volumes' new album. I was curious, because I had forgotten he had contributed a bit to it. So began my trek through "No Sleep". The first thing that I pay attention to is mix and tone. And DEFINITELY the first thing that struck me for sure was mix and tone. I'm a sucker for a really good mix, and this one was punchy and phat, loved it. Reminded me a little of The Acacia Strain. And then the tone (yes I'm one of those "MAN LISTEN TO THAT TOAN!!1!" people). The tone is one of my favorites. It's got that low gain kind of twang and throatiness to it that I love, with a spice of high gain growl to palm mutes and chords. One I got situated in the sound, I began to settle into the music itself. The first and second track isn't anything terribly special, albeit they are heavy and really fun songs (a few of these in the album). It's when you hit the track "Erased" and "Across The Bed" that you begin to see where this album shines. Melodicism. The clean vocals in these songs (there are more cleans one song than the entirety of Via, and there's more songs with cleans on No Sleep!) are very soothing and pleasant. Which brings me to the vocals in general on this album. The "uncleans" (a catch-all term I've adopted for vocals that are not actual singing, i.e. growls, screams, etc) in No Sleep are super solid. I'm not a fan of one of the vocalist's (there's two) unclean voice, but it's tolerable and sometimes does add, emotionally, to the music. Which also brings me to the lyrics, which are generally kind of meh... It's not poetry in any sense, but eventually you phase them out or even sing along to them simply because their catchy enough. Which segways into another favorite (and melodic peice) track of mine, "Vahle". This was actually released many months ago as a pre-production demo, and I listened to it once and forgot about it. It's a memorial to a dear friend of theirs that they lost. The lyrics are very straight forward and honest. There's not a whole lot of depth to it, but it is /honest/ and emotional, which is totally fine with me. The instrumentals on the song have a very nice groove, and reflect the mood very nicely. Then one more fun and br00tal (;P) song before you hit the intermission song to my favorite, and last, track on the album. The lead-up is perfect, almost orchestrated blend of cleans guitars, occasional strings, and samples. Then the it hits you with a vocal delivery that just dives head first into their final track, "Peace of Mind". Again, the melodicism takes front seat and you see where Volumes' talent lies. Overall I would definitely give this album a try. It might not suit you if you don't like "breakd0wnz n dj0nt", but it never hurts to try new music.