FLASHLIGHT: A Closer Look At… Oh, Sleeper

Dallas’ own Oh, Sleeper stakes its claim to be mentioned among the hardcore elite of the Solid State Records community with its first album, When I Am God, now in stores. Having just finished a tour with one of the most up-and-coming acts on the roster (labelmates August Burns Red), this quintet seems primed and ready to make an attack run. There is both sung and screamed vocal approaches here, with enough tenacity to raise the hairs of even the most calloused heavy music listener.

“We have chanty hardcore parts, rock parts, melodic parts, breakdowns and techie parts,” offers vocalist Micah Kincaid. “We even hired an opera singer to come into the studio to add to the process. We wanted it to be the most interesting listen possible. None of us even listen to heavy music…we pull from hip-hop and singer/songwriters to make music that we, ourselves, enjoy listening to. Hopefully, that’s what makes us a little different than everything else out there.”

With vibrant imagery of spiritual warfare and battle, perhaps the most intriguing element to these guys is their lyrical content. Kincaid proclaims on the first single, “Vices Like Vipers”: “When I am god, the church is unsound.” The whole of the message: when left to our own means, we can only be trusted to bring about our own calamity. And in confessing so, Oh, Sleeper lays the foundation for anyone in need of divine intervention. myspace.com/ohsleeper