The City That Always Sleeps is a Biblical’s big wake-up call to the world.
LISTEN:
There’s something prophetic about the title “Mature Themes”, the opening song on Biblical‘s sophomore album The City That Always Sleeps. It suggests both caution and confidence; a warning that Biblical are about to unleash a musical experience that isn’t for the faint-hearted. Wielding hard rock sensibilities, psychedelic stoner jams, and proto-prog rock freakouts, the sprawling eight-song set comes in at an economical 38 minutes and leaves the listener spell-bound and thoroughly spent.
The tone and tenor is set right off the top: the surf-rock-as-played-by-Motörhead guitar riffs of “Mature Themes” kicks open this tour de force before bleeding into the blissed-out barn-burner “The Last Thing I Remember”. From there, Biblical establish a balance of power and presence. There’s a palpable kinaesthetic energy coursing through “Fugue State”, “Gallows Humour”, and the title track, a dynamism usually foreign to Biblical’s sludgy, drone-rock brethren.
Nothing about The City That Always Sleeps is lumbering or laboured. It’s a masterful blend of metal’s fire and brimstone, shoegaze’s hypnotics, and the fervor of psychedelic rock. Bold, brawny, and unabashedly poised, The City That Always Sleeps is Biblical’s wake-up call to the world.