A Verse Unsung – Sleeping Tigers

I’ll be honest with you, after hearing A Verse Unsung‘s dismal EP, The Autumn EP, I was completely shocked to see a full length by them. I just assumed that the band would release the singular EP and then fade into even deeper obscurity than they already were in. It was, after all, a rather predictable and complacent release – not a record that would make waves or enable a band to build a career off of. So to see them still toughing it out and releasing a full length was a surprise; although not necessarily a pleasant one.

Sleeping Tigers sees A Verse Unsung following the path they initially laid out with The Autumn EP. The ten songs are still your run-of-the mill radio rock/emo rock tracks that have become all too common place lately. It falls into the same traps that all those releases fall into too: overly polished dual guitar attack, drumming that rarely stands out and vocals that somehow merge Hedley and Armor For Sleep. While there isn’t an acoustic filler, which is a definite bonus, the band does fall victim to the unnecessary inclusion of background screams in This Is You – it kind of works but adds very little new substance to the songs.

Despite that, I will give A Verse Unsung credit where credit’s due and they do deserve some serious credit for their marked improvement compared to their undistinguishable EP. The Autumn EP was far too dull to sit through one entire listen whereas I’ve replayed Sleeping Tigers three times today without it becoming overly annoying. It rarely grabs me, but it never forces me to reach for the skip or stop button either. Some songs are even, dare I say, rather catchy. The gang vocals in Six Strings bring the song to a forefront as does the slightly heavier attitude it brings to the CD. Resolve To Fight is another song that shines thanks to it’s more unique guitar riff and beat that bares a slight resemblance to a slower My Chemical Romance. On top of it all, Jake Scherer’s lyrics have definitely improved as well as they leave behind the pointless dribble of “Our love could be anything / our love could be anything/ it’s anything you want to / it’s everything inside you / let’s be anything / let’s be everything we want to be / let’s be everything” to a stronger approach that sees Scherer’s saying fuck you to all the doubters (including me, I guess) with “Johnny count to five they said, “Hey boy what you play ain’t music.”/ they all told him why/ “Toll loud, too fast” Too loud? Fuck that. / But Johnny said, “You’ll burn in hell / ‘Cause imma play just how I like.”

So no, I wouldn’t flat out recommend Sleeping Tigers to anyone and I’ll be surprised if I pull it out again. It’s just a radio emo record with songs that merge together after a while and sounds like the same CD you’ve heard before from other bands on the Taste Of Chaos tours. However, there are some shinning moments in the release; and maybe, just maybe, if they had more songs like Six Strings or Resolve To Fight on the release I wouldn’t be able to shake it off so easily.