This Is The Six (10th Anniversary)

As While She Sleeps prepare to play the biggest headline show of their career to date at Alexandra Palace on September 23rd, the Sheffield metalcore heroes now go back to where it all began with the news that their debut album ‘This Is The Six’ will receive its first ever vinyl release via Music For Nations on September 22^nd.

Originally released in 2012, ‘This Is The Six’ saw While She Sleeps begin to fulfil the immense potential that they had demonstrated with their previous EP ‘The North Stands For Nothing’. Infusing their visceral, ferocious metal and hardcore roots with an innate ability to appeal to a broader audience, the record set the band on the path to where they are today. They subsequently toured with the likes of Architects, Parkway Drive and Asking Alexandria, and won the prestigious Kerrang! Award for Best British Newcomer. Numerous tracks from the album remain fan favourites to this day, including ‘Seven Hills’, the title track, ’Our Courage, Our Cancer’ and ‘False Freedom’.

The line-up that recorded ‘This Is The Six’ remains the same as it is today: Lawrence Taylor (vocals), Sean Long (guitar), Mat Welsh (guitar), Aaran McKenzie (bass) and Adam Savage (drums).

To mark its 10^th anniversary, While She Sleeps are announcing a special vinyl release of their much-celebrated album, ‘This Is The Six’. A critically acclaimed record in the band’s discography, the album also marks a significant milestone in their career. Originally releasing what is their second record in 2012, the album served as a defining moment for the band’s progress, with its 12 tracks propelling them to the forefront of the UK metalcore scene and garnering them widespread recognition at home and abroad for their raw energy and uncompromising sound.

An album with a legacy and sonic integrity still firmly intact, it remains the white whale in fan’s vinyl collections, and this release marks the first time it will be pressed and available on vinyl to fill those gaps. An early album that points to both their early successes and their enduring impact as a band continually at the top table of the global metal scene, the band are still actively ploughing their own furrow and reaching new heights. A new record and worldwide touring is in the works, seeing the band headline venues such as London’s Alexandra Palace.

Talking on the vinyl release Mat Welsh explains “Stepping into a ‘real’ studio to record your first full-length album is a feeling I’ll never forget. We’d spend the last few years in a van, after scraping together our first release in a barn, our original practice spot. Recorded & mixed by ourselves, so this was the biggest deal to us. The writing process was a blur, a mix of excitement and anxiety with how to follow up our first release ‘The North Stands For Nothing’, with the first full-length album, released on a major label & on a level we’d never experienced before. We met with Carl Bown (who we are still working with 12 years later) and Colin Richardson to make the record, they had a history of amazing albums and I remember being so excited to hear the stories they would tell. We threw everything we had into it, no boundaries. Writing like our lives depended on it, this was our real chance to make an album that could put us on the map for British metal, done our way. We’ve always been searching to create music that fills our own personal void, the music we’re searching for but can’t find. I feel like we achieved that, it sounded like the five of us & the collection of music that has made us who we are. It doesn’t sound like anyone else & it’s an essential part of why we’re still here today. After 12 years it’s really special for us to finally welcome it to the vinyl collection, an integral part of the Sleeps history.”