Sleep Now, In Reverse is Los Angeles-based Iress’s latest inky, black pool of highly refined doomgaze. Distortion and chorus/reverb guitar effects jockey for position over the spooky contralto of vocalist Michelle Malley. While this hypnotic 50-minute dosage of dark thoughts and musings fills its genre-carved role quite well, it may not stir all of one’s senses.
On their second release for their label, Dune Altar, no boundaries are broken. There are no feats of intricate or mesmerizing songwriting. Iress doesn’t stray too far from their formula as Sleep Now, In Reverse marks their third LP. The formula? Lull the listener into a sense of eerie self-reflection via droning guitars, slow, no-frills drum parts, and softly uttered vocals – then slowly turn up the heat and distortion (but never the speed) into a full-body crescendo. “Mercy” and “Falling” are prime examples of this.
This general framework supports the whole album but there are some tracks that spread the talents a little more evenly. “Lovely (Forget Me Not)” offers some very welcome grooviness and serves as the stand-out for the album not in function but in form. The track was not a single before the album’s release but its broadened parameters make it the best on the album.
The most redeeming quality on the album, and moreover of the band, are the vocals of Michelle Malley. They give a chiaroscuro effect to the vast, foreboding landscape that Alex Estrada’s mixing establishes, where individual musical parts feel spread widely apart. Malley’s voice shines like a beacon through the dark. Sinewy track transitions tie some of the songs together and further service the themes of isolation and loss, particularly the muffled talking at the end of “Mercy.”
Lyrically Sleep Now, In Reverse is a series of inwardly baleful reflections. Remorse, regret, and pain line the halls of this haunted mansion. “I can’t separate accident or fate//Ever under gaze,” Malley croons on “Ever Under.” “Until you met me//All to forget me” Malley laments on “Lovely (Forget Me Not).” Under a careful reading between the lines, something that was once good has gone awry.
Moments with truly heavy riffs like the end of “The Remains” or the beginning of “Knell Mera” are the chewiest bits on the record and they add some much-needed iron to what can feel like a rather anemic collection of songs. Glenn Chu’s drums open up a bit on “Sanctuary” for a very welcome texture change. The final track “Deep” does the same in a much more subtle fashion.
Sleep Now, In Reverse is Iress at their most distilled yet, but at times strays from some of the creativity and substance of their previous releases in favor of style. The result is still a well-crafted and very well-produced dark delight, but its bursts of energy are outweighed by their longer and less interesting build-ups. As individual songs, there are few flaws, but also nothing particularly memorable or engaging.