ALBUM REVIEW: Divine Recalibration – Sleepsculptor

It’s never ideal when a band is sent scrambling for a new vocalist – especially not as early into their career as SLEEPSCULPTOR are. Formed in 2018, the Pennsylvania-based experimental metalcore outfit put out the killer Entry: Dispersal the following year, a record which placed firmly them in step with the revered likes of CAR BOMB, THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS and VEIN.FM, but they were soon forced to recalibrate (see what we did there?). Recruiting vocalist Florent Curatola from Canada after hosting virtual auditions in 2021, the current line-up didn’t meet in person until they entered the studio to record this album in March 2022. If you think that sounds like a recipe for chaos, you’d be right, but only in a good way; Divine Recalibration is gloriously unhinged, but it’s also delivered with the machine-gun precision you’d normally expect of a band who’ve been playing together for decades.

Admittedly on one level it’s not a huge departure from its predecessor. Early impressions are of similar levels of chaotic intensity, and it certainly draws comparisons to a similar crop of bands – essentially anyone doing that batshit mathcore thing where you can hardly tell where some of the noises are even coming from, and definitely daren’t predict what might happen next. It starts as it means to go on with the frenzied opener Shattered Nerve; no build-up or funny little sample, just straight in with tight tech riffs and rhythms, dissonant guitar freak-outs and Curatola’s vocals delivered with a breathless fury and despair that sees him quickly prove himself as a perfect fit for the band.

With the standard firmly established for the record to follow, Divine Recalibration spends the vast majority of its 39-minute runtime in similar territory. It’s violent and unpredictable throughout, but it also makes good choices and draws from a wide enough pool of influences to ensure that it never really becomes an exercise in endurance. It’ll have a decent moment of nu-metal bounce, for example, or one of those MESHUGGAH-esque grooves where the complexity of a riff never gets in the way of the listener’s ability to headbang to it. The band also aren’t afraid to just drop an immensely satisfying breakdown from time to time, as they do on a track like An Equivalent Exchange which sees the press notes quite rightly pointing to the inimitable EVERY TIME I DIE for reference.

All this ensures that even as Divine Recalibration rolls well into its second half, it never struggles to entice. Beyond The Veil’s four and a bit minute runtime makes it the longest on the record and it arrives right in the middle as a bleak and tortured highlight replete again with intensely hypnotic rhythmic chugs; later still, Pry carries a thick and sludgy heft, while recent single Plaster Saint pushes into straight deathcore courtesy of some harrowing guest vocals from Cameron McBride of METHWITCH. It’s a testament to the record’s structure and sequencing that SLEEPSCULPTOR are able to surprise – and more importantly to crush – at every turn, and there’s one final highlight to come in the form of the title track as the band suddenly reveal a huge melodic sensibility to close the record in soaring and emotional post-hardcore.

Lastly, something of the icing on the cake of all this is the record’s overarching concept, which follows a man who uploads his consciousness to a cloud system that shares all the experiences and memories of all the other people also connected to the cloud, with this ultimately leading to the realisation that humanity is beyond saving. Maybe this is a little by the by, as Curatola’s harsh vocals and the chaos which surrounds them can make it quite hard to follow any semblance of a story, but a cool concept is a cool concept nonetheless, and in this case it certainly feels well-matched to the kind of bleak futuristic vibe that the music carries.

So obviously Divine Recalibration should be a high priority for anyone who likes that more chaotic twist on metalcore. It’s one of the best examples we’ve had of this all year – a significant step up on an impressive debut nailed even in spite of all the turmoil that comes with a line-up change. If you’ve had bands like VEIN.FM and PUPIL SLICER on your end of year lists lately then this album should have a pretty good shot at landing somewhere similar come the end of 2023.

Rating: 8/10

Divine Recalibration is set for release on April 28th via Silent Pendulum Records.

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