Backstabbers Incorporated

Backstabbers Incorporated's While You Were Sleeping is a ferocious, unapologetic condemnation of noise and hate, lashing out at betrayal while attempting to take a stand in a world that buries whoever stands in its way. Musically, this six-song, 16-minute release is unrelenting, mining the veins of power violence, grindcore, thrash, metallic hardcore, and switching between simple, straightforward structures and more complex endeavours. While the execution is occasionally sacrificed for intensity, the slight imperfections serve to engineer a raw, more realistic sound. Tracks such as "Suicide Song For the Small Town Purple Heart Recipient" and "File Under Hostility" reek of biting cynicism, smartly playing to the Backstabbers Incorporated's strengths, but it is "...and Your Good Friend Is Your Scapegoat" that best encapsulates Backstabbers Incorporated. Opening with a frantic assault, "...and Your Good Friend Is Your Scapegoat" quickly segues into a noisy dirge, where an Al Pacino monologue from Scent of a Woman drives the din in a goosebump-inducing synthesis of noise and narrative. While Your Were Sleeping is an densely opaque, enveloping release, strewn with musically hostility, intelligence and, however guarded, hope.