Chicago's native pop punk rockers 2*Sweet deliver us their début full length album 'Sleep Without Dreams' and deliver it to us they do. With a distinctive vocal from singer Justin Pence, its difficult to mistake this band for another. At times you could liken the sound of this record to Fall Out Boy's 'Take This To Your Grave' or perhaps throw it at Tim Burton and say “Hey here's a soundtrack go make a movie'.

This record kicks off with an almost classical sounding piano piece, which wouldn't seem out of place in a film such as 'Beetlejuice'. This turns into 'Rested Eyes Tell No Lies' a bouncy up-tempo number which will get you tapping your feet, definitely a good choice as the album opener, the heavy drums with bouncy guitars mesh together to create a giant musical hand which grabs you and pulls you in to the record.

Slowing the tempo a little and slightly heavier but with just enough to keep you moving 'What I did On My Summer Vacation' is laced with that full musical mass of a hand which is still clutching you, introducing a brass ensemble which works extremely well.

Rolling drums open 'Miss You' a melodic predominantly guitar based verse with dual vocals moves to a chorus, which although a little slower still maintains momentum. The strong vocals from Justin work well on this track, along with the addition of the group vocal aspect, which gives a little more to the listener to feel.

'Life's Black Ice' at the beginning you could think Avenged Sevenfold with the way the song's introduction hits you as we are propelled into the verses with a strong rock sound before it leads us into a nice flowing and slightly less strong chorus, taking us again to another verse. The stomping sound of the drums and guitars flooding in and out throughout certain parts of the song, which only goes on to emphasise Justin's - at times - theatrical vocal style.

A single guitar plays softly while we hear the wind blowing, whistling around the lone notes that are being strummed before we are suddenly propelled once again into group vocals kicking off 'King Midas' Desert'. A catchy song with a mass of slick guitars and drums which compliment and work with the vocals. In keeping with the flow of the record the next song 'Bury Me In The Lovers Graveyard' explodes before fading to the sound of guitars, the vocals kicking back in, a nice and slightly different sound which sits well within the tone of the album.

'Tarantula Perfume' is a plinky-plonky piano leading into a slick, sexy slow number, hints of blues and jazz weave themselves under and over each note and word meshing with the rock-pop punk the band has given us on the rest of the record. The trumpets giving the song body and a nice addition before the guitar kicks in once again making us remember that this is in fact a rock song. Strangely enough it all works extremely well, both stand alone and within the context of this record as a whole, definitely one you have to hear.

'Funeral Moon' kicks us back to the beginning, upbeat with heavy bass and drums, strong and powerful vocals and a strong chorus, this brings us back to the overall theme of the record after the wonderful detour that was Tarantula Perfume. We are led into 'Give Me Your Gold' once again by rolling drums, and in keeping with other tracks it has a slight jazz/1920's kick to it, and like the others it works well. Each part of the song complimenting the next to create a great composition that only lends itself to Justin's vocals.

A gently building guitar and drum infused introduction builds to the slightly explosive first verse of 'Speak Of The Devil' before taking a step back after the first chorus into a slightly more restrained verse which leads us into almost silence, suddenly starting back with a heavy bass and guitar which brings back the rhythm of the song as it continues.

Taking inspiration from a previous track 'Friends 'Til The Weekend' once again has that musical mass forming a hand and grabbing you whilst also standing out. The slight changes as the song progresses works extremely well and makes it one of the highlights of the record.

'Dateless For Armageddon' starts quite heavy and quite frantic, the vocals adding to this feeling before it quickly turns around fading a little in tempo to welcome the verse before it leads into a steady and upbeat chorus. Again the theatrical sound to Justin's voice brings this together nicely. The joint vocals on the bridge gives the song another element in making it different, aside from that, again it's quick and smooth style changes give it a dimension that not many are capable of doing half as well as they have. The last choruses stand out as ones that are obvious to be chanted by the crowd when played live.

Overall this début is slick, well produced and, thanks in part to the vocals as well as the mixture of sounds and styles, distinctive. For an unsigned band they are doing well so far and from what I can see, if they continue doing what they're doing, I can only sense that there are big things to come for this not so small band.