Sleep Token (Deep Dive)

Discography, according to Wikipedia:

- One EP (2016)

- Two EP (2017)

- Jaws Non-album single (2018)

- Hey Ya! (Outcast cover) Non-album single (2018)

The Way That You Were Non-album single (2018)

- Sundowning Album (2019)

- This Place Will Become Your Tomb Album (2021)

- Is It Really You? (feat. Loathe) Non-album single (2022)

- Take Me Back To Eden Album (2023)

There's also 8 music videos, but I'm not gonna check out those yet.

Didn't dive into lyrics yet, either. This music has enough layers as it is...

Before starting this deep dive, I've liked 7 songs: Chokehold, DYWTYLM, Ascensionism, Take Me Back To Eden, Hypnosis and Vore.

One and Two are quite similar. Calm, stripped back progressive rock. Kinda like Anathema, but with occasional metal breakdowns. Both EPs consist of three songs. From the two EPs, my favourite song was the first one from One, called Thread the Needle. It started off slow and calm and then got a lot heavier and more progressive as the song went on, and the juxtaposition made me think of my favourite band Katatonia. From Two, the best song was the last one, called Jericho. The instruments reminded me of both Jazz and The Doors. It's obvious the band is very talented.

I liked Jaws a lot. It went back and forth between electronic music and metal.

I hate the original Hey Ya! by Outcast. This was better, but still not great. The Way That You Were wasn't an instant hit for me, either.

From Sundowning, my top tier list of songs are The Offering, Dark Signs and Gods. I loved every bit of The Offering, the heaviness, the electronic hook, the whispers right beside my ear, the drums... Yes. One of my favourite ones from the band as a whole. Dark Signs started off with nice and simple hand-played drums of some sort, then got electronic and became alive! Gods was a very nice metal song, that had some ambient moments as well. Other ones I liked were Higher, Give, Sugar and Blood Sport. In the end of Blood Sport it sounded like Vessel (the singer) broke into tears... I need to listen to the song again and pay attention to the lyrics this time, to find a reason why he'd cry. Levitate was not an instant hit for me, but I have a feeling I might learn to like it with time. 

I have a personal problem with male falsettos. I generally hate how they sound - they have to be sung just right for me to like them. And that is a big reason why I disliked some of Sleep Token's early songs, especially from One, Two and Sundowning.

This Place Will Become Your Tomb was a lot more consistent as an album than their previous work. My favourite song from the album was High Water, second favourites were Hypnosis, Alkaline and Descending, and I also liked Atlantic, Like That, Fall For Me, Distraction, Telomeres and Missing Limbs, which means there were only about two songs I wasn't a huge fan of. And even they didn't suck.

High Water was very similar to Katatonia in the sense that it's sort of very slow, but it's still super duper interesting. This is the kind of music I expected to hear from them. 

Hypnosis with it's metal and whispery chill-giving vocals were just a pure, slow release of endorphines.

Alkaline's lyrics caught my attention, I might look into them more in the future. And I loved the song, too.

Descending was an electronic song, with Vessel right in my ear again. I also especially liked the bass and the lyrics, I'm considering a lyrical breakdown.

Atlantic was a beautiful piano ballad. The falsetto sounded a lot better than in their earlier albums.

Like That sounded sexy and the song grew nicely.

Fall For Me had a nice effect on the mic. The song was 100% a cappella and caught me off guard.

Telomeres was slow, but the complex instrumentalisation of the song kept it interesting. It grew nicely and I really liked the guitar solo. The high vocals were haunting and ethereal.

Is It Really You? (feat. Loathe) was a pretty good power ballad. The falsetto didn't bother me, he got better at doing it the way I like it.

 And that brings us to Take Me Back To Eden, their album from this year. And their best album (so far). There wasn't a single song I disliked, but I certainly do prefer some over others. Top tier, some of the best by the band, ever: Chokehold, The Summoning and Ascensionism. Second tier, amazing, great songs: Vore, The Apparition and Take Me Back To Eden. Third tier, very good song: Granite. Fourth tier, songs that are ok: Aqua Regia, Are You Really Ok?, DYWTYLM, Rain & Euclid.

Chokehold still gives me a huge rush of endorphines. Pure eargasm. The slow build is amazing.

The Summoning is a bit heavier than Chokehold. It's metal, it's progressive, the clean vocals are amazing, I love the screams... I love everything about this song. I love how it makes so many left turns you lose count, with the cleans, the screams, the guitar solo, the ambient portion, the soul... Fuck. Metal has never been this SEXY AND ACCEPTED AS SEXY before. This is something completely new and unheard of in the genre.

Ascensionism gave me shivers right away, because the vocals were right in my ears again. I had heard the song before, but still hearing Vessel rap made me absolutely lose my shit! The song had more left turns than I could even count... This song is just pure heaven to listen to. <3

Vore is a nice prog metal song. It's the heaviest than any of the songs before it on the album, but has some super calm bits as well. The juxtaposition of the heavy and the calm is very nice. The screams on this are just *chef's kiss*

The Apparition is an electronic song with rap influences, that grows into a metal song. AND they make it all fit together seamlessly. The build-up of the song is just... wow.

Take Me Back To Eden starts off with ambient nature sounds. Then it grows into an amazing metal song, with rap in it. It's over 8min long, a bit longer than their songs usually (about 5min). The screams were amazing, again. I had heard and liked this song before, but didn't recognize it being the same band as in the other songs, when I first heard it... Their sound is so amazingly diverse.

Granite is a bit simpler than the songs on the tiers above it and that's why it's not up there. It's more stripped-down, like their older songs. It's electronic, and not that progressive.

Aqua Regia was also a nice, simple song. It has some progressive piano that reminds me of R&B and soul... 

Are You Really Ok? is a very lyrical heavy song, that grew into a metal ballad. I might do a lyrical breakdown. 

DYWTYLM stands for "Do You Wish That You Loved Me" and I think it's electropop??

Rain is a very even 4min long rock song. I blinked and it was gone.

Euclid is a slowly building piano ballad with sudden metal bits in it.

Conclusions

I get where the band comes from now. It's been slowly building up to this boiling point and now they're really breaking through. And despite what I've heard, all of this sounds like a natural progression where the band has been heading for a while. (I've heard that The Summoning "is not the type of music they usually do".) And they can do any genre, you should expect nothing when you listen to them. I counted at least the following genres when describing their music in my notes: heavy metal, progressive metal, progressive rock, rock, alt pop, electropop, electronic, ambient, piano ballad, power ballad, rap, a cappella, R&B and soul. But they come from metal so anyone who is into metal and things moving forward (music-wise, attitude-wise), is into them. They keep getting better and better with each release.

My favourite Sleep Token songs:

1. The Summoning.

2. Chokehold and Ascensionism .

3. The Offering, Vore and The Apparition.

4. Thread the Needle, High Water, Hypnosis and Take Me Back to Eden.

5. Telomeres and Granite.

6. Dark signs, Gods, Alkaline and Descending.

7. Jericho, Higher, Give, Sugar, Blood Sport, Atlantic, Like That, Fall For Me, Distraction, Telomeres and Missing Limbs.