On The Allure of Sleep Token

Good art drives curiosity in its enjoyers. After hearing an intriguing song for the first time I default to investigating the artist, finding out who they are and what drives their music. I want to know what inspires the lyrics in their songs and the playing styles of their instruments to piece together a more complete picture of the artist. Upon hearing Sleep Token's captivating track Hypnosis for the first time, I took up this task of discovering the band behind the song, and immediately came to a dead end. 

Sleep Token is an anonymous band. With a trio of full length records among other singles the group has shot to significant success in the last few years. Tracks such as The Summoning, Granite, and Alkaline, with the former two on their last year's popular Take Me Back To Eden record have gained the group a large following. The four member group has adapted monikers for its members with the frontman going by Vessel, and the drummer, bassist, and guitarist going by ii, iii, and iv, respectively. On first listen, Vessel's vocals and ii's drumming are immediately striking in their own ways. Vessel's vocals are immensely powerful in range and emotion. The Summoning showcases this with Vessel going between dark, low singing on the verses to exhibiting a powerful upper register and falsetto on the choruses, and pronounced metal-style screaming in between. On most Sleep Token tracks I find myself obsessing over ii's conspicuous drumming. While exceptional drummers are the standard in metal and hard rock bands, ii's unique style and feel stands apart. You can find influences in his drum parts from a range of unexpected genres including gospel and R&B. On every track he seems to be playing an intensely technical and unique part that works to not overshadow the rest of the track, but uplift it to something more. This is musicianship and playing in a band at its best. Tracks such as Jaws, Like That, The Summoning, Vore, and my personal favorite, Hypnosis, demonstrate his prowess on the kit.

Beyond musicianship, what sets apart Sleep Token in today's scene is the range of genres that the group moves between. After hearing Hypnosis, I thought that I had the band pinned down as a metal or prog-metal group. I was immediately surprised to hear tracks like Ascensionism, Dark Signs, Granite, Take Me Back To Eden, and Fall For Me that display the band effortlessly moving through and combining hip hop and R&B styles, sometimes even on the same song. This melting pot of genres is refreshing in a time where lines between genres seem distinctly drawn and artists are encouraged to stick to selling to the audience of one genre, and are rebuked when they don't (Beyonce, Halsey, etc... ). It's also encouraging in a creative way to blur the lines and mix genres that seemingly don't belong together to find a new, distinct sound. At the end of the day the genres don't matter; good music is good music.  

The allure of Sleep Token largely comes from their deeply emotional songs and performances. The overarching theme of their three records is a tortured, convoluted love that Vessel has found himself entrapped by, and seeks to resolve. In every song you hear this with cutting lyrics. My favorite example of this is again Hypnosis on This Place Will Become Your Tomb. In Hypnosis the combination of agony and ecstasy is so immersive, with raging instruments and lyrics including "lift me out of my own skin, out of my doubt", "and you make it more than I could ever feel", and the repeated "you know you hypnotize me". In nearly three hours of music across the first three Sleep Token records, Vessel seemingly digs into his psyche to communicate his deeply intimate and raw emotions about this relationship that has consumed every part of his life. Yet, I don't know any of this for certain since I don't even know who Vessel is for certain. I don't even know if it's the same Vessel across the three records. I don't know anything about the band outside of their music. In today's world where I can know what some of my favorite artists had for breakfast today, anonymity runs counter to everything we've come to expect. Further, it puts an ominous wall between the listener and a full understanding of the artist, leaving central questions including why did the artist write these songs and what was the exact inspiration behind them, as open questions with no answer in sight. 

Carsen