Taking over: The striking, staggering story of Sleep Token’s explosion

Sleep Token entered 2023 already inches away from blowing up. Then, just five days into the new year, it happened. Maybe it was one big moment; maybe it was two conjoined, smaller ones. Either way, the effect was like a supernova.

It started with Chokehold, a dramatic single that slowly climbed to a point of eerie anticipation with the droning, almost tuneless scratch of a synth before dropping into an explosive, rebounding riff that could easily elicit a yelp of surprise. Then it did so again, vacillating from a creeping waltz back to that explosive chorus.

That was part one, the thing that got fans and newcomers sitting bolt upright. It was The Summoning that got them flying out of their seats. Released just 24 hours later, Sleep Token left listeners with no time to breathe by dropping a song that would turn out to be the most important thing they had ever released. A near-seven-minute opus slinking from gnashing black metal to sensual funk like it was the most natural thing in the world, it set TikTok on fire thanks to its left-field smashing of genres, possessing the same ‘WTF’ quality as Chokehold yet in a completely different fashion.

Its lascivious lyrics also caught attention, and though there’d always been a sexual undercurrent to Sleep Token’s music (Sugar was not written about a nice packet of biscuits, after all), it was more overt than ever.

Sleep Token found themselves in the eye of the storm. They were at the centre of online conversation for a lengthy period, trending on Twitter for days on end, while their Spotify monthly listeners shot up from just under 250,000 to a million in the space of a week. Almost two years on, they now stand at 3.7 million.

Given how long it had been building, this explosion of popularity was inevitable. Less predictable was the manner, speed and suddenness with which it happened. Could a lore-heavy, eclectic bunch of musicians in masks really brush the mainstream? They always had the makings of a cult favourite, but they didn’t look or sound like conventional ceiling-breakers.

“We all knew there was huge potential, which is why [Nathan ‘Barley’ Phillips] of Basick Records – now A&R at Nuclear Blast – snapped them up right at the start,” James Monteith considers. “However I don’t think any of us predicted how huge they would be now. It’s brilliant that a band this creative and unique can get to the level they’re at.”

Just a couple of weeks later, they would storm the biggest UK venues of their career so far, including London’s 5,000-capacity Eventim Apollo. On a stage festooned with plants, flanked by backing singer trio Espera (featuring Lynsey Ward of Exploring Birdsong, who opened for them in some of their early shows), it already felt like they were on the cusp of outgrowing those rooms.

“It was like walking into a spiritual gathering,” Luke Morton describes of the show. “Fans were in raptures, some in floods of tears throughout, all worshipping at the altar of Sleep Token and surrendering themselves to the music. I was sat next to their then-press officer and we couldn’t believe the deafening reaction and the pure, undiluted emotion that filled the room. Very few times have I seen a crowd react like that – especially to a band still in the ascendancy.”

After debuting two other singles, Granite and Aqua Regia, during the tour, it was obvious that these were the foundations of a new era, one that would bring greater spoils than before. Of course, they’d fed their fans breadcrumbs, with those on social media rushing to crack the hieroglyphic code on tour posters that would spell out the album’s title.

The resulting album, Take Me Back To Eden, was released in May 2023 and rounded off the trilogy that had begun with Sundowning. Musically, it represented a spike in Sleep Token’s ambition, crossing into as-yet-unexplored sounds – from the slinking pop-jazz of Aqua Regia and bubbling chart-friendly pop of DYWTYLM, to the agonised arena-rock balladry of Are You Really Okay?. Ascensionism and the title-track saw them throw artful piano passages, trap drums and chunky riffs into the cauldron for a pair of panoramic epics, one seven minutes, the other eight.

Conceptually, the tension between Vessel and Sleep moved on to a climactic phase. While the hot-blooded devotion Vessel has always shown doesn’t die slowly, particularly on The Summoning, it was more frequently undercut by defeat, anger and a growing resolution that he will never receive the mutual affection he craves. This is especially apparent in Aqua Regia, where underneath the ‘Oxytocin running in the ether’ Vessel declares he is ‘done dancing to alarm bells’. Perhaps he buries this conviction for a while as Vore finds him hungry for closeness (‘Follow me between the jaws of fate / So I can have you to myself for once’) but also mutual understanding: ‘Are you in pain like I am?’

Eventually, the singer comes to a point of greater clarity. By DYWTYLM, he concedes that his affection for Sleep is essentially one-sided, or it feels that way when his supposed love is conditional, or doesn’t feel like love at all (‘Maybe not that you conceal your feelings, they just don’t exist’). As the trilogy concludes with final track Euclid, Vessel is contemplative and fragile yet eager to stride forwards, now finally unshackled from his trauma bond with Sleep as he declares that ‘I must be someone new’ in the knowledge that he needs ‘to leave this part of me behind’.

Take Me Back To Eden also expanded on the idea that Vessel and Sleep’s relationship has a greater history to it than first suggested. Theirs is a power struggle that might just have endured for centuries, or at least that is how Sleep explains it. ‘Tell me you met me in past lives,’ Vessel sings in Ascensionism, while The Apparition points to this idea also: ‘Well I believe somewhere in the past / Something was between you and I, my dear.’ Just how far back does it all go?

After the album dropped, Sleep Token set about peeling back the corners of their façade. During their U.S. tour in autumn 2023 with A.A. Williams, fans heard Sleep communicate to Vessel for the first time, even bringing them into the conversation, puncturing the veil between them and him.

“Do you think they want you to cry?” Sleep taunted – indeed, it is not unusual for Vessel to sob while singing. “Do you think they like it?”

“Not as such,” came the reply. “I think they just want to know that I am feeling something, feeling what they are feeling, perhaps.”

“Do you think this amount of crying is healthy for you?”

“I don’t know. But at least I feel something. If I don’t feel anything why would I even do this?”

Right before Christmas, Sleep Token would go on to plant a flag at London’s OVO Arena Wembley. By this time, the consensus was that they could be put on any stage and tickets would be, in their words, “swiftly depleted”. True to form, the gig sold out in 10 minutes.

On the day itself, mere hours before they came onstage for their biggest Ritual to date, Sleep Token edged a little closer to their audience by unveiling a new look. II, III and IV all debuted new masks designed by London-based artist Lani Hernandez-David (who has also worked with GWAR, Imperial Triumphant and Static Dress), giving them each more dramatic, individual appearances and inviting Slipknot comparisons. Shortly after, drummer II gave an interview (and the first-ever video interview of any Sleep Token member) to drum platform Drumeo, performing several play-throughs and discussing his musical influences (with his voice disguised, of course).

At the outset, the Wembley Ritual had the makings of a historic moment. Underneath an elaborate set of lights that made Enter Shikari look demure, it felt like Sleep Token were playing their songs how they were always meant to be seen and heard: in a huge, theatrical setting.

But, seven tracks in, something changed, as everybody left the stage. Was this an interlude? A dramatic pause? Or was something wrong?

A stagehand emerged, informing the crowd that Vessel was unwell. For the next three songs, the audience became the band’s choir, with II endearingly conducting them along. What could have been a devastating turn of events was saved by the love and solidarity of their fans, and eventually, Vessel began singing again with whatever voice he had left, assisted by Espera with the screams left to III.

Perhaps their greatest moment came in their final song. It was widely anticipated that Sleep Token would debut Euclid live at Wembley – especially if it spelled the end of the Take Me Back To Eden era – but it was left off the setlist. Instead, they played Blood Sport for the first time in many years. The emotion was sharper than ever following the night they had, and with the unexpectedness of its conclusion. Some fans reported on social media hearing security being radioed about them doing another song, perhaps as a thanks to the fans for carrying them to the end.

Does a new chapter beckon now, then? In August, they released their Teeth Of God graphic novel, following a North American tour of the same name a few months prior. Only time will tell what that might mean. Whatever happens, this extraordinary trilogy has certainly taught us one thing: you don’t want to sleep on what comes next…

This feature originally appeared in the special edition Kerrang! Presents Sleep Token magazine.

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