Music Appreciation
Related: About this forumProg metal band Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden & Ascensionism
Just ran across this serendipitously on YouTube, and had to do some googling since I'd never heard of the band. This is the title track of their new album, their third. Some excerpts from Wikipedia and reviews of the album below the video.
EDITING to add the video for Ascensionism, also mentioned in the reviews below:
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Token
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Since their formation, Sleep Token have remained entirely anonymous Rich Hobson of Metal Hammer explains that the members, who all wear masks and cloaks, "obscure their faces, they don't talk onstage, and they have only ever done one interview".[53] The lead singer and primary songwriter of the band is known by the moniker "Vessel".[54] The group's focus on anonymity and visual style have been likened to similar practices employed by Ghost,[53][55][56] Slipknot,[54][57][58] and Gwar.[57][58] In 2017, Sleep Token's then-new label Basick Records published a description of the band which read, "A band that goes above and beyond simply writing and playing music, Sleep Token are said to be "the mortal representatives of the ancient deity known only as 'Sleep', led by the masked and cloaked figure appointed 'Vessel' ... the master creator behind the music."[59] In the band's only reported interview to date, with Metal Hammer at the time of their signing with Basick, frontman Vessel expanded on the lore of the band, stating that "We are here to serve Sleep and project His message." When asked about Sleep, he stated that "He is everywhere, at all times. Vessel encountered Sleep in a dream, with promise of glory and magnificence if Vessel followed Him."[8]
Musically, Sleep Token have been categorised in a wide range of genres, including alternative metal,[1] post-rock/metal,[3] progressive metal,[2] and indie rock/pop.[4] Hobson has suggested that the band has a "fluid approach to genre", claiming that they incorporate "elements of everything from tech metal and alternative to pop and R&B".[53] Similarly, John D. Buchanan of the website AllMusic has written that Sleep Token "combine post-rock, post-classical, and post-metal tropes with soulful indie pop vocals into a blend that sounds like nothing else".[60] The band's label Spinefarm Records has simply stated that "in a world of form and genre, Sleep Token cannot be confined".[61] The band have been vague about their influences, simply crediting "a plethora of artists" as inspiration;[8] early in their career, though, they did name Leprous, Agent Fresco, Bon Iver and Meshuggah as influences.[62] Commentators have also posited performers such as Deftones, Cult of Luna, Explosions in the Sky and Ólafur Arnalds as possible influences.[60][63][64]
And in case anyone here is wondering, I think the anonymity and attempt at myth-making are silly, but I find their music interesting.
Reviews of the new album and this title track in particular:
NME, a 5-star review: https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/sleep-token-take-me-back-to-eden-review-3444788
Doubters dismissed their shadowy anonymity and eclectic sound as a gimmick, but this bands star isnt burning out. The success of those singles was no accident. In fact, even beyond Chokehold and The Summoning, theres a whole other 48 minutes or so of bold, stunning music on Take Me Back To Eden that will pour cold water on any suggestion that Sleep Tokens is a flash-in-the-pan success.
Plenty of artists of their ilk adopt a genre-fluid approach, but on Take Me Back To Eden, Sleep Token stretches that concept to its limit. While rooted in metal they reach further into other genres than most bands would dare. In theory, the darkly seductive, piano-laden R&B number Aqua Regia shouldnt rub up anywhere near a song like the lacerating black-metal inspired Vore, but the contrast in sounds between these two songs feels purposeful rather than confused.
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The sharpest turns arrive in two lengthy tracks, Ascensionism and Take Me Back To Eden, which weave between starkly different sounds hushed piano, airy synths, dagger-like djent, and bursts of R&B that toy with autotune and trap drums with breathtaking grace. By treating each genre like a movement in a classical piece, nothing ever jars, where in less skilled hands, it so easily could.
Clash...and this was the most negative review - 5/10 - since the reviewer found the album over-indulgent, but they really liked this title track:
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/sleep-token-take-me-back-to-eden/
Upset, a 5-star review:
https://upsetmagazine.com/reviews/albums/sleep-token-take-me-back-to-eden/
This is the most inventive metal has sounded in a long time. Sleep Token have been regularly touted as the future of the genre. On Take Me Back To Eden, the future is now.
Metal Hammer, 4 stars:
https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/sleep-token-take-me-back-to-eden-review
Metal Sucks, 4.5/5:
https://www.metalsucks.net/2023/05/16/review-sleep-token-continues-to-push-boundaries-on-take-me-back-to-eden/
Take Me Back to Eden still leans into Sleep Tokens cross-section of pop, R&B, and modern prog metal, and the breadth of this sonic spectrum manifests right from the start. The Vessels voice cuts through the droning synth-scapes and dive-bomb string bend riffage alike on opener Chokehold, extracting rapturous melodies from a decidedly non-melodic foundation. His vast vocal range seamlessly guides the ambiguous ambiance to grand, earth-rumbling proportions.
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The best example of casual creativity from Sleep Token comes during Ascensionism, which starts with ethereal piano voicings and ends with unapologetic Meshuggah vibes. The tasteful dynamic journey from delicate, synthetic verses to detuned beatdowns allows the vocals to take a step back and let the instrumentation shine through in its strident bridging of violence and serenity. It all oozes creative instinct, which explains why Rain avoids the pitfalls of unmemorable deep cuts even if its structure could at this point be considered Sleep Token per usual. No one sounds like them, so per usual means intricate rhythm structures, unique riffage, and sweeping refrains.
It would also explain why an eight-minute monster of a title track hardly feels its length. No other song on the album revels in 1-to-100 dynamic leaps, so when it happens here toward the end of the album it doesnt feel overplayed. Said dynamic leaps are also timed perfectly so that the lulls dont get boring and the skull-splitting heaviness doesnt get tiresome. The energy flows fluidly, taking the album closer to post-rock with its massive crescendos and arrival points. After such a huge undertaking, its fitting for Euclid to land the album more peacefully. But even here, Sleep Token wont settle for a simple outro.
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highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)The Polack MSgt
(13,200 posts)and maybe I need to acclimate my ears to their music.
Thanks for the introduction.
highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)I prefer Ascensionism as well.
I posted this message after just hearing the first song and seeing the reviews. Prog metal isn't normally something that would attract my attention (I prefer prog rock and hard rock to metal), and I had no idea what I'd hear when I clicked on that first video, but the band's name and the song title and the cover image or whatever it's called for the video caught my attention. And I did find it interesting. Fascinating.
Though Ascensionism is more immediately listenable. As I found out when I was listening to Take Me Back To Eden again and didn't have it on loop and Ascensionism was next.
Everybody has different taste, though. Some of the reviews raved about their song The Summoning, the second single (one day after the first) from this album, which has more than 6 million views on YouTube, but I don't like it as well as either of the songs in the OP.
This is what Metal Hammer (part of Louder) said about The Summoning:
https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/sleep-token-take-me-back-to-eden-review
The Summoning, the second single from third album Take Me Back To Eden, stunned fans and earned them a legion of new ones. Taking every idiosyncrasy of the Sleep Token experience to the next level, it veered between a cathedral-sized hymnal chorus and the heaviest breakdown and vocals theyd ever recorded and with it, the kind of baby-making, jazz fusion volte-face youd expect from funk/soul producer Thundercat. It blew raspberries at anyone who had accused their ambient/heavy switch-ups of becoming formulaic. Since then, its been streamed 25 million times on Spotify, topping online charts and trending on TikTok. Suddenly, the band many initially dismissed as a spurious oddity had become one of the biggest deals in modern metal.
ProfessorGAC
(65,227 posts)My only critique is that both songs are rhythmically very(!) similar.
But, they explore an awful lot of the soundscape.
highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)Btw, did you listen to their song The Summoning, which I posted in reply 3?
ProfessorGAC
(65,227 posts)Maybe tomorrow.
Time to play guitar & piano, right now.
highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)I haven't been doing as much as I should, mostly because of the concern about what AI will do to music.
highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)Of course, countless rock bands have previously flirted with theatrics, aliases and anonymity. Despite some comparisons to the Swedish band Ghost (though the two bands sound nothing alike), Sleep Tokens theatricality feels subtler, darker and richer with detail. Its an approach that quickly helped them build a cult following, though theyve since outgrown their status as underground heroes. Having previously supported Architects, the band have since become major headliners in their own right not to mention the fact that theyre consistently selling out every show they play.
Sleep Token have kicked things up a notch this month. It started on January 5 when the band, with no prior announcement, released a new song, the thrilling and riff-grinding Chokehold, before following it up the next day with The Summoning. Two more tracks, the R&B-influenced Granite and Aqua Regia, dropped on consecutive days two weeks later after they were debuted on the first night of Sleep Tokens UK tour in Birmingham. New music and the events of the tour saw the band trend on Twitter, while their Spotify stats skyrocketed from under 250,000 monthly listeners to its current total of 1.6 million.
One notable Sleep Token fan is The Darkness Justin Hawkins, who praised Chokehold on his popular Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube series. This is the kind of thing that crosses over: if anythings going to put prog into the actual mainstream, its something like this, he said. I dont know who these Sleep Token cats are, but theyre accomplished, theyre writing big songs its big and uncompromising, and I love it.
Much more at the link.
I'll admit again that I'm not impressed by the theatrics. I like the music - well, I'm intrigued by it - in spite of their image and cultlike fan base.
That article mentions Justin Hawkins' YouTube channel and a video he did about Sleep Tokens' "Chokehold" so I looked for that...and discovered he did a second video about their second single this year, "The Summoning." Which I've already posted in reply 3. So I'll post "Chokehold" below, followed by Justin.Hawkins' two videos about the songs, since there's no point in reposting what I posted above.
highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)British charts, and if it's still in the Top 10 at the end of the week, that'll be their first UK Top 10 album:
https://www.kerrang.com/sleep-token-on-course-for-first-ever-uk-top-10-album
highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)Their most successful album ever.