Sleep Token is an anonymous group described as a masked collective. It is led by Vessel, the frontman, who is accompanied by three other musicians, II, III & IV. The character of Vessel is seduced by the ancient deity Sleep allowing for the group to worship them through music, with their concerts, very much like other masked band Ghost, being described as rituals. Their anonymity, reluctance to engage in interviews and allowing their message to speak through the music has simply made them one of the most intriguing bands of the last decade.

“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.”

Basick Records

Honourable mentions include Sugar from Sundowning (2019), Thread the Needle from One [EP] (2016), Calcutta from Two [EP] (2017), Fall For Me from This Place Will Become Your Tomb (2021), Rain and Are You Really Okay? from Take Me Back To Eden (2023). You can listen to our playlist while you read along over at our Spotify.

Euclid | Take Me Back To Eden | 2023

Euclid is the final track on Sleep Token’s latest album Take Me Back To Eden and where we start on our journey into the lore of the band and the ancient deity we know as Sleep. This is a beautiful piano-centered track that really puts focus on Vessel’s vocals but there is also plenty of experimentation. From the distorted vocals to the hard-hitting metal drums that accompany moments of pure rage and regret in the lyrics, Sleep Token sum up their third studio album in a reflective sombre way.

The great thing is, that Sleep Token’s music will always be open to interpretation. What one person thinks won’t always line up with the next person’s view of the song. That anonymity makes this band one of the most exciting to come out of the British rock and metal scenes in a long time. Euclid feels like a man reflecting on love, his regrets over the character of Eden, and his parasocial relationship with the ancient deity known as Sleep.

There is an amazing content creator on TikTok, @metalandmachetes, who really goes in-depth on the theories behind the story Sleep Token are telling. There are many others but she really helped me get more invested in this band, which is something that I have found is common amongst the fans of bands who conceal their identity.

The Offering | Sundowning | 2019

The Offering is the second track off of Sleep Token’s first studio album Sundowning. It follows on from The Night Does Not Belong To God, with its haunting intro setting the scene for this album, The Offering is heavy in its sound while also embracing some classical piano elements and showing off Vessel’s phenomenal vocal range. “This is a giving, an offering” and he is fully embracing the deity known as Sleep. There is no hesitation here and we as the listener are here for the ride.

This album’s songs are all accompanied by its own alchemy-like symbols, sigils for each song that embraces the darkness and magic that Sleep Token has cultivated through their storytelling and image. The Offering‘s symbol/runes are an actual alchemy representation of something being burned in a chalice or more specifically a crucible. A sacrifice, and an actual offering.

“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.”

 Metal Hammer

Granite | Take Me Back To Eden | 2023

Granite is the third song off of our album of the year, Take Me Back To Eden. Sound wise it is sexy as hell, with the band combining metal riffs, trap beats and a hint of the dark pop about it. That’s the beauty of Sleep Token, they make a sound all their own by combining a multitude of different influences. I also like to call them “Dark Bastille”, which does simplify their sound but it works when you want to introduce someone to this band.

Lyricly it is pure poetry. There have been many interpretations of this song but the general consensus is that it is about a toxic relationship. Vessel’s lyrics are always multilayered, with “I was more than just a body in your passenger seat” Was he a passenger in this relationship? Is he being more literal? As some fans have theorised this is about a fight in a car that causes a crash. Metaphoricly that would just be the best description of this relationship. Either way Sleep Token has produced a complex sexy masterpiece of a track.

Atlantic | This Place Will Become Your Tomb | 2021

Atlantic is the opening track for This Place Will Become Your Tomb, Sundowning gave us mysterious symbols for each track on the album while TPWBYT gives us a complicated list of coordinates. That’s what they seem to be, but fans have figured out the M & F are about the depth of the ocean and depth is what this album and song have.

This is such a great opening track gripping you instantly with its beautiful piano melody that compliments the voice of Vessle perfectly. It’s a ballad in the way only Sleep Token can do, it gives you that sense of floating and sinking. He talks about blue light which is what happens when you move from the shallows to the depths.

Vessel uses the metaphor of the ocean to express how deep he now is in with Sleep, how deep his depression and loneliness have become between Sundowning and TPWBYT. Throughout this song, the music changes as if it tells us he is moving slowly from the Epipelagic to the Mesopelagic Zone. The Epipelagic Zone, the shallows with dreamy piano work which traditions into a crescendo of drums and guitars as he enters a new darker deeper part of his psyche, represented by the Mesopelagic Zone

Gods | Sundowning | 2019

Gods is the eighth track from Sundowning and it truly hits hard, with heavy riffs and huge drum beats, it truly embraces the rock and heavy metal genre that Sleep Token have developed out of. If you like something a little heavier, with screams that remind you of early Bring Me The Hirozion or even Slipknot, Gods is a great track for you.

Oh don’t worry, if you like the cleaner soaring vocals of Vessel you will get to hear those on this track too, it really takes you on a journey. You need those moments of light and dark in music and that is something Sleep Token has perfected over the years, but the foundations of that can be found here. We go from anger, not just in sounds but also lyrically, to sadness and calm before yet again heading back into anger. This is a song for anyone who has felt that way about a situation, put this on and let it all out.

When The Party’s Over/ Bloodsport / Shelter | Sundowning (Deluxe) | From The Room Below | 2020

Sleep Token‘s first album Sundowning, the Deluxe version, includes a cover of the Billie Elish song When The Party’s Over. The band do it in their own way making it a deeply dark song, more so than the original. It is very paired back, allowing for Vessel’s vocals and emotions to be stripped bare, Sleep Token rarely do covers but when they do, it will always fit into the story they are trying to tell.

This is from a group of four songs from their deluxe edition of Sundowning. Everyone of these tracks should be listened to as they are all paired back with just piano and Vessel’s emotionally tinged soring vocals known as the ‘from the room below’ tracks. When the Party’s Over is the best cover of the two, the other being I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

We also have two original songs, Bloodsport and Shelter, which are both beautiful laments on love and hurt. While Bloodsport is one side of the coin, of a man who is in dispair and describing their love like a game that brings nothing but pain, Shelter on the other hand talks about wanting to protect that person from that pain. Both are beautifully classical in their delivery while truly focussing on Vessel’s pain and vocal talents.

Hypnosis | This Place Will Become Your Tomb | 2021

Hypnosis is the first Sleep Token song I ever heard and it is what got me really hooked on this band. It was via TikTok, I will be honest, I had heard of them for a while but hadn’t quite got around to exploring their discography yet. Cue a phenomenal performance of this song at a festival coming across my for you page and suddenly I was hooked.

This song also gets you hooked, from the repetition of “You know you hypnotise me always” to the almost dream-like sounds that accompany Vessel’s deep vocals. This is track two of the album, This Place Will Become Your Tomb, allowing for the sinking into the ocean metaphor to continue through the music and lyrical content. The distortion within this song sounds like the sea, swirling violently around something or someone sinking into the abyss. We are still relatively shallow waters with this song when looking at the theme of this album, but that doesn’t stop Hypnosis from feeling like a punch to the gut.

The Summoning | Take Me Back To Eden | 2023

The Summoning is an over six-minute journey through the mind of Vessel, it feels almost like a complimenting piece to The Offering from Sundowning, there are a lot of parallels between those two albums, but let’s focus on this one. It starts hard and dark, with heavy drums, bass and guitar while Vessel’s vocals growl along for almost four whole minutes. His vocals also soar here and we get some of that deep guttural screaming Sleep Token has learned to utilise at just the right moments.

This isn’t an offering, this is a summoning and we are about to feel every word and sound of the conclusion of this magnificent trilogy that Sleep Token has carved out over the last five years. We have a minute and a half of pure instrumental brilliance as if warning you that something is about to change and it does.

“Oh, and my love, Did I mistake you for a sign from God?”

At around the five-minute mark, we get ethereal brilliance, clean vocals, and strange electronic sounds as if something, or someone is rising from the earth. The sound is funky and the bass takes over complimenting the vocals and lyrics perfectly.

Alkaline | This Place Will Become Your Tomb | 2021

Alkaline is one of the most beautifully haunting love songs that Sleep Token has ever produced. I think it is definitely a song that many fans wish was written about the, oh for someone to describe you as “She’s not acid or alkaline, Caught between black and white, Not quite either day or night, She’s perfectly misaligned.” It’s not traditional but it is very much steeped in the idea of adoring someone for their light and dark moments. A fun little nugget of science is also present, if something isn’t acid or alkaline it is water or human blood. It would be 7th on the pH table and Alkaline is the seventh track on the album.

This album This Place Will Become Your Tomb is about Vessel’s descent and how Sleep has become an all-encompassing presence in his life, It’s who he serves and ultimately who he loves, despite the darkness. Sleep has become his everything yet he is still lonely, entombed in darkness and processing the things he has done.

Alkaline feels like a confession of love, a token even, this is track seven and the first in which Vessle has entered the Hadalpelagic Zone, down into the trenches, the deepest part of the ocean and he is now fully consumed by Sleep and the power they have over him.

Take Me Back To Eden | Take Me Back To Eden | 2023

We end this list with the title track and second to last song on Sleep Token’s most recent release, the phenomenal Take Me Back To Eden.

Take Me Back To Eden is the third instalment in a trilogy of albums telling the story between Vessel and Sleep. We are finally at acceptance on this album and it is beautiful as is this track. This is also the most complex, musically diverse and ambisious Sleep Token have been so far, oh and it works. This is an over eight muinite masterpiece that feels like four or five songs in one, but they all flow effortlessly into one another.

Sleep Token has never wanted to be put into one box and here is why you can’t. they are genre-diverse and Take Me Back To Eden embraces that from hip-hop to pop melodies to haveymetal riffs and even some classical elements. Vocally we go from sweeping and soring voicals to guteral screaming to emotional softness and rawness that has made Sleep Token such a stand out band. This feels like a full conclusion and lyrically it hits hard. Accepting that something is over is never easy, it’s a journey and that’s what this is, so take my hand and come with me as we experience the art of Sleep Token and their masterpiece that is Take Me Back To Eden.

My, my, those eyes like fire,
I’m a winged insect, you’re a funeral pyre,
I’m in waking hell and the gods grow tired.

Sleep Token Discography

One [EP]

Two [EP]

Sundowning |  a state of confusion occurring in the late afternoon and lasting into the night | 2019

This Place Will Become Your Tomb | “delves further into the enigmatic universe of Sleep Token, pushing boundaries and blurring genres, whilst retaining their signature sound” | 2021

Take Me Back To Eden | “an album of acceptance, of understanding that no matter how much you may crave another, sometimes that desire is not powerful enough to overcome the circumstances, external and internal, that can break a relationship.” | 2023