The Band
Sleep Token is a British rock band formed in 2016.
Their style is… progressive metal, R&B, Djent, pop, genre-less? Or a mix of them all?
They are an anonymous group, commanded by their singer, Vessel.
Band Members
- Vessel – vocals, guitar, keyboards, piano
- II – drums
The Album
After their two EPs, on November 21, 2019, they released their debut studio album, Sundowning. They released each song on the album with a visualizer video, every 2 weeks, to keep the mystery. A great marketing strategy, I must add.
On June 20, 2020, they issued a deluxe version of the album, and that one is the one I’m dissecting here, in this review. This work contained four bonus tracks, which were stripped-down versions, that featured only Vessel singing and playing piano. These versions are called From the Room Below, and they consist of Blood Sport, Shelter, and covers of Billie Eilish’s When The Party’s Over and Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
Sleep Token’s music is beautiful ambiance music, but with amazing musicianship and topped with Vessel’s fragile and full of emotion voice, and this album is no exception.
Most of their songs, including the ones on this album, start soft and low, and then they start building up to end in a final powerful climax, heavier, grandiose, and epic. It’s a constant build-up.
They won several awards in 2023, metal awards, including the most streamed metal album of 2023 on Spotify, for Take Me Back To Eden.
Even though the most elitist metalheads don’t like them (because of the mix of genres and all their TikTok attention), they continue ascending and getting more fans day by day. I should know, because I used to be like that, (with music in general) in my younger days. But now I’m just listening to what I love, no matter the genre.
So, in this self-discovery of Sleep Token, I’m reviewing their music. I started last year, with my favorite album of 2023, Sleep Token’s Take Me Back To Eden (you can read my review here). Now their first album, Sundowning, and soon, the rest of their music, because I just love them.
So, enough intro, and here comes the songs…
The Songs
1. The Night Does Not Belong to God. The first song of the album. A soft, love song, that grows throughout the song to a heavier version, just like almost all their songs. It has callbacks, or call ahead, I should say, to Euclid and Chokehold, two songs of Take Me Back To Eden. Vessel does a lot of that. He loves to write the same sentences in other songs, relating the songs to the same story.
I think that the 3 albums and all their songs are part of the same story, and maybe other songs or albums in the future too.
I guess, we’ll have to wait for the intricate Vessel’s mind to develop more masterpieces, to see what he comes up with.
2. The Offering. It starts heavy, with a lot of distortion, djent guitar. But at the same time, it’s a beautiful love song, sung with a super sweet voice.
An offering of love to his lover, a sacrifice.
3. Levitate. A song of long-suffering love, with a beautiful piano.
4. Dark Signs. Sick bass lines.
It begins with Vessel’s raspy voice, that emulates a soul or R&B singer. Also reminded me of trip-hop melodies, a Massive Attack vibe.
About a relationship that was doomed to fail from the start “And where we met, there must have been dark signs. Omens in your skies”.
5. Higher. It initiates as an epic ambiance track.
The drums sound so clear.
It inclines to be more of a rocker in some parts.
Problems in the relationship. They’re too different to be together.
Great guitar work, clean and then djenty, good breakdown, distortion.
6. Take Aim. Softer. With Vessel’s sweet voice, falsetto.
Issues in the relationship, but the hope lingers that they can be together again after all is ruined.
7. Give. Soul, R&B, and Sexiness, it’s all that you can encounter in this super romantic song with beautiful lyrics.
8. Gods. After all the beauty and calmness of Give, comes this super heavy track, that’s sung with anger, djenty, Meshuggah style. Softer chorus. Great breakdown.
9. Sugar. Intro with keys. Sexy, R&B, soul, love song, kind of pop, with Vessel’s sensual voice.
I love the change of the lyrics in the chorus. In the first part, when the chorus is softer, “Sugar, I’ve developed a taste for you now”. And then it becomes more aggressive, with the breakdown, like it’s a more violent desire, and now it’s “Sugar, I’ve got a taste for you now”.
10. Say That You Will. A ballad, sad. He’s trying to convince his lover to stay with him.
11. Drag Me Under. A soft and sweet piano and a super romantic song.
Vessel voice is very high here, falsetto.
The lyrics, in general, of this song are so beautiful, but my favorite part is “And I know the gods will abandon the heavens just to find us. To merely behold you as we lie down together”.
12. Blood Sport. A gorgeous ballad, gospel style, of long-suffering love.
The final chorus is heavier and ends in an epic form, with female choirs, and then you can hear only Vessel’s voice with a sweet piano, to end the song and the album.
Emotional and heart-wrenching track, so much, so that at the end you can hear Vessel’s sobbing.
And then starts the deluxe tracks…
13. Blood Sport, from the room below. Vessel, singing alone, with his marvelous voice and a piano.
If the normal version of this song is very emotional, this one is more on the feelings side (if that’s even possible).
He sings here with additional raspiness in his voice, which shows his vulnerable side.
14. Shelter, from the room below. Beautiful track. Love song. Vessel and a piano. He’s going to protect her, whatever it takes.
15. When The Party’s Over, from the room below. Billie Eilish’s cover. Vessel and a piano.
16. I Wanna Dance With Somebody, from the room below. A heartbreaking Whitney Houston’s cover. So different from the original song, which was very pop and uplifting, this is raw.
Final Thoughts
Great album, and I can’t wait to hear their second masterpiece, This Place Will Become Your Tomb.
Then the EPs and other songs and prepare for what the future and the beautiful mind of Vessel will create for our delight.
So stay tuned, and as always… worship!
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Tracklist
- The Night Does Not Belong to God
- The Offering
- Levitate
- Dark Signs
- Higher
- Take Aim
- Give
- Gods
- Sugar
- Say That You Will
- Drag Me Under
- Blood Sport
- Blood Sport (from the room below)
- Shelter (from the room below)
- When the Party’s Over (Billie Eilish cover; from the room below)
- I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney Houston cover; from the room below)