Heavy music’s recent renaissance – especially through the lens of TikTok – has come in many shapes and sizes. Nu-metal legends like Limp Bizkit and KoRn have played their biggest UK shows to date. Bring Me The Horizon have finally pushed through to become established festival headliners. In the metalcore lane, Architects, Spiritbox and Bad Omens all trail closely behind.
One cultural phenomenon, however, is without precedent: Sleep Token. The anonymous masked quartet – known only as Vessel (vocalist), II (drummer), III (bassist) and IV (guitarist) – have gone from a mysterious pop-metal cult to arena-slaying titans in under two years. Faceless and voiceless, their astonishing rise has been purely down to the success of their otherworldly, genre-defying third album ‘Take Me Back To Eden’.
Last January, they toured academies. This arena tour – much of which sold out instantly – has shifted over 100,000 tickets. Next summer, they will headline Download Festival – the jewel in the rock and metal crown – confirming their status as British rock and metal’s greatest success story in recent years.
Opening with the heartfelt ‘The Night Does Not Belong To God’ – the first track off their debut album ‘Sundowning’ – Vessel perches himself before the lectern, as Sleep Token set the tone for tonight’s chronological affair (their own ‘Eras Tour’, if you like). Leeds’ First Direct Arena erupts when they descend into ‘The Offering’ next, their cataclysmic lighting rig adding to the sense of overstimulation.
Perhaps the loudest bass drum CLASH has ever heard is momentarily put on hold for ‘Dark Signs’ and ‘Higher’, two emotive dark-pop cuts that remind the audience that Sleep Token do far more than riffs and breakdowns. Given how rapidly they graduated into arenas, Sleep Token already feel right at home – it’s almost as if this debut album was designed for these stages.
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An interlude beckons in album two – ‘This Place Will Become Your Tomb’ – which kicks off with ‘Atlantic’, a piano-led tear-jerker that would give Adele a run for her money. ‘Hypnosis’ and ‘Alkaline’ – the two big hitters from this era – allow II to flex his muscles with ludicrous drum fills, while the cloaked Vessel saunters up the runway, almost conjuring up more magic from thin air.
By the time we reach ‘Take Me Back To Eden’, the crowd feel sufficiently warmed up – but nothing prepares CLASH for the one-two of ‘Chokehold’ and ‘The Summoning.’ Initially released on consecutive nights, with no warning, to kick start Sleep Token’s exponential growth, the power of these two songs is spine-tingling inside an arena, complete with lasers and a gnarly barrage of riffs.
‘Ascensionism’ and ‘Take Me Back To Eden’ both clock in over seven minutes and effortlessly weave from genres: trap, alt-pop, black metal, the list goes on. Theatrical and emotional rollercoasters within their own rights, they reach another dimension in the live room – and serve to represent the courage with which Sleep Token approach their art.
Sleep Token have ripped up the rulebook entirely. Now, they reap the rewards, having levelled up their live show to match the grandeur of arenas (which they might already be outgrowing). In an age of influencers and snappy content, where labels often hunt for personalities over artistic value, their story is a gigantic middle finger to this machine – proving, like always, that authentic art triumphs in the end.
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Words: Rishi Shah
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